WHY DO EDUCATED PEOPLE BECOME TERRORISTS?

WHY DO EDUCATED PEOPLE BECOME TERRORISTS?

One less noticed aspect of the current turmoil in Mumbai is that is not just the so called ‘lumpen’ elements that are exhibiting parochial attitudes.

For those who are not aware of what happened in Mumbai here is a brief report.

The Maharashtra Navnirman Sena[MNS] is a political outfit floated by Raj Thakeray, nephew of the redoubtable Shri Bal Thakarey of the feared Shiv Sena. Recently Raj made a statement asking north Indians including Amitabh Bachchan to leave Mumbai since they were more loyal to their original home states like UP and Bihar—than to Maharashtra.

Predictably this led to violence with the entire north showing their consternation at this parochial sentiment. Amar Singh and some other politicians took up the gauntlet and issued statements condemning Raj . The streets of Mumbai witnessed violence by MNS activists against taxi drivers and other simple workers who are usually migrants from North India. Raj asked why nobody blamed the PM for being ‘ communal’ for asking the French President to direct his officials to permit Sikhs in France to wear turbans in schools—a practice disallowed in France.Raj also asked why nobody called Karunanidhi ‘communal’ for coming to the aid of Tamil migrants to Malaysia who have had serious issues with the local authorities. The debate continues.

The lesser known aspect that I referred to is this—Raj’s party is partly backed by many educated middle class people –architects, doctors, MBA’s etc. It is this that I wish to dwell on.

A study by Oxford University tells us that it is educated people—aeronautical engineers, doctors, etc who are joining Al Queda and other jehadi outfits.

Psychologists, sociologists and other experts will have to tell us why such educated middle class people are impressed by a violent ideology . Why do MBA’s . architects and doctors in Maharashtra exhibit such narrow tendencies when the poor people at Dharavi[Asia’s largest slum in Mumbai] are able to live in harmony irrespective of their communal ,religious or regional backgrounds.

Some experts suggested that when such educated people are unemployed or see their kin and friends unemployed or otherwise see suffering among their people they seek answers to such troubling questions.

An educated Muslim in say Bangalore is very affected by the way US forces are killing fellow Muslims in Afghanistan, Iraq and in all likelihood Iran in the near future .This Muslim is convinced that his people are under threat at the hands of the’ evil west’ that is out to destroy his religion. When there are no convincing answers to this man’s doubts he falls prey to those who provide simplistic answers. Enter the mullah. Enter friends who are as troubled as he is. He exchanges notes . Soon a bond, a brotherhood emerges which believes that violence is the only answer to the crisis their people are facing.

Look at the doctors MBA’s and other professionals who support the MNS. They are no different from the Bangalore engineer . This MBA sees that in Mumbai which is the capital city of his state of Maharashtra, migrants from other states seem to flourish even as his fellow Marathi people are unemployed. Answers to such troubling questions are either not forthcoming or are not acceptable. Some of these questions which trouble Sena activists are--Why are my people not doing well? Why is the ‘ madrassi’ getting desk jobs? Why are taxi drivers mostly UP ‘ bhaiayas’ though this does not call for any great skills? Why are construction laborers from the south? Why are nurses almost always from Kerala? Why is the Mumbai stock market dominated by Gujeratis? Why do these migrants never learn to speak Marathi language?

To some people there could be a few answers but these are not acceptable to those affected and cause more anxiety, It is in these moments of anxiety of an existentialist nature that people seek and get simplistic answers.

It is human to seek answers to troubling questions When the issue is complex people repose faith on someone whose values are similar to theirs. Thus when the Indo- US Nuclear deal was being debated in India it was obvious that this was a complex issue that involved several dimensions—nuclear energy, plutonium, thorium, pollution, danger from irradiation, sovereignty, ideology, domestic and foreign policy . terrorism, Islamic vote bank etc .In the face of such complexity many people did what can only be expected. They left it to others whose values were similar to theirs to do the thinking. Most members of Parliament could only identify an atom bomb of the sort in use at Divali time or to celebrate an election victory .Thus they had little option but to leave it to someone else to tell them how to decide on this complex issue.

Thus a troubled Muslim may be influenced by his friends or by a mullah, the troubled Maharashtrian by the Sena leader, some of us by our ‘Guruji’, a devout by his Holy Book and so on. Reason is of little help since we are very emotional at such times.

It has been said that man is a rational animal but I am not quite convinced. We are every bit emotional --the way we were at the dawn of civilization. Hence we need to address the hearts and not just minds of people if we are to avert violence on any issue.

Reason , science and technology alone are not enough to address the many critical issues facing us.

K.R.RAVI

USA