To make sense of Kathua, Unnao and the India of the Bharatiya Janata Party, columns of newspapers, online journals and videos proved a little inadequate. I re-read Nobel Prize for Literature winner Sir William Golding’s Lord of the Flies.  After reading this, I invite you to read the novel and watch the movie too. See if you can get some answers.

When, men eat flesh, tearing apart a child and smash her head with a stone and do not wink an eyelid, when their clan supports them without batting an eyelid, When babies die in a hospital and those who should shoulder responsibility shout at and admonish a doctor who kept hope alive, when those claiming to be children of a bigger god publicly flog those considered children of a lesser god, when those meant to speak maintain silence, when those meant to listen resort to doublespeak and lies, then humanity dies and forces us to look beyond the routine.

While the Lord of the Flies was part of journalistic reference and reporting of the 2016 Trump elections in the US, one rarely comes across a literary explanation of a political happening in India. I re-read Sir William Golding’s Lord of the Flies and George Orwell’s Animal Farm to make sense of the cannibalistic acts in Kathua and Unnao of modern-day India of the Bharatiya Janata Party, dreaming for an Utopian heaven on earth. 

Squirming during sleepless nights, I would wake up asking, how could men be so beastly? How could 8 men over 7 days “eat” the flesh of and 8-year-old girl child?  Make no mistake. Look nowhere else. India is a banana republic where standards of civility are at its nadir. Personal and mass behaviour has crossed all limits. Individual and even the collective conscience has stopped pricking. Politics has failed. Democracy is a farce. Ethical attitudes, truthfulness and sobriety have taken wings! Leaders are ferocious dogs unleashed on a dumb selfish people. Neither the leaders nor the people see beyond their noses.  It is becoming increasingly difficult and impossible to digest the increasing crimes against women, the poor and the caste underprivileged.

“How does one see eye to eye with the photo of Asifa Bano of Kathua, Lakhwinder Kaur of Delhi and Zakia Zafri of Ahmedabad? Do you know who these people are? ”

How many paused their lives to shed a tear for the 8-year-girl child in Kathua? Across the country, from mofussil towns to cities, people cried and agitated. Unfortunately, that is not enough. This is not enough to stop Nirbhayas and Asifa Banos from occuring again. The malaise goes deeper.  

How does one see eye to eye with the photo of Asifa Bano of Kathua, Lakhwinder Kaur of Delhi and Zakia Zafri of Ahmedabad? Do you remember who these people are?

Notwithstanding the punishment that may be given to the cannibals by the courts, which international forum will be allowed by India to investigate the basic reason for the dastardly attack on an unsuspecting child as a tool to stop a nomadic herd of Bakkerwal Muslims perceived as spoiling the environs and demography of the Jammu region.

As in Kathua and Unnao, as in Una of Gujarat and Phagwara of Punjab, before the slaughter and the murder, the chant is ruthless and barbaric. Chants are always so. The chant in the Lord of the Flies of William Golding  is, “Kill the pig, cut her throat, Bash her in.” The chant is repeated four times in the novel. In the last time, there is an addition, “Spill its blood, Do him in.” The chant and the killing seeks to extract power from the act of rape, pillage and killing. The barbarics sedated and assaulted the girl, then sedated and assaulted the girl and then smashed her to death. Not satisfied, they again assaulted the dead body of the girl. Can you see the parallel?

I re-read Sir William Golding’s Lord of the Flies to make sense of the cannibalistic acts in Kathua and Unnao of modern-day India of the Bharatiya Janata Party, dreaming for an Utopian heaven on earth.The chant in the novel Lord of the Flies and that of “Khoon ka badla khoon se lenge -blood for blood” in 1984, of “Mandir wahi banayenge -we will build the Temple at that very spot”  in 1992 and the false alarm that “Muslims set fire to the train in Godhra” in 2002 should be enough to send a chill down your spine. Can you see the parallel?

The allegory of The Lord of the Flies is stunningly relevant. Sir William Golding, in this 1954 novel uses vast symbolism to demonstrate that human beings when liberated from rules and regulations, taboos and restrictions, allow their evil to dominate their existence and then all hell breaks loose. He says, “It seemed to me that man’s capacity for greed, his innate cruelty and selfishness, was being hidden behind a kind of pair of political pants.” Asked to explain why there are only male characters in his novel, William Golding said that he wrote from what he understood as a boy. He added, “I think women are foolish to pretend they are equal to men, they are far superior and always have been.”

