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ARTICLE |
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Penitence has its limits
Germans deserve rightful place in Europe
by S. Nihal Singh
Germany’s greatest living writer, Gunter Grass, is forcing his country to confront a bugbear. How long will successive generations of Germans, most of them born in the post-Nazi era, bear the burden of what Hitler did? Must Germany be bound hand and foot to what Israel chooses to do, however unjustified, in continuing to colonise Palestinians because Germans must wear sackcloth and ashes for the Holocaust till eternity?Grass is no stranger to controversy. The last time it was for revealing in 2006 his affiliation with the Waffen SS as a teenager in the dying days of World War II. And recently he wrote a poem entitled “What Must be Said” on the threatened Israeli strike on Iran. In literary terms, the poem has little merit, but in questioning Berlin’s craven attitude to Israel and Tel Aviv’s ability to blackmail Germany, it has great merit because it poses the question of guilt and punishment and a state’s policy determined by events that happened many decades ago. This policy, it is clear, is distorting the future of Europe’s most important country, and, coupled with America’s blind support for Israel’s policy of practising apartheid in continuing to colonise Palestinians for its own reasons (the strength of the American Jewish lobby in particular), it is creating a fearful conflict in the Middle East. Grass had anticipated the charge of being an anti-Semite, and a furious Israeli establishment has heaped calumnies on him, echoed in varying degrees by Germans long conditioned to cower before the ‘H’ word. Berlin has built an extravagant Holocaust memorial in its capital as a sign of its penitence and, in addition to the crippling reparations it has already paid, it has supplied Tel Aviv with three Dolphin submarines with three more to come without asking any questions. It needed an iconoclast of the stature of the Nobel Prize winner to break the taboo of not criticising Israel and slavishly following a pro-Israeli policy, in spite of the unspeakable acts committed by Tel Aviv to retain conquered land and rule over Palestinians in the post-colonial age while buttressing its already formidable military machine. In a sense, Grass has raised the all-important point. I have been to the Holocaust Memorial in Israel and was moved by its symbolism - until I saw buses bringing hundreds of school children to be indoctrinated in a badge of suffering substituted for statecraft. Even a tragedy of a scale of the Holocaust (somewhat dubiously presented as the greatest human tragedy in history) must have a closure. True, there is a backlash from the Left parties in Germany, but the majority in the establishment seems content to follow the well-trodden path of atonement for the wrongs committed by an earlier generation. Must each succeeding generation of Germans hobble themselves and their country by a dark chapter in their history? Ironically, the German Chancellor, Ms Angela Merkel, grew up and graduated in what was East Germany, which (erroneously) presented itself as the unsullied part of the Germen population. Despite the reparations and the state of the war-devastated country, Germany has achieved its present status of power and prosperity by dint of hard work and prowess in science, technology and industry. Grass is now calling on his countrymen and women to look ahead to becoming a normal nation. Germany, together with India among others, aspires to be a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council and has already received an honorary membership under the cachet of ‘P-5 plus one’, ‘P’ representing the permanent members, in participating in some international negotiations. It took Berlin many years to assert its weight in the European Union by emancipating itself from the French formulation of it taking the political lead while Germany became the main paymaster. The iconoclast Grass is, he poses the question directly in his poem: Why do I only speak out now/ Aged and with my last drop of ink:/ Israel’s power is endangering/ Our already fragile world peace? The most potent symbol of German atonement was Willy Brandt’s bowing his head before the memorial to the decimated Jewish ghetto in Warsaw. And it is open to question whether any other nation would have built a vast memorial in the heart of its capital city to remind itself in perpetuity of its past crimes. If Israel still pretends to be unhappy with Germany and Germans, it is chiefly for materialist and political gains. It has at least one European country, its richest, in its bag to serve the geopolitical purpose of serving its colonial goals. Now that Grass has broken the taboo, will Germans take a fresh look at the Holocaust’s crippling legacy encouraged by Tel Aviv? The jury is still out, but more Germans are asking questions. One result of the supine attitude of the German establishment is the growth of the neo-Nazi movement symbolised most recently by the confessed murderer of 77 innocent people, mostly youth, by the Norwegian far right proponent Anders Breivik. He has merged multiculturalism with immigrants, in particular Muslims, destroying the purity of the white race. It is for socialists to determine how far the self-flagellation indulged in by succeeding German governments is responsible for the revival of neo-Nazism. But it is common sense that, on the analogy of giving a dog a bad name, the constant Israeli and Jewish drumbeat of Nazi crimes makes a new generation restless and looking for extreme ideologies. The recession in Europe and the privations of belt-tightening for post-war generations enjoying the peace dividend in the levels of affluence they achieved make immigrants of a different ethnicity the scapegoats. It is a dangerous mix that could spell a disaster for the future of Germany and Europe. The ball is now in the court of the German establishment. Ms Merkel and her party and the larger German elite must now demonstrate that penitence has its limits and there comes a time when Germany should take its rightful place in Europe and the world. The world is watching and waiting now that Gunter Grass has sounded the
bugle.
