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.

Jingoism, Chauvinism, and other Barbarisms

By jingo, we'll trounce them!
We don’t want to fight, yet by jingo, if we do,
We’ve got the ships, we’ve got the men,
And got the money too!
During the 1877 Russo-Turkish War Britain supported Turkey against Russia. The Mediterranean squadron rushed into the fray to hold back Russia. Britain was gripped in war fever. The brief verse I have quoted above is from a popular song that was whistled or sung during the time – it had caught the imagination of common folk. The word ‘jingo’ is an exclamatory refrain in the song – but it entered the language as jingoism meaning ‘loud-mouthed, confrontational nationalism’ that demands war on any pretext.

A century earlier was the Corsican who had risen from the post of a humble corporal to become the Commander of the Army and then, the Emperor of France by age 25. Napoleon's camaraderie with his soldiers, his military prowess, the sharpness of his brain – these became legendary among the French in his own lifetime, and he could afford arrogance enough to grab the crown and place it on his own head during his coronation ceremony.

The French gained a great sense of pride as vast territories came under their control under Napoleon's awesome leadership. The phenomenal admiration in which the French held him won the unquestioning loyalty of his soldiers. During this colourful period in French history, lived a soldier named Nicolas Chauvin. Chauvin was a soldier who displayed a simple-minded (you can say almost feeble-minded) devotion and loyalty to Napoleon.

The Encyclopaedia Britannica says that he typified “the cult of glorification of all things military that was popular after 1815 among the veterans of Napoleon’s armies.” This common soldier’s name gave the English language a new word – chauvinism (pronounced ˈshō-və-ˌni-zəm ). The word now stands for aggressive patriotism that is not quite rational. It includes a desire for war in the unreasonable belief that everyone who has any disagreement deserves destruction. [The world is fortunate that George Bush’s belligerent bluster has been balanced by pacifists who oppose war on both sides of the pond!] In a sense, therefore, the word chauvinism is synonymous with jingoism.

The reader would recall the pride with which many Indians looked upon the second nuclear test at Pokhran in Rajasthan state. We Indians forgot that chauvinism east of the Indus matched the jingoism of theocratic Pakistan! The smirk on the faces of the pro-bomb lobby in India was wiped out when, within a few days, Pakistan proved its nuclear capability. The ironic result of this was that a country that had a third of India's military power was now India's equal among the belligerent, war-mongering elite - just by virtue of the nuclear capability!

Chauvinism has no connection with war although chauvinists are imagined to be more loyal than the king! It simply means prejudiced support to one’s group to the exclusion of all others. When we speak of ‘male chauvinists’, we refer to those men who believe that males are superior to those of the opposite sex. [If I had said “weaker sex” or "fairer sex", I would be a chauvinist too!] By definition, those who think of their own culture or religion as the greatest, and ridicule those who are different are chauvinists. Culture and good education ought to teach us to avoid the pitfalls of a chauvinistic, biased view of other sections of society.
The Gujarat pogrom that resulted in the death and destruction of a section of Muslim society in 2002 was probably the most deplorable example of chauvinism displayed by secular India in modern history. The mass killings of Christians in Orissa is a mere sequel to the Gujarat massacre of 2002, and the middle class watches the drama with disinterest before quickly shifting to watching inane soaps on television.

We now see the ugly head of language chauvinism raising its dangerous head in Mumbai and in Bangalore (recently renamed Bengaluru). Governments have convinced us on their inability and ineptness in the face of incitement of people to violence. "Whither India?" is the question of the hour!

The conspicuous absence of perspective!

“The needs of 21st century India were conspicuous by their absence in the blueprints of our planners.” So said a college student while debating on the ‘Perspectives of our leaders’. “Power shutdowns, traffic jams and overcrowded trains wouldn’t have been our lot if planners had had foresight,” she said. "Current leaders ought to introspect and plan ... ..."

‘Perspective’ literally means a ‘view ahead’ or a ‘vista’. ‘Per-’ is a Latin prefix meaning ‘through’, and ‘specere’ means ‘to see or to look’. A clear perspective would indicate a discernment of what lies ahead.

