Growing intolerance

The Supreme Court in its recent judgment upholding a partial temporary ban imposed on slaughter of cattle in municipal slaughterhouses in Ahmedabad noticed the “growing tendency of intolerance in our country”. Justice Markandey Katju speaking for the court deplored that “these days unfortunately some people seem to be perpetually on a short fuse, and are willing to protest often violently, about anything under the sun on the ground that a book or painting or film etc has hurt the sentiments of their community. These are dangerous tendencies and must be curbed with an iron hand. We are one nation and must respect each other and should have tolerance”.

Unusual award

There is an infinite variety of awards which are conferred on persons dead or alive. The ‘bad sex’ fiction award is quite unique. The rationale is to draw attention to the crude, tasteless, often perfunctory use of redundant passages of sexual description in the modern novel, and to discourage it. Some distinguished recipients of the award are A.A. Gill and Melvyn Bragg. The latest to receive this award posthumously is the late Norman Mailer for his book The Castle in the Forest published in 2007. Mailer’s award-winning passage described a penis as an “old battering ram”. India is not absent. In 1993 Aniruddha Bahal won the award for describing sex as a “cross-country” rally. Dickens’s Pickwick Papers is thoroughly enjoyable, especially after the entry of Sam Weller with his inexhaustible fund of similes: “Glad to meet you as the gentleman said to the five pound note.” Another one is, “Quite enough to get Sir, as the soldier said when they ordered him 350 lashes.”

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