In India, the downslide to barbarism started three  decades back. Prior to that barbarity of the police, para-military and military did not have a conspiratorial and pre-meditated colour.  The notion of India as a civilized part of earth died in the first three days of November 1984. Whatever remained died in Ayodhya in 1992 and in Gujarat in 2002. What is more uncivil and barbaric than the belief that there was no conspiracy or involvement of higher-ups in the killing of Sikhs in Delhi in November 1984 despite a reservoir of evidence and live witnesses. It seems as if, no one “brought down the Babri Masjid” in 1992 at Ayodhaya despite the chilling details with graphic images and videos of the state actors in Ram ke Naam documentary of Anand Patwardhan and authentic journalistic reportage.  Even in the day of the internet and TV channels, is not a helluva surprising that “no one killed the Muslims in Gujarat in 2002” despite video evidence and more, still available on YouTube and TV channel archives.

The ubiquitous chief -on TV, on Twitter, on Facebook, in Newspapers, on foreign lands keeps telling the residents of Bharatiya Janata Party that “Delhi listens to you.”  Dr. Kafeel Ahmed Khan, the young conscientious paediatrician who spent money from his own pocket to buy cylinders to save dying children at the Baba Raghav Das Medical College Hospital in September 2017 where 70 babies died within four days, was sent to prison, because CM Yogi Adityanath felt, “he had exposed the system.” Released after 7 months from Gorakhpur prison he asks all of us, “Why me? What did I do wrong? Those who wronged are already on bail? If this is not barbaric then what is?

In the last four years, the India of the Bharatiya Janata Party has unfolded in its full might. In the novel, the beast is the perceived source of evil on the deserted island where the plane-wrecked British boys reach, away from society and civilisation. Yet, it is later discovered there was no beast, it was imaginary and actually the writer was alluding to the beast within.  Without rules, without reservations, it is so easy to chant and hunt, so easy to kill with impunity as there is no society!! Can you see the parallel in India today?

One of the characters in the novel is the stout short-statured Piggy who wears specs. Glasses are a symbol of intellect and reason. The likes of Piggy -like Gauri Lankesh who bore the brunt of reason tolerance, who uphold the rationale for human existence and who ensure that life and society move on despite so much of muck, hate and intolerance all around. What happens to Piggy in Lord of the Flies, happened to Gauri Lankesh in the India of the Bharatiya Janata Party. Piggy is taunted and hunted down, sometimes his specs are stolen, sometimes broken and sometimes destroyed forever. Ultimately, there is a Roger sitting somewhere on a high pedestal who throws down a rock and kills Piggy! He also smashes the “conch” which Piggy was holding signifying the end of regulated behaviour. Exactly in the same way, Gauri Lankesh is killed. The killers succeed in smashing the “conch” held on by the liberals, who are torch-bearers of fearless journalism. Like Piggy in the novel, Gauri Lankesh represented civilisation and common sense.  From Peelu Khan to Junaid Khan, the chants are growing. Even when the Dalits want to convert to Buddhism, there is no let-up in the ominous war cries. Can you hear similar chants around you?

In the novel, Jack -the leader says that it is more important to slaughter pigs than to be rescued from the island or return to civilization.  Likewise, in the India of the Bharatiya Janata Party, the face of savagery is without remorse. The Jacks of 2002 and 1984 -masked men and women showed no regret or remorse. 1984 happened for 3 days and nights, Gujarat was burning for full two months. Tehelka documented the boasts of police and political leaders as to how they raped, pillaged, destroyed homes and killed Muslims in the Gujarat of 2002. Jack never accepted a mistake in the novel and managed to survive till the end. With the mask of perverted religiosity, the faces of savagery continue in our midst. Can you see the parallel?

The bloodthirsty snarl of the perpetrators has totally liberated them from cowardice, shame and normal human behaviour. They are the new savages.  Who will remove their masks before they can wreak havoc and actually destroy any semblance of normal civilized existence? Is this not the same masked mob which Ravish Kumar  of NDTV India says is “lurking in your neighbourhood waiting to pounce upon you if you do not fit in!”

William Golding’s search for the roots of anarchy go deep. Stranded on a virgin island without rules and regulation, the boys’ primal urges takes wings and the situation becomes anarchic and barbaric. When the son of a temple priest in Kathua traps a child and takes turn to violate her, it is not just lust, it is power -the manifestation of a primal urge to dethrone the other person irrespective of age, gender or affinity. Further from Kathua, in Unnao and elsewhere, there is no other explanation except than the bestiality of a human being. This person dominates reality as he hides behind the mask of a political party, nationalism or mere knowledge that the judicial system and society will not be able to catch up. The individual imbibes that he will get away with barbarism and inhumanity. The parallel is as complete and clear as daylight.

