Sanctimonious Scoundrels

I came across this interesting sentence in braingainers.com: In more than one recent case, you'd be right to say, "... that ... politician is a libertine and a fabulist - and, come to think of it, a Tartuffe to boot."

It was a quiz on words that could be used to describe a crooked politician, with a brief explanation of each answer thereafter. They don't make a reference to the politicians of India, but in the light of recent happenings in India, it does give the people of India much food for thought.

A Tartuffe is literally a sanctimonious scoundrel - one who affects piety, but is really a pharisee. Moliere, the French literary genius authored a play titled "Tartuffe", the protagonist of which was Tartuffe, a religious hypocrite.

These are the phoneys who are always in the news in India for destroying temples, churches, and mosques, and killing people of other faiths. They are defending their religion, you see, and that, to them, is justification enough for violence, murderous rape, and arson. They wear their faith on their sleeve, and carry weapons that again are symbols of their beliefs. They probably say a prayer to their gods before they carry out their acts.

This is not very unlike the barbaric brutalities that the Christians of south western Europe inflicted on the brilliant civilisations of South America and other places (including Goa, India) in the latter Middle Ages and early Modern Age. They used the stake, the thumbscrew, and other such instruments of torment or death during the years of their infamous Inquisition to get people to give up their beliefs and accept what they imagined was the only way to God - the path of Christianity.

Recent news reports speak of "screaming, hate-filled mobs" burning down churches in many towns and cities in India. We must conclude that the savagery of the Middle Ages is still alive and well in the hearts of a large number of people in 21st century India. Oh yes, they do have political guardians without whom they cannot function so successfully. The political masters of these mobs are able to ensure that these venomous hordes go scot-free. Few cases go to court, and those that do can always be manipulated to achieve the desired result. Other ideological groups, though democratically elected and in power in the states do not exert their political will to even label these terrorising elements terrorists.

"Sanctimonious" is derived from the Latin sanctimonia meaning holiness or virtuousness - "sanct" for saint.

Shakespeare, in his play Measure for Measure wrote in 1613: "Thou conclud'st like the sanctimonious pirate that went to sea with the Ten Commandments, but scrap'd one out of the table". Ever since, the word has been used to indicate a hypocritical display of piety.

The inimitable Mark Twain gave us this quote: “A solemn, unsmiling, sanctimonious old iceberg that looked like he was waiting for a vacancy in the Trinity ... ."

The Sanskrit word ‘sant’ meaning a ‘pious, virtuous, devout ascetic’ went through a form of European evolution through Greek and Latin to create the English words sanction, sanctify, sanctimony, sanctuary, and sacrosanct and even saint. Every Hindu temple has a sanctum called the ‘moolasthanam’ in Tamil, the holy of holies, the most sacred spot, behind the grand carvings, an enclosed space.

Thoreau referred to a swamp as “a sacred place, a sanctum sanctorum”. He said, “There is the strength, the marrow of Nature." Thoreau’s writings appeal to man’s finest sentiments about the grandeur of nature.

Ostracize the sanctimonious, exclude the Tartuffes, and society will be safer for the future.