Why
India celebrated Osama's
killing By Dinesh Sharma
The news media in India, not unlike many
Americans, were gleeful at the killing on May 2 of
Osama bin Laden, the face of global jihad, at the
hands of the "mighty" United States Special
Forces.
While American media seemed
cautious about the details of the story, leaking
every little detail only as it became available,
major Indian media outlets and the general public
seemed to grab hold of the Rambo-like narrative of
the raid on Bin Laden's compound in the Pakistani
town of Abbottobad about 60 kilometers north of
the capital Islamabad.
News outlets
repeatedly played simulations of the night-time
operation with running commentary, with a doctored
picture of Bin Laden with a bullet running through
his head, clearly designed to
excite the audience and to
drive up ratings.
Is this not, though, the
land of the prophet Mahatma Gandhi who preached
non-violence?
Yes, India still loves
Gandhi, who took on the might of the British Raj,
but let's not forget that even the prophet of
peace was martyred by a fanatic's bullet in
January 1948.
The billowing smoke from the
Taj Mahal Hotel is still fresh in the minds of
most Indians from the November 2008 terror attack,
while justice hangs in the balance. Standing atop
the roof of the hotel on a recent visit, US
President Barack Obama said, "We'll never forget
the awful images of 26/11, including the flames
from this hotel that lit up the night sky. We'll
never forget how the world, including the American
people watched and grieved with all of India."
At least 164 people were killed and 308
injured during 10 coordinated shooting and bombing
attacks across Mumbai by Pakistan-linked
terrorists during a three-day rampage.
Thus, there are several important reasons
why Indian media and the population in general may
have lapped up this story.
First, as a
neighbor to Pakistan, India has repeatedly warned
the US that Bin Laden was being sheltered by rogue
elements within the Pakistani intelligence
community, the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI).
These are possibly some of the same individuals
who had a hand in orchestrating the Mumbai
attacks, according to the latest charge sheet
released by the Indian government.
Now
that America has killed the boogieman, the hidden
nexus may fully come to light.
We also
know from credible reports from the Times of India
that Indian officials warned the US on at least
two separate occasions about the whereabouts of
Bin Laden, "once in mid-2007 and again in early
2008 when they specifically mentioned his likely
presence in a cantonment area".
On both
instances, the Americans either did not take the
intelligence provided by the Indians seriously or
perhaps were preoccupied with their own leads.
There is nothing like being proven right
in the face of indifference, disbelief or
opposition. This may be why the Indian public and
the media, fatigued by years of being on guard
from terrorist threats, celebrated the killing.
Second, public emotions in India run
slightly differently than in the US, Europe or
other parts of the world. Indians tend to be much
more open and fluid with their likes and dislikes,
perhaps not as controlled and less cognitively
oriented in their expressions of everyday emotions
as many Westerners. Communal passions can flame up
quickly and die down just as rapidly.
The
typical Hindu person is not as individualistic. He
may be more hierarchical yet open, relying heavily
on authority figures than on an autonomous sense
of self, Homo Hierarchicus, as the French
sociologist Bruno Dumont has described. Yet,
Indians display a deep reservoir of spiritual
emotions or bhavas and rasas as they
have been described by different cultural
theories, such as, the Yoga Sutras, the Indian
theory of dramatics.
Wrapped within the
theory of emotions is the cultural notion of evil,
which is very different in India. Just look at the
Hindu pantheon of gods and goddesses and you will
get the picture.
Evil in India is not tied
to the notion of "original sin" or the dark
vagaries of the human body. Evil does exist in
India, but it is not an absolute or an inherent
form of evil. Rather, the everyday concept of evil
is relative. But, Bin Laden may have been close to
the image of evil or a bad shaitan (devil)
in the minds of many Indians.
Since the
religious demography of India is very diverse,
with the largest Muslim minority population in the
world, the ethos of everybody getting along under
the banner of Nehruvian secularism is taken very
seriously. However, even the Indian Muslim
population was reportedly happy to receive the
news of Bin Laden's demise.
Despite these
cultural variations, conduct during times of war
according to the ancient scriptures is very clear.
The recent blockbuster film, Raajneeti
(literally translated Politics or Affairs of
the State) chronicles the drama of a powerful
upper-caste clan, where the dominant branch of an
extended family fights off its cousin brothers for
a right to the political throne, adapted from the
epic Mahabharta.
It is a martial
duty to take up arms against your kith and kin if
you believe they have unlawfully wronged you,
according to Krishna's sermon to Arjuna. This is
the code that governs everyday behavior when your
security is under threat at home or abroad,
whether the action is covert or overt, and when
honor is on the line.
India and Pakistan,
it has often been said, are like two long-lost
brothers separated at the time of independence in
1947, who have been dueling ever since. India's
territory has been repeatedly breached from the
northern regions by ISI-trained terrorist groups
due to the Kashmir dispute and most recently from
its western shores.
Yet, India cannot
openly retaliate for fear of escalating nuclear
tensions in the region, as both countries have
nuclear weapons. India's official response to Bin
Laden's killing was measured and to the point: "I
welcome it as a significant step forward and hope
that it will deal a decisive blow to al-Qaeda and
other terrorist groups," Prime Minister Manmohan
Singh said.
Precisely because India at
least for now cannot carry out a clandestine raid
against Pakistan and seems to be in holding
pattern with the US as an ally, friend and a
partner - recall the tight embrace Obama gave
Manmohan during the India trip - it can only
vicariously celebrate the strength and valor of
American Navy SEALS for carrying out such a
mission in the dead of the night.
Dinesh Sharma is the author of
the forthcoming book, Barack Obama in Hawaii
and Indonesia: The Making of a Global President
(ABC-CLIO / Praeger, 2011).
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