Daily Fix
Ship of Fools
T. SHER SINGH
The first time I saw “Ship of Fools” was in New Delhi. It was 1965.
A daring black-and-white tour de force by a master filmmaker -- Stanley Kramer -- it dazzled me then with its stellar cast and multiple vignettes depicting the complicated ins and outs of a variety of human relationships.
Being a mere 15 years old then, all I retained from the experience was the simmering love-story between Simone Signoret and Oskar Werner, and the sadness exuded by Vivien Leigh.
It wasn’t until only the other day that I stumbled across the film again and decided to sit through it, primarily for the sake of nostalgia.
I’m glad I did.
Seeing it now through adult and world-weary eyes, it unfolded as a far more interesting film with an under-current that had completely escaped me in my youth. I learnt that subtle hints, sprinkled here and there by the story-teller, actually put the main focus on quite a different story-line.
The genius of the film was that though it had no plot-line, it did have a brooding shadow lurking over every scene, but always out of sight, never mentioned, never described.
It was like a secret between the audience and the filmmaker, kept hidden from the characters who remain oblivious to it from the very beginning to the very end.
The story is set in 1933. The ship’s main deck is peopled mostly by affluent German passengers heading home, a smattering of Americans looking for a change in fortunes, and a hold-full of Spanish migrant-workers newly displaced from Cuba and being deported back to Spain.
What I caught this time around, but had missed earlier, was the incessant haranguing by a couple of loud-mouths over the greatness of Germany and everything Teutonic, and the urgent need for the Fatherland to purify itself in order to achieve its destined glory.
While it raises eyebrows amongst many of the other passengers, the biggest cheerleader for the ‘new’ Germany turns out to be a Jewish businessman. He shrugs off the obvious insult pointedly directed against him: he’s removed from the Captain’s table and seated alone … because he is Jewish.
He patiently and in good humour hears and makes short shrift of the tirades against Jews, sounding more passionately German than anyone else on the ship.
He shrugs off the warnings from a fellow-sufferer: "There are nearly a million Jews in Germany,” he says. “What are they going to do -- kill us all?”
The poignancy of the story hits home with us in the audience because we know, and they don’t, where and what the ship is hurtling towards through the stormy seas.
There’s nary a word mentioned about either Hitler or the Nazis. The only foreboding the masterful director allows is in the final scenes of the film when you get a split-second glimpse of an arm-band worn by a Brown-Shirted soldier receiving a disembarking passenger.
It sports a swastika.
The Jewish businessman is merrily greeted by his happy family on the pier and off they go into the sunset.
A chill shot through my spine as I sat frozen and motionless through the closing credits.
I wish and hope and pray that the obvious analogy I see between Stanley Kramer’s story -- actually based on a much acclaimed 1962 novel by Katherine Anne Porter -- and India today is but a figment of my imagination, and no more.
But I would be dishonest if I didn’t also say that I fear that the allegory of the “Ship of Fools” is smack on in terms of what I see happening in India, not just amongst the majority mindset (the ship’s Germans) but also amongst the Sikhs there (the Jewish businessman).
We too are the country's greatest patriots -- no others come even close. But it may be time for us to step back a bit and look at the bigger picture. Study the past. Assess the present. Chart the future.
I know it is not an easy time for India’s 30 million Sikhs, and it isn’t going to get easier in the next few months, what with the constant onslaught and pressure from the two main political parties of the country, each chomping at the bit to take over the reins of power and the nation’s government.
One of the two parties has been the author of not only the desecration of our Holiest of Holies but also the wholesale massacre of our people. To date, it has shown no remorse, no desire or willingness to be held accountable.
Therefore, under Congress’ ongoing rule, we have no guarantees, except of a repetition.
The other party is openly and unabashedly committed to turning India into a theocracy under the banner of Hindutva -- a rabid form of Hindu extremism. It has made no bones about its intent to deny the Sikhs the right to practice their faith.
If and when Narendra Modi and his BJP-RSS cohorts come to power, Sikhi in India is guaranteed a rocky and dangerous road ahead.
Joining or belonging to or contributing to, even voting for, either of these two parties would be, I'm afraid, akin to a Jewish-German in 1933 Germany endorsing and supporting Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party. Sadly, many in Germany then did ... and the rest is history.
Did they have an option? Could they have averted what we now see as having being inevitable? The answers are complex and obviously this is not the place to delve in them.
But the course open to India’s Sikhs needs to be studied very, very, very carefully.
First, I venture to suggest, under NO circumstances must we support either of these two parties, no matter what.
Can we make even a dent?
Of course, we can. Always.
We are history-makers.
We are nation-builders.
We need to look at the options and choose one that is good for us and for India and for the world.
There is a common good … a universal one, which we need to tap into.
Sitting far away, I have no difficulty in admitting that I am distant from and removed from the ground reality. But that doesn’t mean that those in India don’t need to do some serious thinking on their own.
I can see, for example, that there ARE options available. The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP") seems to be one. I’m sure there are others.
There is always a choice of good options. But the one option that is NOT available to us today is to bury our heads in the sand.
Stuck on a Ship of Fools -- this one is no allegory, it is real! -- it is time to, first, man the lifeboats.
