Politics Of Hate: How The Hatred Shapes Our World

In 1944, when Primo Levi, one of the prisoner-slaves in Auschwitz, was sent to a laboratory by the Nazis to test his viability as a worker, he was examined by the 바카라�blue-eyed바카라� German Doktor Ingenieur Pannwitz, whose hateful gaze Levi never forgot. He noted in his memoir, Survival in Auschwitz, published in 1986, 바카라�Because that look was not one between two men; and if I had known how completely to explain the nature of that look, which came as if across the glass window of an aquarium between two beings who live in different worlds.바카라�

The hatred that bridged 바카라�two different worlds바카라� consisting of 바카라�pure German바카라� Pannwitz and the 바카라�less equal바카라� Levi has been an embedded feature in human beings that no evolution has done away with. The strong feelings of hate since the early days of civilisation have shaped our political discourse(s). Evolutionary psychologists in the post-Darwin era have also speculated that human beings have evolved to compete, 바카라�group against group바카라�.

The essential distinction between the in-group and the out-group that drives hate, as Professor Willa Michener of Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) says in her paper, titled 바카라�The Individual Psychology of Group Hate바카라�, also leads to what is known as 바카라�third-party revenge바카라�, where the offence committed by a few vilifies the whole group or the community. In Rwanda, the assassination of President Juvenal Habyarimana led to the genocide of the Tutsis by the Hutus. The same pattern is evident in the 1984 anti-Sikh riots, the 2002 post-Godhra pogrom and many other instances across the world.

What drives feelings of hate to such an extent? Michael Ignatieff succinctly defines it in his book The Warrior바카라�s Honour: Ethnic War and the Modern Conscience: 바카라�The atrocities are held to reveal the essential identity바카라�the intrinsic genocidal propensity바카라�of the peoples in whose name they were committed. All the members of the group are regarded as susceptible to that propensity even though atrocity can be committed only by specific individuals.바카라�

Scholars, however, have different opinions of what constitutes hate. They nevertheless agree to the point that hate provokes violence against the out-group. While talking about how this elementary feature of 바카라�One did it/they all did it바카라� is taken up by children, anthropologist Pascal Boyer says in one of his papers, 바카라�This elementary intuition is easily acquired by children the world over.바카라�

However, discarding the theory of inheritability of hate, sociologist Imtiaz Ahmed Ansari tells Outlook, 바카라�Hate, as a specific form of emotion, is common to humans. Hate is neither biologically inherited nor does it occur in a social vacuum. It is socially situated. It is a mix of individual and structural factors. We are not born with the emotion of hate but something which we are taught and learn from our social environment.바카라�

Ansari, who teaches Sociology in Jamia Millia Islamia University, notes that hate varies politically and culturally. 바카라�Since it has to be nurtured, hate can be an effective political tool. The history of anti-Semitism and currently the anti-Muslim bias is symptomatic of the usefulness of hate in creating and presenting 바카라�the other바카라� as the enemy and keeping the in-group intact,바카라� adds Ansari. Social divisions like caste, class, race, religion, gender, ethnicity, nationality and all other possible cultural markers shape group identities that carry hate as the socially structured emotion to subjugate the 바카라�other바카라�.

In recent years, from 바카라�Dharma Sansad바카라� (religious parliament) in Uttarakhand to the evocation of 바카라�Goli Maro Salon ko바카라� (Shoot those rascals) slogans against anti-CAA protestors have shown how hatred against the Other is used to gain political mileage. But how does it work in a democratic environment? Explaining the phenomenon, Ansari says, 바카라�Even in the most stable democratic regimes, hate-based violence can be rampant as it can be manufactured and manoeuvred to achieve the parochial goals.바카라�

Hilal Ahmed, associate professor with the Centre for the Study of Developing Societies, nevertheless looks at hate-based politics in a different way. Speaking to Outlook, Ahmed says, 바카라�Hate is actually a negative emotion. Emotion is a much wider category. But if you ask me if there is anything such as hate politics, I don바카라�t think hate has anything to do with that especially in India.바카라�

For Ahmed, it is the 바카라�rediscovery of the collective identity of her or his community바카라� that drives political actions. 바카라�There are two ways you can do that. First, through glamorising yourself, but that has its limits. In order to say that you are better than the other community, you will start treating the other community negatively,바카라� says the author of Siyasi Muslims: A Story of Political Islams in India.

Instead of calling it politics of hate, Ahmed prefers to call it 바카라�politics of identity based on certain emotions바카라� that shapes the political narratives of our time. 바카라�If you focus on the politics of emotions, hate is one of its attributes,바카라� adds Ahmed.

Interestingly, deconstructing hate speeches that sometimes provoke and result in violence, Ahmed says, 바카라�All these speeches have got a very interesting structure. They start with the conceptual outline that 바카라�We know you are very unhappy바카라�. Unhappiness is underlined.바카라� Then, he continues, 바카라�They go on in the middle to argue, 바카라�I know if I ask you to kill a person or destroy everything, I know you are capable of doing it. And they end with, 바카라�But I ensure that you don바카라�t do it.바카라�바카라�

In reference to the speeches delivered by Bal Thackeray in 1991, the Shahi Imam of Jama Masjid Abdullah Bukhari in 1987 and a recent one by a minister at the Centre that led to mass violence, Ahmed says that these are 바카라�restrictive provocations바카라� used for 바카라�strategic communication to evoke a collective emotion바카라�.

Can we combat the hate-filled environment engendered by 바카라�restrictive provocations바카라� and consecutive hate speeches against the out-groups through the ideals of much-propagated 바카라�tolerance바카라�? Rachel Dean-Ruzicka, who teaches at the Georgia Institute of Technology, in her paper titled, 바카라�Combatting Hate Through Young Adult Literature바카라� disagrees and notes, 바카라�Instead of acting to discourage hatred, the ideal of tolerance merely asks those who experience dislike or hatred not to act upon those feelings.바카라�

Wendy Brown in her 2006 book Regulating Aversion: Tolerance in the Age of Identity and Empire also points out that the sense of tolerance comes with the feeling of moral superiority. In this context, Dean-Ruzicka argues that the only way to deal with it is to believe in the 바카라�cosmopolitan ethics of difference바카라� against the prevalent 바카라�morality of tolerance바카라�.

Hate as an embedded feeling not only plays a determining role in group-based politics but also drowns the individual into an illusory collective that wants security, glory and imaginary rejuvenation of an ancient past.

So, does hatred need any context to bubble out on the surface in different temporal and social situations? Hate doesn바카라�t need any spark바카라�perhaps, it is as much a human emotion as love is.

(This appeared in the print edition as "Dissecting Hate")