The slightest doubt was enough for them to want to call it quits.” There was this young person, for instance, who hanged himself, fearing he 
wouldn’t now get the last installment of funds under the Indiramma rural housing subsidy scheme. A 42-year-old committed suicide, doubting the utility of the Arogyasri card that entitles the poor to free healthcare in the void left by YSR. An old couple jumped to their death from a bridge because “elder brother YSR had given them old-age pensions.” Hyderabad-based consultant psychiatrist M Phani Prasant describes such acts of self annihilation as an “impulsive action, an escape from perceived trauma, the result of an inability to rationalise a loss.”
But apart from icon worship Tamils also have an obsessive love for their mother tongue – leading to several suicides during the anti-Hindi agitations. Keezhappaavur Chinnasamy – the first casualty of the 1960s – was followed by six others. But to return to the present, 28-year-old Muthukumar set himself ablaze in front of Shastri Bhavan in Chennai to register his protest against India’s inaction and to urge Tamils to unite and fight against the genocide in Lanka. Muthukumar's suicide triggered five more, accompanied by protests from pro-Tamil organisations. From Chinnasamy to Muthukumar, the youths who committed suicide were all from impoverished backgrounds.
Suicides apart, many South Indians express their fanatical attachment to their leaders and stars by sacrificing to the goddess their fingers and tongues. Chennai-based psychologist Dr Shalini does not agree with those who feel that it is all in the South Indian’s genes. She feels it is simply the result of social forces, lack of education and immaturity. “These people are simply not educated enough to understand the real issues. It is our hidebound society in Tamil Nadu and Andhra which breeds this kind of irrational behaviour. Those of them who are settled in the West and Europe do not react like this,” says the doctor. A Marx, the social scientist quoted above, is highly critical of political parties which shy away from taking a firm stand on the issue. “When political leaders pay their floral tributes one always gets the sense that they are trying to glorify these gruesome acts,” he says. “They should instead register their strong condemnation of such primitive practices.”
For Complete IIPM Article, Click on IIPM Article
Source : IIPM Editorial, 2008
wouldn’t now get the last installment of funds under the Indiramma rural housing subsidy scheme. A 42-year-old committed suicide, doubting the utility of the Arogyasri card that entitles the poor to free healthcare in the void left by YSR. An old couple jumped to their death from a bridge because “elder brother YSR had given them old-age pensions.” Hyderabad-based consultant psychiatrist M Phani Prasant describes such acts of self annihilation as an “impulsive action, an escape from perceived trauma, the result of an inability to rationalise a loss.”But apart from icon worship Tamils also have an obsessive love for their mother tongue – leading to several suicides during the anti-Hindi agitations. Keezhappaavur Chinnasamy – the first casualty of the 1960s – was followed by six others. But to return to the present, 28-year-old Muthukumar set himself ablaze in front of Shastri Bhavan in Chennai to register his protest against India’s inaction and to urge Tamils to unite and fight against the genocide in Lanka. Muthukumar's suicide triggered five more, accompanied by protests from pro-Tamil organisations. From Chinnasamy to Muthukumar, the youths who committed suicide were all from impoverished backgrounds.
Suicides apart, many South Indians express their fanatical attachment to their leaders and stars by sacrificing to the goddess their fingers and tongues. Chennai-based psychologist Dr Shalini does not agree with those who feel that it is all in the South Indian’s genes. She feels it is simply the result of social forces, lack of education and immaturity. “These people are simply not educated enough to understand the real issues. It is our hidebound society in Tamil Nadu and Andhra which breeds this kind of irrational behaviour. Those of them who are settled in the West and Europe do not react like this,” says the doctor. A Marx, the social scientist quoted above, is highly critical of political parties which shy away from taking a firm stand on the issue. “When political leaders pay their floral tributes one always gets the sense that they are trying to glorify these gruesome acts,” he says. “They should instead register their strong condemnation of such primitive practices.”
For Complete IIPM Article, Click on IIPM Article
Source : IIPM Editorial, 2008
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