Where's the reason for the season?

I AM inspired by the symbolism of Christmas. It is a universal event, "tidings of great joy" as the angel said to the lowly shepherds of Bethlehem, for "all people". Globalisation, ironically, has been invented and exported by the so-called Christian countries. But, unlike Christmas, it is good news for only a few people; whereas it is bad news for the majority of people on this earth. Time will prove that the message of "peace and goodwill" carried by Christmas is totally contradicted by globalisation, which marks the rise of neo-colonialism. It is the foremost threat to what little goodwill there is still left in this world.

The circumstances of the birth of Jesus constitute a slap on the face of the culture and ideology of globalisation. The global order of those days was dictated by the Romans, just as the Americans today preside over the destiny of our world. Jesus was not born in Rome, not even in Jerusalem, which was the Jewish capital. Mary gave birth to her baby in a cowshed in Bethlehem, a village of hardly any political significance at that time. The infant Jesus did not have any of the advantages of civilisation, not even a roof over his head. The rejection of the exploitative, consumerist and materialistic culture cannot be taken any farther than this. What a pity that the celebration of Christmas, the commemoration of God's response to our world, has become a crude display of consumerism and indulgence.

The spiritual significance of Christmas, as the Bible tells us, is God's concern for human liberation (mukti). Christians understand the human predicament in terms of the concept of sin as a principle of enslavement and human dis-empowerment. But they go wrong in interpreting this insight in supernatural terms. So they fight shy of Jesus' passion to fight the unjust and oppressive systems of the world, including the religious Establishment. They sentimentalise the Jesus who died for others. But they have little to do with the Jesus who used the whip against the extortioners and speculators in the name of religion. So even as the Church weeps over "Christ crucified," millions of people continue to be either used like milch-cows or led like lambs to slaughter. To celebrate Christmas unmindful of the exploitation, corruption and injustice that mount all around us is an insult to Jesus who came to bring not only peace but also a sword upon this earth. Jesus, unlike the Church, knows that peace without sword (i.e. without a passion for social justice) would only legitimise and reinforce the oppressive forces and systems of the world.

Of all the exploitative mechanisms ever invented by the ingenuity of man, there is none more sinister and intractable than globalisation. It signals a quantum leap in insensitivity and inequality as compared to older models of colonialism. In olden days, when technology was in its kindergarten stage, the powerful had to go out and colonise. So they could always be fought at home. The predators of neo-colonialism, in contrast, can bleed a nation from a distance. That makes it all the more difficult to fight and drive them out.

The emerging consumerist world order enslaves us by complicating and multiplying our desires and by confusing them with our needs. We are deceived into thinking that we need all that we desire. The Christmas event is an explicit and outright rebuttal of this consumerist myth. In the birth of Jesus, as well as throughout his earthly life, human existence is pared down to its bare-bone structure, freed from the frills of consumerism and indulgence.

The good news of Christmas in this age of globalisation, therefore, is that we hold in our own hands the weapons with which to fight the MNC menace. They cannot hold this country to ransom if we refuse to play their consumerist game. This is the enduring insight that Gandhiji too has left for us. We do not have to militate against the WTO or any other trade protocol. We can save the integrity of country and the future of our people by returning to a sober and spiritually informed way of life. The danger is not only that our domestic markets are being dumped and flooded with cheap imported industrial goods. The danger is also that we are getting addicted to neurotic buying and soulless consumerism, aiding and abetting the enemies of our freedom and sovereignty.

The good news that Jesus brought with him was the insight that human beings cannot live by bread alone. Human welfare depends on a balance between physical and spiritual needs. The bad news underlying the culture of globalisation is that human beings must live by bread alone; that we are mere sensual animals and tools to subserve economic interests. This is an insult to human dignity. Globalisation is, thus, a direct contradiction of the spiritual insight underlying Christmas. Common sense dictates, hence, that to celebrate Christmas is also to commit ourselves to fighting the ideology and culture of globalisation.

Human liberation is a resonant spiritual theme common to all religions. The shadows of oppression and aggression fell over the life of the founders and reformers of religions as well as the many witnesses to truth that we know of.

The brutal suppression of popular dissent is an integral aspect also of the spirit of globalisation and liberalisation, as the tragic case of Col. Pratap Slave indicates. A distinguished retired officer of our armed forces, he was done to death for protesting against the forces of globalisation in Umergaon. Herod's keenness to liquidate the infant Jesus is an eloquent parallel.

Ironically, the stooges and agents of globalisation succeeded in their sinister plot, whereas Herod made a hash of it. That alone should make us sit up and take note.The joy promised in Christmas will not be served to us on a platter. Like all else in life, we have to work for it.

In this mixed-up world of ours, there are times when joy has to be bought with our sweat, blood and tears. The millennial Christmas comes to us at such a critical moment in the history of our culture and civilisation.

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