Artists call a 3-dimensional view of objects in a picture perspective. An amusing Chinese proverb says – “From the lowly perspective of a dog's eyes, everyone looks short!” That’s the canine perspective.

The simple Latin verb ‘specere’ gave the English language a few hundred words.
In the early part of this article are the words introspect and conspicuous – both derived from the same root: ‘specere’. The student I referred to in the first paragraph was conspicuously more perspicacious (= insightful) than the rest of the class.

‘Conspicuous’ has the synonyms – eminent, distinguished, prominent, commanding, signal, marked, obvious, distinct, pronounced, evident etc. If you were so popular as to be sorely missed at a party, you would be conspicuous by your absence!

Here are more words from the same Latin root – aspect, expect, inspect, introspect, prospect, retrospect, scope, species, specimen, spectacle, spectacular, speculate, spy, suspect . . ..
It’s interesting to see that the word ‘despise’ has the same root too. Its adjective despicable [from ‘de-’ (= down) + ‘specere’] means ‘deserve to be looked down upon’ – worthy of contempt.

All said and done, we must accept that we don't see a high standard of debate among our parliamentarians, and quite often even of behaviour. Is it because our schools and colleges have failed to inculcate good parliamentary discipline, and exemplary debating capabilities?

Acrimonious Spice & Acerbic Sauce

I had written of a “virtuoso of carnage” in an article to a local newspaper (FreePress, Indore, India, 26 May 2004). A reader wrote to ask what I meant by it for I had referred to a senior Indian politician in political power who persuaded some of his flunkies in the civil services and in the police forces to turn a blind eye to a pogrom of members of one community by members of another.

“A virtuoso is a great musician, a maestro or a savant,” the writer said in her email. “Isn’t it improper to use it with an awful word like carnage?”
I quoted Humpty Dumpty in my reply: “'When I use a word, it means just what I choose it to mean – neither more nor less'. Loathsome acts do bid me season words with acrimonious spice and acerbic sauce. 21st century India must brook no nonsense. Enough is enough!"

Journalists around the world often report ‘carnage’ as if they are reporting a carnival. The following examples from May 2004 issues, reveal coldness and indifference:

“… fourteen Muslims were burnt alive in a communal carnage in Best Bakery in Vadodara town of Gujarat in 2002...” – Keralanext.com
“Iraq Desert Bombing Video Shows Carnage” – Guardian
“Turks Question Alliance with Israel after Gaza Carnage” – AFP

Dictionaries define carnage as ‘the killing of large numbers of people, especially in war.’ Synonyms: bloodbath, butchery, massacre, pogrom, saturnalia of blood, slaughter, holocaust etc.

The word carnage entered English from 16th c. Italian via French and Dutch. English also created other words – carnal, carnivorous, and carrion from Latin ‘caro’ or ‘carn’ meaning flesh.

A virtuoso is one who is ‘extremely good’ at something – at playing a musical instrument, or being a pundit and a luminary in a field of human endeavour. An impresario of carnage must show cold-blooded competence from devilish design to gory climax.

Take my word for it! I made up the expression “virtuoso of carnage” after I asked myself two questions:
“Was there a method in the madness?”
“Were the victims chosen with precision and finesse?”

Any maestro will confirm that ‘method, precision, and finesse make a virtuoso’!
The word virtuoso (plural virtuosi) entered English in the 17th c. from the Italian word meaning ‘one who has special knowledge of a subject’. It is cousin to virtue (conforming to moral principles) and virtuous (meaning ‘valiant’ in the 13th c; ‘righteous’ after 14th c.).
No moral principle, not an iota of valour, nor soupcon of righteousness ruled the Hitlerian pogrom. Some human hearts can harbour shockingly virulent hate.

Infinite hope amidst human conflict is Walt Whitman’s promise in his moving paean to patriotism with a human face:

“Over the carnage rose prophetic a voice,
Be not dishearten’d –
Affection shall solve the problems of Freedom yet.”