And, then, to take over the bridge.
February 25, 2014
Conversation about this article
1: Aryeh Leib (Israel), February 26, 2014, 5:25 AM.
As I view developments in India's Sikh community from my vantage point here in Israel, I see striking similarities to the program of Konstantin Petrovich Pobedonostsev, adviser to Russian Tsar Alexander III (1881-1893) for his nation's Jewish subjects: "One-third was to emigrate, one-third was to die, and one-third to disappear (i.e. be converted)." I see all three trends running full steam ahead in today's Punjab. Draw your own conclusions, with history as your guide.
2: Baldev Singh (Bradford, United Kingdom), February 26, 2014, 7:25 AM.
Was lucky enough to watch the preview of the film, 'The Book Thief' last week, which also deals with a similar theme about the start of the 'cleansing' of Germany of a minority because of 'jealousy'! The Sikhs are a warrior race and have survived the greatest of odds and onslaughts by the Islamic, British and now Hindu Empires. All we need is to get our act together once and for all and that is to become ONE nation, and stop all non-Sikh practices, live by the Guru's teachings and get our Sikh Sovereign State back! If we cannot do this, then it will be business as usual with mostly illiterate, casteist and morbidly superstitious peoples being brainwashed by 'fascist' and jealous political leaders to take us on and 'finish' us! We need our Sikh Saint-Warrior pedigree and discipline now more than ever!
3: Harnam Singh (Kanpur, India), February 26, 2014, 9:09 AM.
Chilling!
4: Kaala (Punjab), February 26, 2014, 10:28 AM.
@1: It is my firmly held belief that had the Sikhs in Punjab not fought back the onslaught of the Indian State in the 1980s and early 1990s, we would have been wiped out of Punjab and India. Contrary to what the Indian propaganda machine may say, it was our struggle for survival ... and in my opinion we won. It all started soon after the Sikhs joined India in 1947. Since India at that time faced external and internal threats, it needed the Sikhs to help them and use them as gun fodder. They were not openly attacked then like they were later in the 1980s. It was the Sikhs who saved Kashmir for India in 1947. It was the Sikhs who saved India in the 1965 war with Pakistan, which was India's Yom Kippur War, if you will. Then again in 1971 the same story was repeated. Once India gained a semblance of stability and security after the 1971 war, the systematic campaign against the Sikhs started in right earnest. They were depicted in Bollywood movies negatively so as to inculcate a feeling of inferiority in the young generation with a view to make them assimilate with the majority. Simultaneously, the campaign to economically crush the Sikhs started to take away the land and water resources. All this led to resentment and anger in Punjab, the only place on earth where the Sikhs are in majority and thus able to put up a fight. All this culminated in the attack on the Golden Temple in June 1984 and the genocide of Sikhs in November1984 all over India, and during the decade that followed. Then came the Sikh fightback starting in 1986 which brought the Indian State to its knees. The Sikhs fought long and hard and wore out the impoverished Indian state through prolonged and incessant guerilla warfare, much like the Hagannah did. If we have survived today, it was due to that valiant struggle.
5: Baldev Singh (Bradford, United Kingdom), February 26, 2014, 9:58 PM.
Commentator #4: 500 top Sikh fighters laid down their lives against over 400,000 Indian military and paramilitary personnel! We should be honouring every single shaheed from Banda Singh Bahadar and Baba Deep Singh to Labh Singh for giving their all for the good of all!
6: Harinder (Punjab), February 27, 2014, 12:04 PM.
Nehrus, Gandhis, Patels, Modis will come and go. Sikhs, however, will always shine. We will grow and prosper as we did under the Mughals and British rule. We have faith in Waheguru ... jin kar raakhi meri. Always in Chardi Kalaa!
7: Bhupinder Singh (New Delhi, India ), February 28, 2014, 2:14 AM.
As Rahul Gandhi said (referring to India's hundreds of millions in poverty), we will need escape velocity to escape this wretched land of ours. The escape velocity could be in the form of economic independence, emigration to promising lands (anywhere but India), etc. Someone suggested to me one day, get all the young men and women to marry Sikhs abroad and let them leave the shores of India. This is too far fetched, but a somewhat legal way. Do we have any future in India? Yes, but only if we are immune to all the corruption / bigotry, etc. Only if we are living in fortresses from where we could be airlifted within 2-3 hours.
8: Sunny Grewal (Abbotsford, British Columbia, Canada), February 28, 2014, 1:05 PM.
@7 -- That idea sounds nice in theory, but not very good in practice. There is a cultural divide between the Sikhs of the West and those back in the motherland.
9: Bhupinder Singh (New Delhi, India), March 01, 2014, 1:32 AM.
@8- I am in no way proposing that this is the only solution. If at all Sikhs emigrate out of India, they have to do it in a legal way. At least they can live with dignity thereafter. With regards to cultural gap, do not forget your parents or yourself were Freshies when you landed on foreign shores and would have taken some time to assimilate. This "holier than thou" attitude and the fact that we Sikhs are not united is the root cause of all problems we are facing.
10: P. Singh (Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada), March 01, 2014, 5:12 AM.
Well said, T. Sher Singh ji - the writing has been on the wall for sometime.