Land of Lime

Sepoy asked me this morning about violent incidents - stone throwing, overturning cars and looting - in Bangalore. He wondered: what motivates people to express grief in these violent forms? He also asked whether there were any precedents to such behavior. Well, such acts might happen during a roit, I said, but usually not even when an iconic figure dies. With Sepoy, I also wondered and asked: what were they complaining about and who were they complaining to? If they were unhappy at the death of their idol, then they have to complain to the gods; simply overturning cars and beating up people wouldn’t do much good. If they were unhappy at the police for not allowing them to pay their last respects and therefore resorted to violence, then that doesn’t honor the memory of their idol.

The fans too were caught in a bind. As he repeatedly said, Rajkumar himself was a creation of abhimani devaru (god like fans) but they were being shut out yesterday, from even paying their last respects to their hero.

Today’s newspapers report numerous violent incidents and police shooting resulting in eight deaths and over 150 injuries. Police lathicarged the crowd and in turn, the crowd hit back and mercilessly beat up policemen, even killing a 24 year old constable. The Chief Minister couldn’t reach the funeral site and returned to his office on the advice of police. His Deputy was injured in the melee at the funeral site. Rajkumar’s daughters couldn’t attend the funeral. Most of the rituals weren’t performed, much to the regret of Parvatamma Rajkumar, who with her three sons at least managed to be present.

The blogosphere has been very quick to condemn the ‘Bangalore behavoir’. Rightly so, I suppose. Many have expressed their dismay at both the outbreak of violence and at the city coming to a standstill. We all thought the perpetrators, especially if they are fans of Rajkumar’s, did disservice to his memory.

But I am not very sympathetic to two other sentiments that were expressed. First, some people found this entire Rajkumar phenomenon incomprehensible. To them, I can only say Rajkumar meant a great deal to some of us; if you want to understand that, then you could read several neat tributes written in the last couple of days. Or better, watch a few Rajkumar films. Just don’t roll your eyes and feign surprise! But slightly more problematic is a second argument made by many: that the image of the city as a business center is somehow harmed by work stoppage and violence. Bangalore based bloggers, Kannadigas elsewhere and many outsiders have expressed their displeasure on this count. But then there was this somewhat offensive piece. I didn’t want to leave a comment on that page; rather, I wanted the author to visit the Land of Lime, to get our response. The blogger, who was to get .Net code from an ‘extremely hardworking engineer’ in Bangalore, complained ‘how an Indian actor ruined his day’!

Okay, I cannot let go of civility especially on this day and not be civil to someone who does business in Karnataka. Our friend should realize the ‘actor’ didn’t ruin his day. Some lumpens did, with not an inconsiderable amount of help from our friend himself. Every now and then, Bangalore goes nuts. Every now and then, stuff happens, as Rumsfeld would have said. If he didn’t know that before he outsourced his work, then he should have asked me, who is an expert on all matters Karnataka. For a fat consulting fee, I would have offered him good advice on doing business in Bangalore. Or he could have gotten the same work done by an American programmer and paid ten times what he pays in Bangalore.

While I might say this to our friend here, I wouldn’t use that argument as a justification for voilence in Bangalore. Let us not make these wishy-washy arguments about what the world might think. Instead, let us call the perpetrators lumpens and their acts as morally reprehensible behavior. Let us not make any excuses.

While we are at it, let us also take to task the state authorities for not anticipating what any child would have expected: that a large number of people would want to pay their respects to Rajkumar and it is incumbent upon the police to make proper arrangements both for the viewing of the body as well as for the funeral procession. That didn’t happen and the police will have to take a lot of blame for that.

As it must be clear, I have no problems calling disgraceful behavior disgraceful. Be it by an American entrepreneur or Bangalore police or a lumpen or even by a Rajkumar fan. But yesterday was a day to stop whatever we (at least those of us for whom Rajkumar meant something) were doing, be quiet and reflective for a day. If the ‘How an Indian Actor ruined my day’ guy and his other blogger friends don’t get it, then I have to politely say they don’t get Bengaluru and Bangalore too.

Perhaps, they have no business being or doing business in Bangalore. Believe me, this isn’t about being intolerant. We also have to be true to ourselves, care about issues that matter to us and demand that the world too acknowledge it. We just don’t need to resort to violence to make that case. Well, I have this sneaking suspicion that Rajkumar would have agreed with that.