MORAL POLICING: THE IDEOLOGICAL CYNICISM IN KERALA

Transcription

1 MORAL POLICING: THE IDEOLOGICAL CYNICISM IN KERALA Anusree.R.S Research Scholar Kannur Uniiversity Thalassery Campus ABSTRACT The intermittent incidents of moral policing invoke continuous debates on the rights and wrongs of society. But it derives only assumptions on the concepts of morality and immorality. Is man born with morals? Does the society construct certain values and virtues? Is violation of virtues a crime? Does moral policing violate human rights? By studying the contemporary incidents of moral policing, I propose an analysis of moral ideologies in Kerala, with reference to Zizek's and Althusser's notions on ideology. As they narrate, ideology is a social construct and man fabricates it through various social institutions and he himself becomes a prey to it. In all society, a minority lives with their ideological fantasies and illusions of certain beliefs and customs which sometimes disrupts others right to freedom, right to life, right to privacy and right to social security. When an ideology or the imaginary relationship of individual to their real condition of existence torture human beings with a mask of truth, then it can be called a cynicism. The implication of this analysis can be done to any society in which the unfair human right violations take place on the basis of violation of certain moral ideologies. Moral Policing: The Ideological Cynicism in Kerala Louis Althusser and Slavajo Zizek analyzed and problematized the concept of ideology in different contexts. To explain ideology, Zizek adopts the well known phrase from Marx's Capital: 'sie wisen das nicht,aber sie tun es' 'they do not know it, but they are doing it' and he explains ideology as a lie experienced as truth ( Zizek 2426). Cynicism or the 'naïve consciousness' is a term that conceptualized by Zizek as a form of ideology. I propose in this paper to study the concept of ideology and cynicism as probed by Althusser, Zizek and Habermas, in the context of the recent instances of moral policing in Kerala. Human beings live with a set of ideologies and desires, and they claim the ideologies to be true. Althusser defined ideology as the representation of the imaginary relationship of individuals to their real conditions of existence ( Easthope, McGown 44). Cynicism is a part of ideology, which insists the 175

2 ideological mask and use truth as effective form of a lie (Zizek 26). Whether right or wrong, ideology achieves the status of a truth or belief that pervades and sustains over a period, influencing everything right down to context, and the setting of a society. Foucault defined it as the 'regime of truth'. Truth is replaced by the interest of the majority which is linguistically and socially constructed and accepted in society. Habermas's legitimation also involves the question of what is legal or valid, the issue of whether a particular action is true or justifiable in society. The crisis begins when the people cannot achieve harmony with truth. The continuous tussle between different ideologies persists as a crisis in Kerala, especially the conflict between moral and immoral perspectives. The repeated moral policing issues have enraged many people to put up a fight against the hypocrisy of the society. The 2014 kiss of love protest is a scuffle between two paradoxical ideologies. It is even more of a struggle between hypocrisy of cynicism and social reality. The crisis in Kerala breaks out from the alteration between pluralistic groups and monistic ones that unleash moral policing and violence. Hypocrisy of Right and Wrong Human beings are not moral or immoral by birth. Morality is a construct fabricated by various social apparatuses. It is said to be the ethical behavior or the appropriate behavior of a person that helps for social and personal integration and it is a man made concept of what is right or wrong. But in Kerala, immorality has only one meaning that of 'immoral trafficking'. It does not take into account corruption, crimes, filial ingratitude, hypocrisy, and rape. Everyone knows it but the internal cynicism does not allow one to renounce it. When someone imposes his or her morality on others, then it is a case of moral policing and a human right violation. Oscar wild says Morality is simply the attitude we adopt towards people we personally dislike (125). In a post modern world of pluralist ideas, morality is not accepted as genetically received or culturally internalized. Man has brought some truth into existence and it rules him as an ideological fantasy in the society. They know very well how things really are, but still they are doing it as if they did not know (Zizek 30). The legendary singer K J Yesudas recently made a comment on women's attire in public. He said that women should not wear jeans and trouble others. He was addressing a gathering in Sri Swati Thirunal College of Music in Trivandrum. The staff reporter of The Hindu news paper reported it on Oct 3, Yesudas said you should dress modestly and do not behave like men. People would be tempted to pay attention to what's beyond it. Don't do it to attract and make others do the undesirable. We believe certain things to be true because most of the people agree with it and believe it. Yesudas renders the 176

