Gods, Love & Laws
The love laws have always laid down who should be loved, how, and how much. The amendments in the past 10 days don't portend well for personal liberty.
“Fiction is the lie through which we tell the truth.”
― Albert Camus
Arundhati Roy's The God of Small Things does bring you face to face with one: that the society we live in is deeply casteist, patriarchal and regressive. It’s a truth we have always known, but like our family’s deepest, darkest secrets we cover it up. Ever so often though it reveals itself and leaves us feeling uneasy. Just last week, Allahabad HC denied personal protection to interfaith couples because they didn't comply with the state's anti-conversion laws. The proposed UCC by a state government needs one to register live-in relationships or go to jail. Elsewhere, the courts are busy protecting the "institution of marriage" by denying surrogacy rights to single women. This is just the past 10-odd days.
Love has always been a tricky subject in the country. The patrolling and control of our bodies, especially women's bodies is how the system works. We've always had khap panchayats, honour killings continue till date. Now, we just have new lexicons such as 'love jihaad'. When lives are destroyed in her fictional world, Roy says it all started when the Love Laws were made. The laws “lay down who should be loved, and how. And how much.” That’s just how it is; we just have a few amendments now.
Sure, there has been some reluctant progress. The LGBTQ folks have a few rights and public space. A film like Kathaal wouldn't have been palatable in the past decade. It portrays the trappings of a forced marriage for a gay man and his wife. Till article 370 was decriminalised, how many such lives were tethered into the bonds of marriage to maintain the stranglehold of patriarchy? How many continue even now? With SC refusing to recognise same-sex marriages, the struggles and stigma for such couples continues. In Kerala, a queer person was forced to approach the HC to receive mortal remains of his deceased partner.
Of course, a lot of this control is exercised in the name of gods. It's essential to feed religion as opium to the masses so they don't focus on their own reality and place in the world. According to Oxfam, wealth of five richest men doubled since 2020 as five billion people were made poorer in what it calls the "decade of division". What's troubling is how easy it has been for the rich and the political class to dehumanise a whole population and make a spectacle of it. It’s not the consecration of a place of worship but the collective amnesia that’s hard to digest. Then, one shouldn't be surprised by this whitewashing of history. Four months on, the Palestinians are still waiting for the world to lend a helping hand. The notion of justice is a sham, all that matters in this capitalistic world is money. That’s made by distraction and division. One wonders if love really exists or just the laws do....
Poetry
Books: The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy
An intricate tale of love and loss that wraps childhood, love, caste, gender and politics in its fold. It traces the lives of two dizygotic twins, Esthappen and Rahel, and how the rigid laws of society tears them apart and shapes their lives. Beautifully written, the prose ebbs and flows like the river, revealing more details about the Ipe family, society at large and the lengths it will go to keep the status quo. Do read this one. Detailed review here.
Recommended links
Love Jihad and Other Fictions: Simple Facts to Counter Viral Falsehoods by Sreenivasan Jain, Mariyam Alavi and Supriya Sharma: A much needed book exposing conspiracy theories.
Most of the Western World has cut off funding for the UNRWA following allegations leveled by Israel. Do support them if you can.
Lastly don’t be a political illiterate. It’s essential to your survival.
The worst illiterate is the political illiterate, he doesn’t hear, doesn’t speak, nor participates in the political events. He doesn’t know the cost of life, the price of the bean, of the fish, of the flour, of the rent, of the shoes and of the medicine, all depends on political decisions. The political illiterate is so stupid that he is proud and swells his chest saying that he hates politics. The imbecile doesn’t know that, from his political ignorance is born the prostitute, the abandoned child, and the worst thieves of all, the bad politician, corrupted and flunky of the national and multinational companies.
- Bertolt Brecht