The Cockroach and the Republic
Satire, Power, and India's Moral Reckoning
On the 25 of May, two months before the liberating day of 25 July, I made an appeal to God to “stand up for cockroaches.”
As things have turned out, I think I was heard.
When sceptics turn their eyes upward in supplication, the firmament shakes. Gods know atheists do not call on them when they do for political or commercial reasons but for life itself. Also, atheists are generally better read in scriptures than those who swear by them.
And when small men strut like gods, they forget what the gods have said.
Were we not told that whenever the world undergoes a moral melt-down, God puts in an appearance to reset proceedings.
To cite just the “Indic” tradition so beloved of our ruling establishment, the Vishnu Purana enumerates the ten avatars (or incarnations) that the god Vishnu, preserver of the universe, has thus far assumed in various murky situations in order toput the principle of ethics back on the rails, even as it also tells us that it is uncertain how many incarnations there might well have been.
Those afflicted by a Darwinian bent of mind might notice that the incarnations seem to follow an evolutionary line, from the purely aquatic fish to the amphibian tortoise to the terrestrial boar and then upward to homo sapiens and full-blown deities such as Rama and Krishna.
Clearly, Darwin is the one who must have benefitted from the much older dissertation. but a telling coincidence nonetheless.
This backdrop then shines an original light on the fact that Vishnu may have appeared this once in a form far more ubiquitous, quotidian, adaptable and resistant than the creatures previously listed by the Vishnu Purana, namely, the cockroach.
This in view of the far more widespread moral meltdown that has in recent months and years spared not even the temple of the Lord himself at Ayodhya.
Equally instructive must be the fact that the enunciation of the Coming should have happened from the lips of the highest law officer in the land, without, as it were, any sentience on his part.
A true happening, you might say?
And how mysterious the ways of Vishnu! He should have chosen for his latest instrument an unknown scholar hitherto ensconced thousands of miles from home and the ”vahana” of social media to carry the word forward.
So, now that the erring have fallen for now, we say unto them: mend your minds, purge your intents, humble your cocky eyes and lips, pay back to the Janata the rights and comforts you have received from them, pay back in cash and true, penitent prayer what you have taken from the Ayodhya temple, make no false promises, be ready and willing to give up the seat of power that cockroaches have bestowed on you, and call back the dogs of hate on whose buggies you have twisted and deluded the heart and soul of Bharat.
Always remember with the Bard that we are all “little men, dressed in a little, brief authority.”
Know that Vishnu makes no discrimination between species, human and non-human, who were all created in a universe of profound and beautiful, interdependent unity.
And, whatever you do, do not claim proprietorship of the word and wisdom of Vishnu, as if you were not politicians but the only certified brokers of dharma, even as, day in and day out, you do nothing but disfigure the rule of dharma by muscling the kernel of its teachings away from your words and deeds.
A lesson too for heads of educational institutions
Less than three hundred years ago, seekers of anatomical knowledge were forbidden from examining the insides of cadavers.
Less than three hundred years ago, surgeries were thus performed only on external body parts with the help of “strong men” who would knock out the subjects into unconsciousness since there was no anaesthetic yet invented, and severed limbs were sealed off in buckets of hot coal tar.
No need to go as far back as Copernicus or Galileo, who were hauled up for revealing how it is the earth that moves round the sun and upon its own axis, or, indeed, to Aryabhata, who was prevented from making known the true causes of eclipses and the phenomenon of gravity by fellow Brahmins, lest their merchandise of superstitions suffer recession.
Switch to the end of July, year of the Lord 2026, and “highly qualified” heads of universities and other premier institutions of tertiary learning were seen issuing advisories to students and staff, teachers included, not to be seen at the site of the cockroach questioning.
As a new minister takes office at the education desk, the candidate might do well to ponder this intellectual regression (a sign of a dharmic cop-out) to the days of Copernicus, Galileo, and Aryabhata and to three centuries ago when cutting up a cadaver was designated an offence against the Church and its teachings, or rather, a challenge to its agenda of keeping the truth of things from the human mind.
Do refer to Umberto Eco’s piercing novel on the subject, The Name of the Rose, which explores how the most dangerous book in the eyes of the Church establishment was Aristotle’s work on comedy.
The “reforms” needed in education thus are not limited just to doing the NEET examination without mendacity; such reforms must decisively draw lines between the diktats of superstition, the sources of revanchist thinking, the social hold of bigoted opinion, the evil power of prejudice serving the needs of state power, on the one side, and the call of reason and unfettered adherence to the truth of things, however inimical to sectarian interests.
Reform must reinstate the spirit of criticism and rebuttal and, correspondingly, the peopling of educational institutions by women and men who subscribe to these ideals without fear or favour.
May we, therefore, request that such heads of universities and institutions who issued the above advisories please be ashamed of themselves?
There are few self-correctives as good as feeling shame.
Most of all, reform must mean making every tool of enquiry, of questioning, of experimentation, and of expression available to India’s Gen Z, who comprise some 60 per cent of our population at a median age of 28.
What use is being proud of our proudly flaunted “demographic dividend” if we desire only an obedient herd rather than a box of scalpels?
And reform must mean freeing our women and men from the theatrical charms practised on them by self-styled multi-millionaire “godmen” who must be required to practise their craft within specified precincts hallowed by true faith and piety.
If the cockroach-driven rebirth is to become a sustained inspiration, reform must ensure that all those canny diktats and provocations which cause anguish among the young are ejected from the body politic without discrimination or exception.
In this hour of rebirth, when the air quality index of the clouded republic seems happily lightened by the intervention of the cockroach, let us humbly salute the extraordinary clout of this smallest and hardiest of creatures. In spirit and resilience, it parallels the millions of our population obliged to live from one travail to another from day to day. They do so in the face of the cavalier sophistries of policymakers and empowered public loudmouths who would persuade us that full-throated propaganda is interchangeable with actual attainment.
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