S: It isn't the first time either Enid Blyton or Sanjay Dutt has been in the news for the wrong reasons. But as a fan of both, something inside me wants to defend them despite everything.
I grew up on Enid Blytons. Stuck in my bedroom during long summer vacations, dreaming of adventuring somewhere in the coasts and castles of England, having sunny picnics or midnight feasts with 'potted meats' - even though I hadn't the faintest idea what that was - but she made it sound so amazing!
True confession, during my pregnancy I re-read all of my old favorites all over again - faintly embarrassed yet completely blissful - it was like being warmly embraced by a loving grandmother.
Now albeit I might still go back and read them again, it will be a definitely more uncomfortable embrace, knowing your grandmother's views were sexist and also somewhat racist, to put it mildly.
I will defend her to others - stoutly at first - saying it was a different time. After all, many of her generation held pretty much the same beliefs. But then had she thought to put someone closer to me - an Indian girl - in her books (and casting her in a bad light), would I really defend her as staunchly? Would I even think as fondly about her books?
Same is the case with Sanjay Dutt's ad which celebrates 'masculinity' in a way which is jarring and toxic. While a few years back a lot of this kind of stuff would have gone down with perhaps nothing other than a jaundiced eye, now I am glad to see that it is being given the lament it deserves. The definition of masculinity needed to be revised since long, and this gives me hope that it is at last underway.
So you would ask, shouldn't these people have simply known better? Or were they simply a product of their times?
R: S, it is tough to see the black and white here.
I do thoroughly believe though, over time and over generations, ideas evolve just as our knowledge does.
For e.g. as a kid I would get frequent leg aches, and it was always written off as 'growing pains'.
Now we definitely know better of it to be more of a vitamin deficiency; in this vitamin D.
Abraham Lincoln, the much revered President of USA, who is known for abolishing slavery, never believed in equality of 'black' and 'white'. Quoting him...
'I am not, nor ever have been, in favor of bringing about in any way the social and political equality of the white and black races, that I am not, nor ever have been, in favor of making voters or jurors of negroes, nor of qualifying them to hold office,...'
And now that 'Black Lives Matter' is so much a part of the social fabric have we written down Lincoln as a villain; No.
He just shared the same prejudices as were prevalent in his times.
I would love to believe in an idealistic society where we see all bad as bad and all good as good - but it can never be so. Certain fights are always going to be more important to us than others.
And we could accept certain ideas only to a set extent.
However, If we forgive people and their ideas and their actions, just by saying they are a product of their times, then, where does it stop? History is rife with people whose views and actions inspired people to commit heinous acts...
S, when I do not have answers to questions, I just resort to Karma, and the belief that whatever happens, happens for a reason...
S: I agree with you there, we should not simply forgive for the sake of it. However you cannot judge everyone in the same vein. People may think racist things, but may not actually do anything about it.
What I do think - and as banal as it sounds - is that history is a great teacher. We can only learn from it. Enid Blyton's writings may have been perhaps okay in her day, now we know better. Banning her books will erase what we can learn from it. But this dialogue we are having is certainly needed.
With Sanjay Dutt's ad, I'm not as sure. It will live long as it is on the internet, and keep surfacing from time to time. If you check the comments we might even find people who actually believe in that kind of masculinity...you never know.
Beliefs are hard to erase. People complain about the 'cancel culture' and how it has become fashionable these days. Making a brouhaha about it is certainly required. How else will it reach all ears? But that is the only way I think society will start thinking about old wrongs...and how to make them right again.