In the India of the Bharatiya Janata Party, the structure and edifice of society has collapsed. What the present-day rulers of the country do not realise is that, as established in the novel Lord of the Flies, when primal urges become uncontrollable, the masked killers will kill their own without much rhyme or reason. Look at the fate of the former UP Chief Minister Kalyan Singh and the former Vishwa Hindu Parishad chief Pravin Togadia, not to mention the Ram Rajya protagonist Shri L. K. Advani.  The new Frankenstein monsters have taken over from them and now the present ones are uncontrollable. The new ones will proffer new icons to overawe the populace and spread their perverted logic and mayhem.

So, who is the Lord of the Flies in modern day India? Who is the personification of evil? Is it within or without or both? Are we fighting a losing battle against this evil? How long will we allow Kathua and Unnao to be repeated?  Can you bear the sight of men beating men only on the basis of caste. Think!

Juxtapose each imagery, scene and symbol in the Lord of the Flies to modern day India of the Bharatiya Janata Party, each character with the cannibals unleashed on us and the similarity is stark, stunning and dreadful.  Mankind’s inherent capacity for evil exists but it can be disciplined and contained by ethics and spirituality, it can be controlled by equal laws and equality before the law for all, it can be monitored by impartial rulers, it can be administered by judicious leaders and it can flourish in a society which respects humankind -mankind and womankind.

In the Lord of the Flies, civility comes to rescue in the end and the barbarians regret. I do not see this happening in the modern day India of Bharatiya Janata Party and I wish that I am wrong. Nobody wants to rescue nobody. No solace can be found in small mercies -new stringent laws, bravado talk in foreign lands and side-tracking the issue through glee about other successes. There is no choice. The Good must take over and conquer the evil -first within and then without.

Many do not say it, many others are blissfully unaware, still others expect miracles, but if society is allowed to have its run of incivility, then the turmoil and anarchy will lead to a revolution – a kind of French revolution, which the Indian  sub-continent has not seen heretofore. Take note, there is no escape.

The greed for money and power rests within people. Hate and evil exist but have to tamed by constant training of the soul, mind and body. Character building, ethical training, spiritual strengthening, orderly approach and a sea-change in attitude and style alone can salvage the situation. The same person can be kindness personified and if let loose, can rape, plunder, loot and destroy. A critic of the novel, Samuel Hynes aptly puts it, “the devil rises, not out of pirates and cannibals and such alien creatures, but out of the darkness of man’s heart.”.

Like in the real world, there is a constant conflict between the impulse to civilization and the impulse to savagery. In Lord of the Flies, Golding uses Ralph and Jack’s struggle for power to show that greed and lust for power can corrupt the best of individuals. Can you see the parallel?

At one point in the novel, Jack shouts, “We don’t need the conch anymore.” At this point in the novel, Golding shows that lust for power turns Jack into a ferocious monster, a rock-solid barbarian. He kills with impunity, expands his gang and desires to become the leader again and again. Just a few days ago, it was reported that come what may, the Bharatiya Janata Party wanted to rule India for more than 50 years. Can you see the parallel?

 “The novel portrays that, “the devil rises, not out of pirates and cannibals and such alien creatures, but out of the darkness of man’s heart.” ”

Samuel Hynes, critic

Ayn Rand said, “Civilization is the process of setting man free from men.” The India of the Bharatiya Janata Party is without order, without truthful and ethical leadership and without rationality. Chaos on the streets, chaos in the trains, chaos in the fields, chaos in the classrooms, chaos in hospitals, chaos in Parliament and chaos in the judiciary. Ralph saves the boys and civilization in Lord of the Flies. Who will save the dystopian India?          

In a lecture entitled ‘Fable’, published in The Hot Gates, Golding discussed what inspired him to write Lord of the Flies. He suggested that anyone who had lived through the horrors of the Second World War, and the evils of authoritarian governments of the period, would understand that ‘man produces evil as a bee produces honey’.

Sir William Golding’s Lord of the Flies brings out the inherent savagery and evil in every human being.  Jack in the Lord of the Flies is the leader who is more interested in his self-built goals rather than the common goals, he is more keen to hunt and kill rather than take everybody along. Can you see the parallel?

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Without a revolution to save civilization, the Lord of the Flies will remain unleashed waiting to devour whoever is within reach! Can you see the parallel? Modern day India does not need reform and slow transformation. We have waited enough for all this in the last seven decades. Nothing short of a French revolution type upheaval can destroy the rut and make the sub-continent and its people civil and humane. It is time for humane souls to buck up and usher in a revolution to restore faith in civilization otherwise a reversal back into the stone age is on the horizon.

Utopian India is a cheater’s dream. Dystopian India is a stark reality.