goldenboy

(First published on www.desicritics.org) In my last article, Why India should not hang Ajmal Kasab, I had commentators vying for Kasab’s head. Everyone wanted him to be hanged except a couple of people. After reading the comments, I now believe that not only Mumbaikars but majority of Indians are still reeling in Trauma as an after-effect of the News that was fed to them day-in and day-out by the Indian TV private channels, in those 3 days of Terror.

What struck me in all the comments was the amount of anger, dejection and hysteria, symptoms of Trauma in all the readers of my article. Nobody was ready to even engage in an honest dialogue while they thirsted for the blood of the Foot-Soldier of the Attack - Ajmal Kasab. The immense Trauma that these people had endured during the 26/11 Terror Attacks was evident in the tone of their comments.As I mentioned in the article itself, I was also one of the many who was traumatized by the 26/11 Mumbai Terror Attacks. I was one amongst the millions of my own countrymen who watched the horrific blow-by-blow account of what was happening miles away from my home on TV.

The completely horrific and unethical coverage of the Mumbai Terror attacks has been well-documented by a blogger Cheytanya who had to withdraw an article criticizing Barkha Dutt and her coverage of the Attacks on NDTV. I have reproduced the Original article on my blog for those who wish to read it: Even in the De-Trauma Camp that I attended, everyone agreed that TV had only helped in magnifying the terror, bringing Trauma to our homes as we went on watching on-the-spot News coverage by different TV channels for three consecutive days!We saw relatives of hostages being interviewed; we saw hostages freed being interviewed; we saw the combat at short-distance in our bedrooms on the TV screen LIVE; we lived an entire 3 days in Terror.

The scars of that Terror Attack still remain. Just the memory of that attack makes us cringe in terror, as we go into the psychological reaction of “Fight, Flight or Freeze” and feel utterly helpless and victimized the moment someone or something reminds us of those 3 days of Terror!

The Challenge in face of Trauma

The scars of the 26/11 attacks did not last for a few hours, days or months. It still lives, in you and me. I believe that the attacks succeeded in changing something in us, as the trauma has since gnawed into our Psyche, eating pieces of humanity and compassion by triggering in each individual our animalistic instinct of Survival. We feel our survival threatened, and the scars bleed: I cannot even call them scars anymore now, for now I realize that these are wounds, that have not yet healed and are still raw beneath the surface.

The terror-attacks were an act of Barbarism; no one can deny that except the Terrorists who believe they have a Cause that justifies such crimes against humanity. Terrorism is nothing but undeclared war on nations that they target. Nay, it is not just a war on Nations, but Civilizations. Look at what Afghanistan was reduced to under the Taliban regime! Would we ever have called that a civilized society? It was barbaric and cruel, very much against the principles of Civilization itself.

We need to understand that even as we combat the menace of this barbaric attacks on the Sovereignty of our different Nations; be it the US, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Israel, or India; we need to protect one thing that distinguishes us from the Terrorists: Humanity.

Humanity is the heritage of Civilized Nations. Humanity is transcending beyond our animal-instincts, to let the spirit of Truth and everything noble and compassionate triumph. Terrorism does not only target a few Civilians, it targets their immediate relatives, the community, the society, the nation who stand witness to the carnage. Terrorism not only robs the Nation of deserving and innocent people who fall prey to the attacks; Terrorism targets the very fabric of a Civilized society trying to ignite the fires of Revenge, Anger, and a thirst for Blood in the hearts of unsuspecting people who survive the Terror attack. It gnaws at everything humane within us, by triggering the most primitive animal instinct in us.

It is up to us, we have a choice. We can let them succeed in their intentions, to take us back to Barbarism, to turn us into them who are filled with Hate, Revenge and Anger. Or we can choose to act out of Logic and a higher Plane of Being.

This article is not about being meek and Coward. I call out for an elimination of all Terrorist Training Camps and an end to the games of all Terrorist Master Minds and those who aid them, be it a country or an individual.

Yet, let our Joint action against Terror be in the spirit of combating a menace that gnaws at the very concept of Humanity, and not in the spirit of Revenge or a reactionary “Flight or Fight” response wherein we go berserk and lose the humanity in our hearts.

Even as we fight, let us remember we are Humans!

Let not the Terrorists take away our humanity from us.