3 comment not from his personal interest or belief he says it as a part of the public belief or unconscious ideological fantasy that prevails. Everybody knows that women have individual freedom to decide what apparel they would wear in public. But still the people persist on their attitude and insist their dogmatic approaches. Earlier the ladies, especially the lower caste ladies were not allowed to cover their breast in Kerala. Old account says that the lower caste ladies who went to the public wearing an upper cloth had their breasts chopped off by the authorities. Christian Nadar women who had covered their breasts, were ill treated in the streets by the upper castes. The revolution to wear dress was called channar revolt in Kerala history. When we reflect the issue on the current affairs, we find that to undress is immoral or illegitimate in the present moral set up. Henceforth we find the truth and ideology alters by way of time. The world is diverse and Walter Truett Anderson observes four different world views of truth: truth as cultural heritage, truth as scientifically constructed, truth as scientifically proved, truth with the exploration of self (111). Majority of the people think truth as heritage whereas a minority believes truth as social construct. Human beings achieved triumphs in the past and they could not be the victims of irrationality in the post modern world. When we ponder on the cultural heritage of 'kiss', we find kiss as a ritual in religion, a greeting to express respect, a mode of expressing love, and as kiss of peace in middle age. Being the motherland of Kamasutra and Krishna's rasalila portraits and architectures, Indians can never say that kissing is not a part of their heritage. The 2004 kiss of love protest is the latest weapon raised against the moral policing issues in Kerala. The people who are not ready to keep a cynical distance from the reality will start to protest. Morality: An Ideological Fantasy Ideological fantasy is an overlooked unconscious illusion structuring our reality. By reading the repeated moral policing incidents in kerala, most of the people are aware of the shallowness and senselessness of the fictitious concept of morality. But the people are reluctant to remove the mask and they blind themselves to the structuring power of ideological fantasy. It is called cynicism which is a part of ideology. Being the paradox of the enlightened false consciousness, cynicism wears a mask. Cynicism can not be called immorality because it is morality itself put in the service of immorality (Zizek 26). Morality is actually an illusion or ideological fantasy which covers the reality with a mask of values. The people, who wail for morals and become violent, are well aware of its hollowness. 177

4 Cynical wisdom conceives morals as a supreme form of profligacy. The 2014 kiss of love protest challenges the moral laws established by social institutions. What moral policing demands is the 'external' obedience of the people to the moral laws. It is a 'naive consciousness' and it finds many reasons to retain the mask. The people who go for moral policing claim that they are doing it to guard their culture and tradition. It is nothing but the cynical wisdom which utilizes 'probity', 'integrity' as a supreme form of 'dishonesty'. All the values are conditioned in the texture of social relations and the social reality even guided by this illusion. The people know the reality but they are overlooked. ISA, RSA and Ideological Crisis Althusser states that social structure is monolithic, but consists of 'ideological state apparatuses' or 'ideological structures' (ISA) and 'repressive state apparatuses' (RSA). It includes religious, political, educational, media, legal and literary institutions and by which our values, desires, and preferences are indoctrinated in us. An internal consent or 'willing competence' of the people maintains the ideological state apparatus. The control of religion, family, educational institutions, political parties, caste, customs, media is powerful in Kerala and crises are inevitable along with the changes in the ideologies of people. Zizek states that ideology is not a dream like illusion that we build to escape from insupportable reality, moreover it is a lie experienced to be true (26). When we come to the topic of the existence of truth and reality, most of us will readily agree that the plurality of truth creates many crises all over the world. Where this agreement usually ends, however, is on the question of the authenticity of truth. Some are convinced that there is a universal truth but others maintain that truth is relative. Once we believed that truth could be found with metaphysical insight, but later science entrenched in society as the authentic basement of truth. Hegal and Marx intimated that there were no timeless truths. The 'change' of humanity through continuous development facilitates a continuous conflict between different ideas of realities. Society creates its own truth, beliefs, values, and morals and it is a construct of economical and political forces. It exists as a power that no one can violate or surpass. Moral indignation is jealousy with a halo (H G Wells). On October24, 2014 a restaurant in Kozhikode, Kerala, was attacked by a mob when a Malayalam channel had telecasted a video of a boy kissing a girl from there. In order to make awareness in people the youth started kiss of love protest and stole kisses to each other which startled the public in marine drive, Kochi on Nov 2, It raises the question of what is legal, moral, and whether the violation of traditional values and authorities will end up as total destruction of the world. The protesters were a group of people who can not blind themselves to 178

5 the structuring powers of moral ideological fantasy. After that, the kiss of love protest spread all over the country and attained worldwide attention. The people got violent by the protest and 100 were charged and 50 were arrested in the first kiss of love movement in Cochin, Kerala. We have been going through several incidents of moral policing in Kerala since In 2011, a youth was killed by a group of people, in kodiyathur, for having an affair with a married woman. The congress leader Rajmohan Unnithan was stripped off his dhoti by a crowd in again for suspected 'immoral trafficking'. Such reports in Newspaper demand a rereading on values and virtues that is manipulated by different social institutions which exercise rights and wrongs among us. 'Legitimation Crisis' is a term introduced by Jurgen Habermas and it is the loss of faith of people in government and social life. The crises arise when the peple disapprove about the political, economical, social structures of the society. Habermas come up with the Legitimation crisis to analyze the late capitalist societies on a Marxist perspective. But in Kerala, the government, and police also makes moral policing and trespass on the personal life of citizens. A female theatre artiste and her male colleague were confined into police custody for traveling together at night. Kerala police has arrested many for suspected immoral activity. I set forth a conception that legitimation is a manipulation of social apparatuses and the ideologies that rule the society are manoeuvres of different social institutions. Ideology as Perceptual When it comes to the topic of ideology, most of us will readily agree that ideologies are controlled by different ideological state apparatuses and repressive state apparatuses like government, legal institutions, social institutions, religion, educational institutions, and media. We are unaware of the power exerts by this social and legal institutions and oblivious about the change of something legal to illegal and moral to immoral with time. Government and legal institutions Government and the legal institutions bring law and order to the society for the smooth functioning of the social systems and smooth going of daily life. Many superstitions and rigid customs like sati, child marriage, black magic treatments are removed from the society by the government with the help of legal institutions. Repressive state apparatuses (RSA) establish law and order through repression. RSA is a unified entity, an organized whole which includes court, police, government which imparts legitimacy with force. At one time in Kerala, the untouchables were not allowed to enter into the 179

