We hate india....??

A few days back two friends of mine forwarded me an email pointing to the existence of a hate community called "we hate india" in orkut.. They wanted me to join a campaign calling for shutting down the community. My first reaction was that of intense curiosity; I logged onto Orkut and found the group. It contained a profile picture of a burning Indian flag and had (only) 86 registered members at that time. It was moderated by one Miraslov Stankovic from the Russian Federation.

Several different emotions swamped me. I started thinking about the power of hate, and its destructive potential. It baffles me that the dark side of human beings is so easy to evoke, and how it is so easy to deviate men and resources towards hatered, while it is so difficult to get people to donate money or time for a good cause. As I was thinking, my eyes fell on the number 86. Just 86! With millions of users in Orkut, that number would be less than the total number of new members registered in Orkut in 15 seconds. That raised another question in my mind -- "If hate is indeed as powerful as I think, why is the membership so small ?". Slightly baffled, I read the introductory page ( or the profile page ) of the community, and all my doubts were wiped out. The followers of an ideology based on hate usually lack the intellect to think (these people are usually designed to march behind symbols (the burning Indian flag in this case), not think), and look upon a leader to give voice and reason to their "movement". As with most enterprises, even hate requires a charismatic leader who the followers can look upon.

The tiny membership of "We hate India" is easily explained by the lack of leadership. Miraslov, the moderator of this group, is hardly able to organize his thoughts; infact communicate them. As I read through the profile of "We hate India", it left me intellectually disgusted. It wasn't the message (or the lack of it) that disgusted me, it was the quality of dedication he gave; . No wonder, not many people would want to be associated with such a group or such a "leader".

The second thought I had was about the power of online publishing and its consequences. The Internet has empowered people with tools to publish their opinions.(we have  a blogging revolution going on in BIET .....infact one of my frnd "Ashutosh" frm CS 3rd yr has just askd me to read a new post on his blog) This comes at a price -- a lot of stuff on the internet is copied, cached, or backed up. It is almost never deleted. The 86 members of "We hate India" run the risk of being branded as perpetrators of hate forever. Having a different political view is one thing; being part of a hate group is an entirely different ball game. What i even think is that this community might have already come under the radar of secret services of a few countries. I can say without surprise that that if one member of such a group commits a hate crime or is involved in a terrorist activity, other members of this group run the risk of being declared guilty by police or some spy government association. Just being part of this group can hurt their careers, and even their friends and families in the long run. Did these 86 people think about these consequences before openly declaring their participation in a hate group?

I did not join my friends in shutting down this hate community because I think every group has the right to freedom of speech (and its consequences). I may not agree with what they say, but I would defend their right to say what they want to say. I also think that as Indians we should stop being offended by trivial issues like burning of the National flag; as long as those burning the flag import the cloth and matchsticks from India, so that the parents of a few children in India would be earning money (in the textile and matchstick industry) to send them to school.