Just as some stranger’s cancer diagnosis is less devastating than your own, reading how the Hindu right has tightened its censorship noose on Bollywood hurts less than contemplating the current rightwing efforts to limit how much historical truth we admit about our own society.
India seems obvious. Of course the Indian caste system and its persistence have hurt and angered folks relegated to lower castes; and while Gandhi and Nehru sought an India where Moslems, Hindus, Christians, and others flourished, ethnic prejudices and violence between Hindus and Moslems destroyed trust, making their dream a tough sell.
There’s always tension between artists and the State. Artists are committed to what they create, and what they learn from what they create, not to jamming their characters into some Fascist, Socialist, or Christian ideology. Fictional characters may be the writer’s creations, but if s/he is any good, they then live and grow somewhat independently, often surprising their creator. Fictional characters crammed into ideological boxes die quickly, as did the fireflies I placed in Mason jars, despite numerous breathing holes in the metal lids.
Salman Rushdie is an extreme example; but Fyodor Dostoyevsky was nearly executed by the Russian Czar. Pasternak and Solzhenitzn were jailed by the Russian Communists. The U.S. jailed and harassed Howard Fast and the Hollywood Ten.
Many passionate Hindu nationalists, believing India should be for Hindus, push Indian filmmakers and writers to portray military heroics in Hindu India’s history, rather than examining the personal costs and challenges of ethnic hatreds and the caste system. They feel India is under attack. Whether or not they like the caste system, they do not want it held up to the light (or movie screen), washing India’s dirty laundry very publicly.
MAGA Republicans (like McCarthy and the House Unamerican Activities Committee before them) promote their idea of American Exceptionalism. Whatever they believe about the sprawling and appalling institution of slavery, or the pervasive discrimination it engendered, they’d prefer writers and filmmakers choose subjects reflecting the U.S.’s special greatness. Some deny historical racism, or doubt current racism causes problems, and they sure don’t want frank exploration of it.
Bollywood is frightened, as Hollywood was frightened in the 1950s. And may be again.
Teachers are frightened in Florida and Texas. Teaching history accurately (likely never the reality in our elementary schools, which stressed U.S. heroism) could cross some line in new laws. Racism is a reality. It has frequently dominated our history. But, like sex, it’s not to be discussed in public schools. (Doctors and psychologists are also frightened in those states. Outlawing abortion makes treating a pregnant woman’s cancer dicey. Treatment might affect the sacred Fetus. Helping a kid whose inner self and outer physical characteristics don’t match, could land you in jail!)
The U.S. is turning ugly again. When I was born, it was a wonderful place for many; but women and “Negroes” were kept in their respective places. A country that increasingly tolerated, and even valued, diverse ideas, colors, creativity, and genders was a gradual luxury. (For which many of us had fought, when young.) What a shock the current ugly turn must be for someone younger, who assumes fairness, tolerance, and justice matter! (Reminds me of realizing at 18 that our beloved country was fighting a war the world saw was as unjust and foolish as . . . Putin’s.)
Is this another cycle we’ll outgrow, or is it midnight for decency and democracy?
– 30 --
[The above column appeared Sunday, 23 October 2022, in the Las Cruces Sun-News, as well as on the newspaper's website and KRWG's website. A related radio commentary will air during the week on KRWG (90.7 FM) and on KTAL (101.5 FM / http://www.lccommunityradio.org/) and be available on both station’s websites.]
[I’m not sure I like the column. It’s right about stuff, but a little muddled in its organization. Started trying to use the Indian push for a solely Hindu India with the MAGA push for a solely Christian [only as they define that] U.S. (That latter is perhaps a slight exaggeration; but we’re suddenly somewhat more unwelcoming to anyone who doesn’t fit the mold or doesn’t live by their definitions of Christianity and humanity: draconian abortion laws, draconian laws regarding gender, Don’t Talk about Racism, Don’t Talk about Gay, take a harder line on immigration, etc., much of which (exclusionary ethnic policies, anyway) is a wave tumbling through much of the world.)
Then the column turned toward more of a lament that our country, which was peaceful and prosperous but exclusionary during my youth (I mention women and Blacks kept in their place, but try joining a country club if you were Jewish in 1948. (See the film, Gentleman’s Agreement (1947), for further information.) And you didn’t see a whole lot of Italians in white-collar positions, as I recall. Or a lot of Chinese or Indians. Let alone “Indians.”)
I wanted to do too many things in one column, include reminding folks that the phase of greater tolerance and openness, though it lasted decades, was perhaps a phase, not the march of progress, and certainly an anomaly compared to 1919-20, 1947-1958, and much of our national existence.
But what the hell? I can be muddled now and then. I’m extremely old, and was experiencing a mild case of COVID-19 when I wrote the column. Probably still am.
btw:
on Amazon [the moonlit path by peter goodman , or soon at Coas, there’s an odd novel called The Moonlit Path available.
Odd because it purports to be the journal of a 32-year-old woman living in Oakland, California, in 1914. (It’s not for everyone, but some folks love it.)
Odd too because I seem to have written it. Or Katherine Willard wrote it through me. Or something.
It’s a fairly detailed window into a vanished time in our country. (A vainished time with some sweetness to it, for some, but even more frankly exclusionary!) And Katherine’s a pensive, pleasant, perceptive tourguide.
About which, more later, as I think Holden used to say.
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