6 temple they were treated as animals without any identity. Finally the Travancore King Sri Chithira Thirunal announced kshethra pravesana vilambaram (Temple entry proclamation) in November Only then did the untouchables gain entry in temple. Untouchability is almost discarded from Kerala society with the help of the government and other legal institutions. From this we get the idea that Repressive State Apparatuses are capable of removing certain dogmatic ideologies from the society. They control the legitimation of the concepts like morality and immorality in the society. Religion and caste Being one of the pungent influences of Indian society, religion makes its own rules and ideologies. Swami Vivekananda, the great philosopher, described Kerala as a lunatic asylum when he saw that untouchablity existed all over Kerala and people accepted it as their right. The most effective way to close down the human mind and to manipulate its sense of self is to program into it some form of dogma (David Icke). The eroticism of a human being loses when he engrosses in different ideologies and dogmas around. We have so many examples in our history which show how the rigid system adapts changes. In Kerala, Narayana guru has built many temples for the untouchables and one of his prominent disciples, Sahodaran Ayyappan has conducted 'panthibhojanam' or community feasts including people belonging to various castes and communities. Community feasts roused large scale of protests among the upper caste society. The untouchability and caste system was moral at that time and the people thought it as their right to be treated as upper caste and lower caste and later only the revolutions started for equal rights. Ayyankali, Sahodaran Ayyappan, Sreenarayana Guru were the social reformers who changed the conventional fanaticism of that time to a new one. Social, Education Institutions Much education consists in the instilling of unfounded dogmas in the place of a spirit of inquiry (Betrand Russel). Educational institutions like the schools, colleges, universities construct certain ideologies. Foucault said 'knowledge is power' where there is power the legitimation will arrive automatically. Keralites achieved triumphs due to the education but even some reminiscences of the past can been seen at intervals. Like educational institutions, family is also a social institution which manipulates legitimacy and morality in our life. Family is important in everybody's life. It is an institution that instills values that one always upholds as true. Such false conceptions enable them to make their own truth, legitimacy, morality etc. 180

7 Media The media is a strong influence of society which manipulates ideology in the society in various ways. Media is an agent of certain fashions, beliefs and thoughts which need not be true but its influence make everything acceptable and legitimate among people. Through impartial coverage of the issues they make false realities. Politicians claim to be misrepresented as to what they actually say. The different advertisements create different truths in the world. TV, radio, film and other print media propagate their ideologies and make a parallel world of faulty construction. Like Zizek says, in that unconscious illusion of the parallel world we are blind to see the reality around. Another strong influence on ideology is social networks which propagate a false, virtual, parallel world of morality, friendship, nationality etc. CONCLUSION Like Marx's commodity fetishism, man creates certain beliefs, values, and morals that everyone should obey for the betterment of society and he himself becomes a slave to it. These beliefs are economically and politically constructed powerful forces to determine the life of people in society. We need a public consent for whatever we like to do in our life and everyone lives with a fear of what others might think about them. We need to be moral and legitimate everything in our day to day life. The people get irritated when the youth starts kissing and hugging publicly. Ideology is constructed and controlled by different social apparatuses like ideological state apparatuses and repressive state apparatuses in Kerala. The people, who are trained by school, religion, government, police to behave 'properly' in the society are incapable of violating it. When they behave improperly it becomes naturally illegitimate or immoral to the society. The news reports on Moral Policing intimate that a minority of the Keralites is suppressed with rigid morals and dogmatic ideologies. Keralites should come out from their ideological cynicism of using morality as immorality. When we negate rigid beliefs and stop retaining cynical distance, the moral policing will end up in the interim. BIBLIOGRAPHY Barry, Peter. Beginning Theory: An Introduction to Literary and Cultural Theory. New Delhi: ManchesterUniversity Press,2011.Print. Denom, Lester.E. The Betrand Russell Dictionary of Mind, Matter and Morals. London: C Trade Paper, Google book. 28 jan Easthope Antony, McGowan Kate. A Critical And Cultural Reader. London: University of Toronto Press, Print. Gellner, Ernest. Legitimation of Belief. London: Cambridge University Press, 1974.Web. 28 dec

8 Habib.M.A.R. A History of Literary criticism: From Plato to the Present. Noida: Bribasi Art Press Ltd, 2006.Print. Lyotard, JeanFrancoise. The Postmodern Condition: A Report on Knowledge. United Kingdom: Manchester University Press, 1983.Print. Zizek, Slavoj. The Sublime Object of Ideology. London: versonew Left Books, Web. 26 jan