German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche declared in the 19th century that Christianity and religious morality can no longer offer the organising principles of social life as Christian morality is a 'slave morality' of the vanquished, and he went on to ask what can possibly replace God. He famously declared 'God is dead' and pleaded for individual 'will to power' to replace collective morality. A century later came along French philosopher Michel Foucault, who this time famously declared 'Man is dead'. He meant 'man' or 'human' is a social construct of its times and it is futile to attempt to discover an essence. It is a life without essence, and therefore, a life with infinite opportunities to be explored. Foucault's anti-humanism sounds exciting but restless. There is no place to rest. Can self-discovery and self-reliant individualism provide enough succours in living a life, even if it lays a premium on freedom against imposed moral order? How do we escape collective control without getting reduced to atomised selves?
Both the philosophers could not have predicted an ingenious postcolonial alternative in finding faith in godmen, babas and gurus. God took reincarnation as godmen. Euphoria around the temple in Ayodhya lost steam just a week after the pran pratishtha, but thousands of people thronged to collect the soil on which Bhole Baba walked in Hathras. Gurus animate life and seem to compensate for the disenchantment with the 'traditional' God, religiosity and rituals. Modern gurus are more transactional and interactive than 'waiting for God-ot'.
Denne historien er fra August 01, 2024-utgaven av Outlook.
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Denne historien er fra August 01, 2024-utgaven av Outlook.
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Criminal Amnesia
The focus may have now shifted to the Kolkata gang rape case, but questions about the sexual violence in Manipur since May 2023 remain unanswered
To Rape A Wife
Survivors of marital rape face twin hurdles: a lack of legal framework to deal with these cases and the social stigma that comes with reporting them
A City Violated
Public outburst of anger over the rape and murder of a junior doctor in Kolkata has left the Mamata Banerjee government puzzled, worried
The Forest of Loss
From a legal perspective, justice appears to have been served in the 2017 Gudiya rape and murder case at Kotkhai, Himachal Pradesh. But several questions persist
Here, Nobody Speaks of the Wounds
Muhammad Iqbal Shah's 14-year-old cousin was gang-raped and murdered at Handwara town, Kupwara, in 2007. The family is still trudging along the long road to justice
She Must Have Been Afraid
The 2012 Delhi gang rape is reflective of a systematic failure to cleanse the societal malaise
The Burning Woman
UP has the highest rate of crimes against women, and the district of Unnao has seen some of the State's most gruesome cases
Naked (vs.) Justice
On March 14, 2006, Latabai and her son, six, were paraded naked in a village in Solapur. Less than six months later, four members of a Dalit family were paraded naked; mother & daughter were allegedly gang-raped
Songlines of Chambal
How do the residents of Sheikhpur Gudha, Phoolan Devi's village in Uttar Pradesh, remember her: as a survivor, a rebel, a leader?
Don't You Remember My Story?
A child gang rape survivor's 12-year long ordeal in Sikar, Rajasthan shows how calls for punishment of perpetrators don't always mean empathy for the victim