People need heroes. Heroes need villains. How else can they be heroic? And so recently, in one of the cartoon channels on television, I saw a watermelon demon attacking Krishna.

Heroes need villains

People need heroes. Heroes need villains. How else can they be heroic? And so recently, in one of the cartoon channels on television, I saw a watermelon demon attacking Krishna. Watermelon demon? Yes, our writers are constructing demons to prop up Hindu gods. No villain, no hero, no god, is the mantra that channels have adopted in their quest to give 'values' to children.u00a0

Illustration /Devdutt pattanaik

But why blame the writers of children's cartoons? The need for villains is apparently universal. History text books are written as if they are fairy tales with heroes and villains. So we read of how wise Chanakya and mighty Chandragupta formed a team against the wicked king Nanda of Pataliputra. And we learn how the Guptas were heroic against the Huna villains.

We were told how Rajput kings of India fought against Central Asia warlords who invaded India in medieval times. History textbooks tend to paint Akbar as the secular hero and Aurangazeb as the religious zealot and villain.u00a0

American politicians have justified their actions based on numerous villains. First, it was the Germans, then it was the Soviet Union, and now it is the Muslim fundamentalists.

Indian politicians are no different. Mumbai-based politicians have created villains -- first it was the South Indian in the 1970s and now it is the North Indian. Right-wing Hindu politicians have their favourite villains -- Muslims in general and Pakistanis is particular.

Left-wing and secular politicians also have their favourite villains. First it was the anti-secular forces who broke mosques and went on Ratha-yatras. But as these rabid right-wing forces have faded from public memory, the secular forces are now busy constructing a new villain -- the Hindu fundamentalist!u00a0u00a0

When one brands a person or a people as a villain, it forces us to look for a hero, a messiah. But it blocks introspection. We never ask: why did he become a villain. Everyone condemns Hitler, for example. What he did was unacceptable. But no one talks about inhuman punishment meted out by America and Britain on Germany after the First World War that created an environment of rage and resentment fertile for the Nazi movement.

No one speaks of banking and business practices that stoked anti-Semitic atmosphere. Introspection is not justification. Nothing will justify the Holocaust but to hold Hitler solely responsible for that crime is rather myopic and self-serving.

The victors that humiliated Germany and the world that kept and the bankers who squeezed a defeated nation silent are as much responsible.

When we introspect, we realise we are the creators of our demons and villains, we realise that Ravana was created because Lakshman cut the nose of Surpankha. Lakshman may justify his action, but the laws of karma are indifferent to right and wrong. Every action has a reaction. Villains are invariably reactions to our allegedly righteous outrage.u00a0

Religious fundamentalists are a consequence of our obsession with secularism and logic and science that makes us reject faith and we invalidate believers. Economic fundamentalists (Maoists and Naxalities) are a consequence of our obsession with wealth that makes us exclude and exploit.

Sexual fundamentalists (the obnoxious drag queen who makes her presence felt) are a consequence of being invisibilised. It is time to take responsibility for our own crimes that curve back and strike us as calamity.
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The author is Chief Belief Officer of the Future Group, The views expressed in this column are the individual's and don't represent those of the paper.