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MIDDLE |
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Only the change is constant
by N.S. Tasneem
There
was a time’, William Wordsworth says, when the objects of nature seemed to him clothed in divine light. To look back and recall the good old days, as the saying goes, is the pastime of the octogenarians like me. Even the septuagenarians are not far behind in exclaiming, ‘In our days, you know, the earth was heavenly.’ Mostly the lack of aesthetic sense and the distrust of ethical values are the topics which are discussed thoroughly in the meetings of senior citizens. Admittedly, to use a hackneyed phrase, ‘Nothing is constant except change.’Personally I relish my bouts of nostalgia but, at the same time, I welcome the changes which are taking place around me. During our college days in the mid-1940’s, and long after, the newspapers used to be very dull, as those used to be full of news and editorials but nothing else for recreation. We used to buy occasionally magazines that focused on films and were full of bitchy gossip also. Now the newspapers serve both purposes with éclat. When the reader is bored with the stories of murder, accidents and robbery, he is welcome to have a look at the beauties, both native and exotic. At last when he gets up, after reading the newspapers, he is relieved that there is nothing as food for thought for him to ponder over during the day. The charm of going to the library, parking the bicycle or scooter in the parking lot, moving at a snail’s pace in the long rows of the open shelves, taking out a book so as to have a look at the contents, selecting two or three books and then moving to the issuing counter, while fishing out the membership card from the pocket, provided the satisfaction of having accomplished the task of the day. Now the computer has taken away the charm of waging a Trojan war in the fields of ignorance, gaining knowledge in the form of Helen of Troy and then going on a long odyssey of flights of imagination before reaching the Ithaca of reality. The other day I wanted to mention the name of the poem as well as of the poet in my ‘middle’ article wherein I had quoted the lines- ‘What’s this life if full of care/We have no time to stand and stare.’ But my memory had ditched me nonchalantly at the eleventh hour. I got up so as to get ready for paying a visit to the University Extension Library to consult some poetry books to be able to know both names. When I was huffing and puffing while lacing up my shoes, my grandson, who was sitting in front of his computer, asked me: ‘Whereto, grandpa, in this sultry weather?’ ‘Nothing special, dear. My memory has failed me at this age to my consternation.’ ‘But what’s the problem?’ ‘I had been teaching a poem for decades to the undergraduates but now I do not recall the name of the poem nor of the poet.’ ‘What’s the theme of the poem, grandpa?’ ‘It is like the lack of leisure in the modern-day life where everything has gone topsy-turvy.’ ‘Lack of leisure, you said. Let me first try ‘leisure’ before trying ‘lack’ to locate what you want to know.’ Lo and behold ! In a minute he told me that there is a poem captioned ‘Leisure’ written by W.H. Davies wherein the line ‘What’s this life.....’ appears. Before I could express my astonishment, he took out a copy of the poem from the printer and gave that to me. I gazed at that piece of paper again and again. Seeing me nonplussed, my grandson said : ‘Grandpa, you can come closer to me to have a look at the collected works of your favourite poet.’ ‘No, not yet — some other time.’ Saying so, I lowered my head to unfasten the laces of my shoes. Then I hung them like an embarrassed warrior who had been deprived of the joy of gaining victory after waging a
war.
