We are supposed to be living in a “modern” era. Whatever that means. What people mostly try to convey by saying this is that we are the most advanced, most civil, most powerful generation in history. That on the surface is true but this so-called civil “modern” society is already heading for disasters because of the delusional arrogance of this generation.

It is generally agreed upon the fact that some nations are more civil, “modern” than the others. Italy is more “modern” than Bangladesh. However, with this new modernity comes an arrogant delusional sense of morality. These modern societies value human rights, freedom, equality, liberty dearly. And rightly so. But they don’t understand the cost of human rights they enjoy. They live in their own safe bubble where they shun down the dark realities of societies and even if they encounter such situations, they discard them as exceptions. It’s because for too long these people have been used to living a high-standard life and accordingly they have developed a high sense of “morality” which they superimpose on others and on society. This arrogant sense of morality makes them a champion for human rights of rapists, criminals, terrorists, and other threatening groups so much so that it starts deteriorating their own society and its values and justice system. At the core of this problem is the sense of superiority complex in their own moralities and ideas which these modern people manufacture but mostly acquire within their own comfortable bubble and echo chamber. This makes them incapable of making strong, logical, analytical conclusions based on hard factual evidence.

This moral superiority complex is even more engrained in the media, entertainment, politics, fictional books. This moral superiority complex was actually openly accepted and justified by colonisers such as Britishers, French, Dutch. The term was “white man’s burden” to civilize these dark, uncivilized Indians. And we all know what really happened. Among other things, Britishers looted over 50 trillion British Pounds if not more. Millions of people dead. Clash of egos of various empires leading to two world wars. More people dead. Spread of a new ideology: Communism which takes this sense of moral superiority complex to a whole another level. Millions more dead because of communism. Poverty, misery in communist, socialist states around the world. A Capitalist superpower imposing its own morality on other nations, practically destroying the Middle East, Afghanistan. And now Communist China walking a similar but even more dangerous path.

I will explain this moral superiority complex with few examples.

The first example is of capital punishment. Most of these “modern” people are against capital punishment. For them, hanging a person is not a sign of civil society. But they chose to ignore the emotions of the victims and their families. Of course, any logical person would agree that capital punishment should be used only in extreme cases where there is absolutely no doubt in the identity of the criminal. But I would go one step further. There are many threatening groups and people who are motivated by their blindfolded faith in ideologies to exterminate other groups, people, ideologies. These ideologically motivated groups and their crimes are too well known to be repeated here. My point is, how do you create deterrence against these people who are beyond reason, logic? By terrorizing them. You have to terrorize the terrorists. One way is the innovative ways of executing capital punishment. For example, terrorists motivated by Islamic jihad can be deterred by burning them alive. Death by fire is the death of a kafir (non-believer in Allah). The idea of the death of kafir and missing out on 72 virgins along with terrorizing image of being burnt alive will create unprecedented terror in the heart of terrorists. This death of kafir was actually one of the reasons why Pakistani soldiers were running away in the famous tank battle of Longewala. COVID-19 has killed over a million people worldwide. Still, I am way more afraid of cancer or a road accident compared to COVID-19. Not just because of the low mortality of COVID-19 but also because of the painful, torturous deaths caused by cancer, road accidents. Many people may find this too graphic or unsuitable in modern times. For me, its acceptance of ugly aspects of our society and our ability to take ugly steps to fight these ugly elements. I don’t care if that makes me look like a sadist, cold-blooded barbarian.

What punishment would you give to the killer of Nikita Tomar? For me, hanging him after 8-9 years of court cases while the killer’s mother justifying his son’s ghastly act is not good enough. That is no deterrence and far from nyay (justice). Even in such an open and shut case, where the motivations of the killer are clearly known, there is a history of his past actions and there is undeniable video evidence of his act, our judiciary will take years, probably even a decade or two. Where have we fallen in the name of “modernity” and this fraud civility? Think about what kind of justice Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj would have delivered compared to Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi’s justice in this case (remember Swami Shraddhanand’s murder and Gandhi’s response).

We need Shivaji’s Hindavi Swarajya, not Gandhi’s delusional, hypocritical Satya and Ahimsa.

Originally published for personal blog.
Image credits: Shivaji digital art by Naveen Sharma from pixels.

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