The Thar Incident - 6

Continued from Part 5.

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The sociologist from Bangalore squeezed his eyes tight - perhaps if he squeezed hard enough the strange world around him would all go away.

The last two weeks had been exceedingly bizarre. It had begun with a call form his friend from New Delhi at 8 AM - the call had simply said that he was coming down for a quick meeting. The friend was the PPS, a high ranking government official, it all seemed harmless enough until about two hours later when the sociologist found himself standing in the field at the IISc "Student" airfield watching a jet black Dhruv land and his friend leap out just as the copter touched the ground. The sociologist's friend had marched across extent of the mud runway to the old hanger that stood on the side of the airfield, a few bewildered technicians from the aerospace department looked on. The men were working on a new UAV that the aerospace department had developed for atmospheric testing and sampling and were largely used to seeing weird things, but this was a bit much for them too. Very dramatic thought the sociologist - but why?

The sociologist had been completely unprepared for the answer to his question. No sooner were they in arms reach his friend had pulled him close and whispered into his ear - "we have a lot to talk about..." and then literally yanked the sociologist in the direction of the NIAS campus. A few steps down the muddy path to the gate of the airfield and the PPS suddenly asked him..

"So what do you think would happen if people were to suddenly stop believing in God?"

The sociologist was dumbfounded - what in blazes was he going on about? The PPS was not a madman- ages ago he had been the ranking intelligence officer in the Research and Analysis Wing in-charge of activities in the Soviet Union. The collapse of the USSR had happened on his watch and unlike other observers in the field - he had very boldly predicted the fall. His single paragraph memo to the Prime Minister of India at the time had become the stuff of legend.

The sociologist exclaimed "What in heaven's name are your people upto? what has the RAW done.." he stopped midsentence, the RAW no longer existed. The agency had dissolved in a storm of bureaucratic turf wars in the aftermath of Kargil. The horrific bureaucratic wrangling over the RAW's assets had started when the RAW was blamed for the intelligence failure in Kargil. Knives that had for years lingered in the shadows surged forth to slice the agency's throat. It was some miracle that the bulk of the RAW's analysis capability had somehow survived the massacre and been incorporated into the National Security Council Secretariat. The event was a very sore point with the old RAW hands. Correcting himself, the sociologist asked.."What has the NSC done now?"

The PPS eyed him carefully..."Just answer the question" he said..

The sociologist looked away into the distance, a light breeze blew the pink-red petals from the nearby gulmohar trees across his view. He hesitated and then spoke,

"It will be similar to what you saw in the Soviet Union collapse."

The PPS replied "The Soviets did not believe in God."

The sociologist shook his head..

"Not exactly - the Soviets simply replaced theology with an equivalent entity - a careful mish-mash of Dialectical Materialism and traditional politically motivated concepts. These were used to create a moral foundation for the State. The social order was predicated on the dominance of the underlying moral principles. The collapse of the political economy was the result - per some observers - of a gradual erosion of the moral dominance of the state. The Americans claim that they successfully conducted a psywar on the Soviet Elite and seduced them to accept the ideal of freedom over the much emphasized moral foundations of the Soviet State."

The PPS interrupted him," So you say - the moral authority of the state - overtly or covertly draws on a kind of theology - a theology which leads to people accepting certain dogma"

"Yes", replied the sociologist, "all social order retains at its core a sense of dogma, that is very carefully dictated by a theological community. It is this theological community that conducts a psywar on society convincing it that questioning the dogma will cause a disasterous collapse of social order. Obey God's laws or else he will smote you down with a bolt from heaven."

The PPS now mused aloud, "The more dogmatic the underlying theology - the greater the actual mechanisms of social control. The more rules people have to follow. What about societies where a particular theologies don't dominate the state?"

"It doesn't matter - all theology is essentially dogmatic. There is no way to investigate the premises of theology. Secularism doesn't do away with religion - nor does it imply the absence of religion - it merely avoids making specific associations between the state and a particular theology. Even in a so-called secular country - people tend to have religious sentiments and their acceptance of a social order rests on their conception of these very personal ideas of God."

The PPS responded "You are saying that it doesn't matter what the laws are so long as you are convinced that there is a God looking out over you. Even if you are faced with an unjust law - it is ultimately the Lord that will deliver justice to you. Without the concept of a personal Lord, an Isvara, - a God that is devoted to you - there seems little reason to put up with everyone else?"

The sociologist looked askance and said " The Isvara-type concept is impossible to eliminate. It is a permanent feature of human psychology. It is the extreme survivability of this psychological construct that has prompted speculations that it is the psychological mile marker for the pervasive presence of a more fundamental reality - the Purusa or the Paramatman or the Brahman as the ancients used to call it. It is difficult for me to imagine an event that shakes a person or a group of people so substantially that it erodes their belief in a personal God."

The PPS now looked worried, "The Isvara-type concept is independent of theology. So even if theology fails - the Isvara will dictate a person jurisprudence."

"Yes.. A free for all where every man is his own law. Each his own judge jury and executioner." replied the Sociologist, "now will you tell me what the devil this is all about?"

The PPS continued as if he hadn't heard what the man,"The soviets got lucky. The moral collapse of the Soviet state was a slow event. It was not that the population suddenly discovered that the moral core of the state was hollow. A more correct model for a sudden collapse of a state's moral authority..."

"The fall of Saddam's Iraq in 2002." the sociologist completed his sentence.

The PPS now stared back at him, "So we would be staring at complete anarchy?!"

"Not necessarily - but there would be intense flux in social order - at all levels until a new theology was able to establish its grasp. The flux would create all sorts of welts in society and economic and political problems would follow in its wake." the sociologist suggested. "Anarchy - maybe - maybe not, but instability definetely."

The PPS turned to face the sociologist as he gently pushed past the gate of the NIAS and stepped through into the shady courtyard "This all sounds terribly unpleasant..."

The Sociologist was now getting really annoyed..."For the nth time - what the devil is this about!"

The PPS turned away and walked towards the parking lot... "Is there a way to avoid this.."

The Sociologist replied instantly -"Ofcourse there is - we are dealing with human psychology here aren't we?- there is always strong susceptibility to indoctrination. A careful indoctrination in a replacement theology could soften the blow. "

The PPS now stared "A psywar on the target population to make help them chart a path through the new information.."

"All right that's it! I am not saying anything more until you tell me what is going on!!" said the sociologist.

The PPS looked at him carefully and then told him. It took all of five minutes to go through the sparse details, but after that the Sociologist seemed to shrink visibly... a few moments later he sat down on a pile of red bricks left there by a gardener.

"Good God..." said the sociologist.

The PPS now took on a more authoritative tone, " Look - no one can know about this. I want you personally to go through as many ideas on how to conduct such a psywar as possible. No one else is to know and everything has to be handwritten - no electronic signatures - you are not maintain any copies of the documents. If this has to go away - it should go away completely."

The sense of foreboding and amazement that had filled the Sociologist that day still lingered.

As he sat as his desk the sociologist looked at white sadaphuli flowers outside his window - "preindoctrination would have to be carried out... this was going to be quite complicated" ...... he thought some more and then closed his eyes again...