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OPED
— WOMEN |
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Substance of a woman
In the race for equality of sexes, somewhere, somehow the concept of woman’s emancipation has been misconstrued. It’s time to take stock
and redefine empowerment in sync with our cultural values and mores
Rajesh Gill
Contemporary
woman is ‘empowered’, at least theoretically if not practically. By that I mean that she is granted equality by the law in all spheres of life, i.e. education, employment, ownership of property, marriage as well as its dissolution, political participation, governance and so on.  Societal stranglehold
It is another fact that our social norms and values are not yet commensurate with the legal rights and, more importantly, these tend to wield much greater power in life of an individual than what the law says. The situation is very difficult, not only for women but for men too, who are often confused as to whether to follow the law or social dictates. This conflict is best reflected through the phenomenal dominance of khap panchayats in states like Haryana and Rajasthan, which clearly announce that social norms are more important than any statute. The most recent case of Bibi Jagir Kaur who has been convicted of forced abortion and abduction of her daughter resulting into her subsequent death again underlines the enormous power exercised by social values (putting the whole onus of honour on a girl). Clearly the self-appointed guardians of honour give two hoots to the constitutional provisions of the land. While there are strong voices condemning Bibi for violating the legal rights of her own daughter, mostly expressed in public spaces, there are numerous whispers making noises in private spaces, visualising a mother whose teenaged daughter, preparing for her medical entrance exams, indulges in sexual relationship with or without marriage, and gets pregnant. Commenting for a woman out there and for someone close to you entails an altogether different reaction. So dreadful is the societal pressure on a normal individual that one generally would easily violate law just to gain social acceptance. Society too ostracises social deviation much more cruelly than a legal violation.
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Shades of empowerment Wear high heels, mascara, and whatever else you want. I sure do. But let’s not forget that by doing this, we’re adhering to a narrow, male-created vision of hotness. Again, this isn’t to say it’s wrong to want to look “hot,” and to go along with the status quo from time to time, but let’s not call it empowered. Call it what it is — fun and easy. Jessica Valenti in Full Frontal
Feminism, 2007 The millions of women and girls who are unable to reach this standard of beauty feel a sense of failure, shame, and guilt. This dissatisfaction with one's body is a major cause of eating disorders, which have increased through the years as women's ideal body weight as it is portrayed in the media has decreased Study by Wiseman, Gray, Mosimann, &
Ahrens, 1992 The constant abuse of women’s sexuality to sell products in the beer, sports, film and music industries has completely distorted our understanding of women’s empowerment. The
commodification of women undoubtedly contributes to the high incidents of rape and physical assault in our society. In the US, a woman is raped every three minutes, and 55 per cent of women report having experienced rape and/or physical assault in their lifetime. Sisterhood Is Global
Institute, 1998.
