It began with a sentence. Or rather, half a sentence, spoken in an interview. And just like that a legend was promptly recast as the villain of the week for the news cycle.
The conversations ballooned into debates on nationalism, loyalty, history, terrorism, secularism, films, and, inevitably, the moral worth of entire communities.
All of this from a fragment.
What was entirely missing from the outrage was something far more basic than ideology and that is proportionality. A passing remark (yes, in a foreign media interview) was treated like a political position paper. An opinion was examined as if it were a declaration.
The scale of the response had very little to do with the scale of the statement. Somewhere along the way, reaction detached itself from stimulus. When that happens, volume replaces judgement, and speed replaces understanding. We stop asking whether a response is appropriate and focus only on whether it is loud enough.
To advocate for proportionality is not to dismiss the genuine hurt that words can cause. Feelings of betrayal or offense are often rooted in a deep love for one’s identity or country, and those emotions deserve to be heard. But when a single fragment becomes the basis for judgement, conversation gives way to verdict and verdicts leave no scope for disagreement.
And yet, if there is something quietly reassuring about this episode, it is this: the noise never lasts. What endures is the work, the music that has consistently transcended language and ideology without making a spectacle of itself. Perhaps that is the real lesson. Proportionality is not just restraint for the sake of politeness; it is a form of maturity. It is a musical sense that knows when to pause, when to lower the volume, and when to let the melody breathe.
In that sense, harmony is not the absence of difference, but the art of holding differences together without turning every note into a clash. It is not about everyone saying the same thing; it is about allowing those differences to coexist.
The debate will move on, as it always does. The music will remain, doing what it has always done best: bringing people together without asking them to agree first.
"We are divided by race, country and religion, but the sound is beyond boundaries. Music brings unity. So I think that's the only hope."
- A.R Rahman: Harmony with A R Rahman
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