One question that has disturbed many is that
of the opposition to the kabrastan by some Catholics in Borda, Margao. What does this tell about us Catholics? How
do we understand this resistance to kabrastan? In a Year of Mercy it certainly
makes us look unmerciful and egoistic. The denial of a dignified post death
ritual closure to any human being appears wicked and unchristian. This brings
us to the relation of fear and faith.
Both fear and faith appear to be opposite of each other, though in some
cases fear may draw a person to faith. May be a psychoanalytical analysis becomes a tool that might enable us to
understand how an intense fear triggers
resistance to the said kabrastan. The proposed grave yard seems to have become
a symbol that produces disgust and horror among a tiny but significant minority
in Borda.
Along with Freud, we may need Jacques Lacan
to understand the psychodynamics of fear that triggers resistance and anger
among some of our catholic in Borda.
Freud rightly discovered that our conscious state is under the control
of what he called unconscious. Freud
taught that unconscious cannot be fully understood and accurately rendered
verbal. Moving beyond this Freudian principle, Lacan teaches that the
unconscious is structured like a language and is the discourse of the other of
the self. This means our passions are conditioned by the desire of the other. Thus, unconscious is less something within
person than an inter-subjective space between people.
In the case that we are trying to understand,
with great respect and love to all stake holders, one might say that it becomes
clear that the desire of our Muslim brethren (the Other of the Catholics)
becomes a point of trigger that has unleashed passions of fear and resistance
among some Catholics. The desire of the Other (the legitimate wish to have a
dignified burial space) has dismantled the imaginary cocoon that had been the
source of sense of right order of things for the aggrieved Catholics. When the bubble of this order of things
exploded in the context of an encounter with the desire of the Other, one
encounters the fear of disintegration and loss of grip over the future. Once,
the narcissistic illusions of the self break down in the context of its Other ,
the false sense of self mastery over life begin to fade away.
In Borda, it appears that some of the
Catholics experienced the Other (in the form of the Muslims) as a point of
rupture that brought about a false sense of disruption of order of things. This
sense of horror has led to the eruption of passions that are fomenting the
rejection of the burial space for our Muslim brethren. Within the texture of
meaning of life, the Catholics seem to have encountered an imaginary point where all meanings seem to fall away
leading to a false sense that the ground
beneath their feet is falling away.
Panicked by this imagined loss of joint of time, their resistance becomes
a cry for a sense of balance and security. This might explain the repugnance
and rejection of the proposal for a burial ground by a minority.
But what puzzles many is the question that
asks: how could the resources of our
Christian faith be not enough to overcome the castration anxiety that anyone
can be subjected in the face of an encounter with a supposedly intruder ? With
great respect, love and admiration to our Catholics brethren, we may have to
agree that the crisis that they are facing is also a crisis of faith. While the
actions that are triggered by fear are far from our Christian morals and ethics
yet the desire that is expressed as resistance is self damaging and is an
expression of what Freud calls death drive. May be we might get an insight into
this subjection of self to a mode of self destruction if we interpret Lacan’s
presentation of the mirror stage.
Lacan presents the mirror stage as a crucial
developmental stage of the self of a child. He says that a child between the
ages of 6 to 18 months comes to identify itself with the image in the mirror,
the other of its fragmented self. The child experiences a brokenness of its
body and deceives its self by identifying with its image in the mirror that
bestows a sense of wholeness and balance. Hence, the self imposes an illusory
order and build its comfort zone. The same is true about all of us. We too have illusory sense of order of things
that bestows on us a sense of equanimity. Like us, the Catholics in Borda seem
to have build an imaginary mirror image of themselves and life in general and
when the real life comes biting the imaginary world comes down collapsing
triggering anxiety and resistance
Hence, it is important that we all realise
and understand the power of horror over life. The power horror/fear is
controlling some of our Catholics in the case under our study. It is important
that we bring these brethren to a leap of consciousness that would take them to
a heightened awareness of the fact that without their intension, in that given
situation Christian faith is crucified on the altar of fear. This awareness can
break open the constrictions that debilitate their minds. We need to exhibit
compassion to both side of the divide and yet firmly tackle the unfounded fears
of our people in Borda and work to change the discourse that is routed in fear
to the one that is rooted in faith, courage and openness. It is my earnest hope and prayer that all
stake holders in the case that we have studied receive the divine gift of
discernment that would allay all fears and anxieties and open us to offer a
dignified closure of death to our Muslim brethren.
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