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Double standards For instance, parents take pride when their 12-year-old son drives a motorcycle or car, ridiculing other parents who do not allow their son to do so in compliance with law. It is also considered normal and masculine for young boys to tease girls, follow them and chase them in filmy style, although it may come under the legal definition of ‘eve teasing’ or ‘outraging the modesty of a woman’, as a criminal offence. The whole society including its leaders and policy makers give a damn about the Dowry Prohibition Act that was enacted long back in 1961, because it is extremely difficult to deviate from the social practice of dowry. Till date, it is considered royal and prestigious (socially) for a man to have sexual relations with multiple women outside the wedlock, with an utter disregard for the Statute which defines such an act as a criminal offence punishable under law. Patriarchal values In this scenario, it is natural that it suits more men to cling to the conventional social practices and norms, patriarchal to the core, with a disdain for women’s empowerment. In fact, there is a growing sentiment against women’s liberation simmering within the privacy of homes, matrimonial negotiations and conjugal relationships, blaming the ‘empowered woman’ for all the marital breakups, neglect of aged parents, unattended children, wrong eating habits, falling moral standards, even increasing gender violence and so on. It is time we addressed the issue face to face and examined as to how we define an ‘empowered woman’. Academic discourses indicate that it is not possible to arrive at a single definition which could cover all women, viz. illiterate and educated, home makers and gainfully employed, rural and urban, upper caste and dalit. Despite these problems, the issue must be confronted at the earliest lest whatever has been gained till now becomes counterproductive. Culture-specific values While it is fashionable to embrace the western definition of empowerment, it won’t work since no tradition or culture can be erased. We have to evolve our own definition of empowerment for a woman, in tune with our culture, familial values and norms. Learning from the West, we must learn to carry forward our families and relationships, of course along with our men, forging a healthy society. A woman would enjoy empowerment only when she, like any other human being, is provided with equal life opportunities to create her own identity as an individual and does not exist just as an appendage. Empowerment must also entail the knowledge of and capacity to exercise the legal rights granted to women by the law. In a social system where life opportunities and capacity building depend upon the caste and gender of a person, the project of woman’s empowerment is likely to be a farce. Choices and responsibility In a society like India riddled with extreme kinds of inequalities in income, gender, caste and literacy, it is just not possible to instantly achieve women’s empowerment. In such a situation, a huge responsibility falls upon women who are fortunate enough to have created an identity of their own, with the capacity to make choices at career and home, a power to influence others in private and public lives and take decisions for themselves and for others. It is these women who carry the burden of lifting other women who are still groping in the dark, oblivious of their legal rights, lost in the drudgery of physical and mental bondage, completely detached with the concept of empowerment. With numerous laws enacted by the state for the benefit of women with the objective to pull them out of mental and physical slavery in the name of marriage, it is very important that women do not misuse these advantages for petty gains. The blatant misuse of Section 498A of the IPC by a large number of women has already damaged the trust of people in the institution of law. There is a rampant practice of sexual harassment at workplace in India, and yet public institutions have been avoiding the implementation of the Supreme Court guidelines for the constitution of Committees to safeguard women in different capacities. While it would be a sin on the part of a woman employee to falsely implicate a man under such law, it would be a greater sin if a woman does not come to the rescue of another woman being sexually harassed within her knowledge. Women must realise that they cannot enjoy empowerment unless others remain disempowered. Also by misusing her own empowerment, a woman pushes the process back, damaging not just the cause of other women unknown to her, but her own generations of women. Unwarranted freedom It is common for young girls today to interpret empowerment as ‘freedom’ to do whatever they wish to; to follow their own norms of dressing, eating, living and so on; because men too enjoy their ‘freedom’ this way. In the process, enjoying sex too has become a sign of freedom. True, if men can enjoy and ‘get away’ with sex, why can’t women? But unfortunately, it is women who bear the brunt physically and psychologically because of their biological peculiarity. While a man can enjoy sex and walk away, a woman has to bear its consequences. Another kind of ‘freedom’ women associate with empowerment is from the clutches of family, kinship and child rearing. True that all these are not exclusively women’s responsibilities, but these are very important responsibilities without which societies would collapse, the way many western societies have, with hired nannies to look after the young and the old, purchasing their services with money. Women would have to define ‘freedom’ for themselves in a broader way, using it to carry along the precious relationships, their most valuable asset of motherhood and families, in partnership with their men, both being equally accountable for common social responsibilities. Both men and women have to be cautious that in the process of getting ‘empowered’ and independent, we must not ruin our families, children, elders and values, heading for a socially alienated society constituted of disgruntled individuals, each enjoying his/her own individuality. Market dictates The project of women’s empowerment can certainly not be entrusted with the market. It has already played havoc by selling empowerment through zero figure, heightened sense of femininity, show of skin and body contours, and commodification of woman as an ‘item’. Women shall have to take the responsibility of defining ‘empowerment’ and broadening the circle so that many more could be accommodated in it. Women must learn to be recognised for their enormous abilities which are much more diverse than just the physical contours. The writer is Chairperson, Departments
of Sociology and Women’s Studies, Panjab University, Chandigarh
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