Article 21 of the Constitution of India: Protection Of Life And Personal Liberty states that “No person shall be deprived of his life or personal liberty except according to procedure established by law,” yet we constantly witness a great deal of injustice done to the poor and helpless, or to those who cannot defend themselves. How many of us have stopped to help a person in need or even bring an injustice to light when we see it happening right under our noses? Have we ever put ourselves in the other’s shoes? No. All we do as bystanders to such atrocities is, make statements like “Thank god something like this has not happened to me!”
A columnist for the Times of India once juxtaposed the Indian affinity for “action versus inaction,” citing the suspension of Police Officers as being a prime example: Whenever a Police Officer is caught in a wrongdoing; he is merely suspended for a short period of time or transferred. The advantage of such an action lies in the fact that while it immediately appeases a public, angry over injustice, it does not actually tackle the heart of the problem itself; the errant officer will be back on duty within a few months. It amazes me how the police find their way to the front pages of leading Indian newspapers, but for all the wrong reasons. In the wake of the recent blasts that put all major cities on high alert, it’s interesting to see how the Bangalore police have taken a keen interest in investigations concerning the Ahmed family. Crimes against the city can most definitely wait, seeing how important the Ahmed family investigation is, conveniently putting city crimes in the back seat. Rape, murder or the heartless killings of the female foetus are all given less priority over stories that would guarantee the police media attention. Another example can be of the Aarushi murder case which gave the Noida police all the media attention they wanted.
Vote Bank politics played by Political parties in India are another prime example of how our society is transfixed on emotionally charged issues, such as the Ram Mandir or the Ramsethu, which bear little or no actual value as far as genuine issues, such as poverty, inflation and unemployment, plaguing the country are concerned. Thousands of women find themselves being victims of dowry deaths because their parents or families don’t want to do anything about it for the sake of their family’s dignity and reputation, which just happens to be fragile. Another reason people don’t go forward with any reports or complaints are the tedious, long procedures and the frustrating formalities that have to be followed up with continuous visits to courts. There is no simple procedure at public disposal and more often than not, lawyers are bought over by the defence, rendering all the time, money and efforts or any attempt of those less fortunate at justice, unsuccessful.
Indians are to a very great extent fascinated by Bollywood and all the glitz and glamour that accompanies it. They are more concerned about inconsequential gossip that surrounds the lives of the rich and famous but turn a blind eye to the multitude of crimes and injustices that envelopes or lives. Take for example the fact a man, hit by a train, lost his limbs but was made to suffer the excruciating pain because help or even the police were nowhere in sight. He endured the pain and bleeding for a good 2 hours before help arrived and he was taken to a hospital. The only humane thing done for him was that he was moved from the platform onto a bench. It is things like this that makes me wonder, “Where has our compassion and tolerance gone?”
“This is not England, or New Zealand or Australia, or whatever the fuck else. This is India. This is the land of the heart. This is where the heart is king man. The fucking heart. That's how we keep this crazy place together with the heart. Two hundred fucking languages and a billion people. India is the heart. It’s the heart that keeps us together. There is no place with people like my people, Lin. There is no heart like the Indian heart.” So writes author Gregory David Roberts in Shantaram. Robert’s novel, seeing Mumbai, and indeed India, from the eyes of an outsider, touches on some key concepts that make up the Indian psyche, a sufficient point of departure for our analysis of this peculiar habit that seems so unique to Indians. By quoting from Shantaram, I am only trying to highlight a very subtle but true fact that Indians think with their hearts and not their minds. They place emotions before facts. We don’t like bad ideas because we think with our hearts but at the same time we’re too apathetic about things that genuinely matter.
Charlene Flanagan
This was a class assignment for a module on Human Rights. I posted it here because I thought it was appropriate.
