There was a time, not long ago, when natives in India, Africa, Australia and other countries were deprived of basic human rights and their way of life. Oppression through violence, discrimination, slavery and other inhumane ways were critical tools to exploit human and natural resources of a state. Last century, most nations fought wars for freedom and civil rights against colonialism.
Decades later, we are dealing with a different kind of war globally – It’s class war waged by the “Haves” against the “Have-Nots”. Income inequality can be associated to most social issues that we face today in the globalized world. Animal Welfare is probably one of many areas where you can vividly see the class war both implicitly and explicitly. Our world is full of people with immense love for animals and this article is certainly not about them. Under the pretense of animal welfare, an industry has been created that proclaims itself as the savior of destitute animals, but in reality exploits both people and animals to advance its agenda. The goals of the animal welfare industry and its methods to achieve those goals are highly questionable. It is questionable because their actions are causing significant damage to a section of the society that is economically unprivileged and cannot fight back. On the other hand, the animal welfare organizations enjoy unlimited access to the law makers due to their socio-economic status, which helps to advance their agendas seamlessly. In a grand scheme of things, the nonexistence of a level playing field in matters of animal welfare is causing anxiety and pain on fragile segments of the society, and no one seems to care. Ivory tower activism by the likes of Menaka Gandhi, PETA and their lack of compassion towards the plight of fellow human being is deplorable.
What are they really fighting for?
Animal Welfare groups are not fighting for bull or the bull. It’s almost impossible to understand the mission or its value when you look at some of the hollow victories touted by these organizations. In this dog and pony show activism, the real beneficiaries are the organizations alone and not the animals. But then, why not just call them sloppy activists? Instead, why do we accuse them of being hypocrites that don’t care about the plight of common man or animal for that matter? Well, if you are an antiwar organization, it is natural to focus all your resources against holocaust/genocide and if you are a real animal welfare organization you will be focusing all your energy to fight areas of animal abuse where the impact is high. In today’s world, industrial animal farming and slaughter houses are undeniably the worst forms of animal abuse. We can quote numerous other areas that scream for help including horse racing, abuse of elephants in some temples and more importantly, deforestation that drives animals out of their habitats.
It may or may not be appropriate to critique the effectiveness of a nonprofit organization but when an organization focuses all its efforts on issues that impact a certain segment of a society (which BTW, is the majority) it is hard to not notice the elite entitlement mentality. No one accuses anybody of being elite, but driving changes into the society oblivious of its impact to the economically marginalized people is ethically not palatable. One can carefully deconstruct the pattern of milestone victories achieved by these welfare organizations from Jallikattu to stray dogs and rarely not see the shameful pseudo-activism. This pseudo activism is all about symbolism with very little or no benefit to the real cause. Bombastic celebration of these hollow victories gets them even more social and economic fuel to perpetually advance their symbolism driven agenda. Pseudo activists cleverly patronize showbiz folks to help with their propaganda to further their reach. This is all well and good and no one gives a hoot about the snake oil business. But the problem is that these charades are causing irreparable damage to the society impacting both humans and animals alike.
Entitled?
Animal Welfare Groups and their high society elite friends rallied to get laws enacted on stray dog culling. When was the last time a PETA executive or their elite friends had to ride a TVS 50 at night only to be attacked by a stray dog either to sustain severe injury, get infected with rabies or even death due to the fall? Never. What gives them the right to decide that the life of a day laborer carrying her infant son back from work is less important when she is attacked by rabid stray dogs? Compassion towards fellow human being is the first revelation in any sensible activism. Obviously, killing all dogs is not a solution, but the point is before advocating the new law, these elites refused to think about the poor who have to bear the brunt of the stray dog menace. Today, some animal welfare groups and their elite leaders are enacting laws that deprive the poor of basic human rights. Do the underprivileged have to sacrifice everything including their safety, health, children and lot more because someone in the elite society had an emotional moment about stray dogs?
Comparing a 5000 year old tradition, Jallikattu to Sathi is a great example of how far and low these pseudo activists are willing to go to attract attention towards their propaganda. The comment about Sathi was offensive, biased, prejudiced, discriminatory and ignorant. For thousands of years Jallikattu was thoughtfully weaved in to an agrarian lifestyle for the benefit of both humans and cattle. Most people involved in Jallikattu are farmers and farm hands who work in tandem with the bulls on a daily basis. If there is anyone in the world who can understand and take care of the bulls better, it’s the farmers. But again, we have these animal activists, some of whom don’t even understand basics of animal husbandry or have ever set foot in a farm, marching up to the Supreme Court to ban Jallikattu. The only reason the verdict was in their favor is because of money, the money that was spent on senior counsel who spun stories of abuse out of thin air. Poor farmers were no match to the elites when it came to spending power; now this my friends is Class Warfare. Money talks and bull walks, well in this case bull walks directly to slaughter houses because pseudo activists needed to showcase a milestone victory that was actually counterproductive to both bulls and farmers alike. A few cases of abuse cannot be the primary reason to ban an ethnic event to which people are emotionally and culturally attached. Arrogant refusal to evaluate merits of the arguments by ones counterpart is text book repressive behavior. Unfortunately, this repressive behavior against the common man is shielded by the socio-economic benefits that these organizations have accrued with their hollow victories in animal welfare. If only they had addressed horse racing and elephant abuse in some temples with same vigor then this would’ve been a different conversation. They won’t and can’t, because these are protected by the rich and the elite that are probably funding and helping the animal welfare activists propel their agenda.
Hope
After sipping imported wine at their party “protecting animals” at the affluent Lalit Hotel in Mumbai, IFA executives will get in their Audis to cruise home, while the waiter who served them will probably be chased by rabid dogs as he walks back home through the dark alleys. The irony is that the elites can never empathize or sympathize with the waiter or the dog. History is a good teacher and their sheer arrogance is a ray of hope. These organizations meeting at exquisite hotels in their bow ties and designer dresses for animal welfare “Parties” can never trump the campaign of thought leaders like BICCI who are spending time educating youth in schools and colleges. An animal welfare organization that spends 80% of its revenue (donations) on administrative costs can be never as effective as people with true passion for animals spending their days at farms and forests. Animal welfare cannot be treated as an industry to achieve monetary or personal gains and it will not be effective if it is practiced and organized exclusively. Welfare can only be achieved through communal inclusiveness.
Last century was mostly a struggle for freedom from tyranny and colonialism, in this century people will rise against inequality and cronyism like never before. The common man will not tolerate this high society farce any more than he already has and will certainly fight back with determination.
#IncomeInequality #Jallikattu #classwarfare
