Saturday, September 14, 2013

The flip side of Justice : Lessons from what "She" suffered

I was talking to a friend of mine, who lives in Delhi, about how she felt of the decision the Special Court brought forward on the 13th Sept. She said, this was the best that could have been done to them of what they did (instant death, no sufferings). She said, ‘Try walking in a girl’s shoes in Delhi, you’ll get to know’. She wasn't wrong in her place and I advised her to make a habit of keeping chilly powder with her, whenever she moves out. Though I wondered, with the old quote in mind, ‘We kill people, who kill people, because killing people is wrong’. 
Why was it that she was so stubbornly satisfied by what she said? In fact, why was the whole country euphoric over the same judgment? Where actually was the whole world, when she was actually ‘suffering’? Why is it that our pseudo-wisdom keeps revenge the only way to get justice?


I don’t have words to describe how Nirbhaya was tormented. Maybe, Inhumane, Irrational I would term it. Inhumane for her, Irrational for them. Why Inhumane? Because we don’t see cannibals around. We don’t eat humans, we don’t kill them by slicing them into pieces. But then we do see people kill other beings (Animals), equally horrendously, eat them, cook them and in our hypocrisy prefer to over look the issue, saying its our food. As has been said very famously, ‘We call ourselves civilized but behave no less than barbarians, when it comes to self-interest’. Why Irrational to them? Because rape is one thing, killing is another. Rape isn’t inhuman, its one form of sex, brutally per se. It was irrational of them to have sufficed the rape in that manner.  
Jyoti(Damini), who lit a lamp for us all.


Unfortunately, whenever such an incident happens it results in such a societal rage, for once, questing then our reactionary conscience as well. Notably, whenever someone suffers such an atrocity, all s/he wants is the perpetrator of the crime to be punished. Why? So that the revenge is over. Where do we see justice in this, when all bad that had to happen has happened. And in the name of justice, all we self correcting puritans are doing is to commit more atrocities with a majority will. That’s inhuman again. Is such punishment a self correcting mechanism for society to reach Utopian echelons Or is it something else? Cannot we see that humanity breeds humanity? Cannot we actually make a man out of a beast? Cannot we, for once, remember what ‘He’ told us all? Ahimsa. What exactly is the euphoria for, when she is dead? How is it that, we have just accepted that rapes are perpetual epidemics? and that the rapists should be punished with no cap to severity? Why cant we talk it over with the vulnerable rapists? Yes, rapists are also vulnerable. They don’t rise up from underneath to just rape around. They are people like us, mostly uneducated, idol, trying to figure out cheap ways of having pleasure in this costly lifestyle. Its not that easy to just equate our upbringing with theirs. As has been said, ‘Every man is a product of his own society’. Remember the schools you went to, the restaurants your family took you to, the clubs, the functions, the morning prayers, the festivals. All that made you what you are today. Back to them, I think they missed it all. They missed the chance of walking on the sensibly civilized way. As a society, lets us tackle the problem down-up rather that top down. That can help reach the utopia. Revenge wont. There would be no lessons learnt, as we have no idea, who is having a chance right now, to rape whom. We simply don’t. Lets fix it the noble way, the Indian way. Amen.

3 comments:

Ashima said...

ntoN I feel suffering is another name of girls.U know exactly the same way I felt.I have been reading status of people on Facebook that Justice has been served.But I feel Nirbhaya has gone.The suffering which she suffered is unimaginable.And now what?These rapists will be hanged.What have they suffered? And till when these issues will take place?Rape and then Hanged till death.Obviously There should be more.These people should be told and educated about it.Well written Neeraj!Kudos..

Unknown said...

It will be an ideal world where punishment is not required. This can be said for every crime, not only rape. But its not an ideal world and we can't create one. I think giving strong punishment also sends a message to vulnerable rapists and may be eventually helps in reducing the actual number of rapists.

Unknown said...

Good one, definitely the flip side.. Now let us have a look at the flip side of your article.
Indian way you said, ok so do you really think we are the types who can be talked into doing things?
Are we the types who can generally agree to other person's point of view ?
We are actually those who do not want to get reformed. Whatever money or replacement we get in the name of development or rehabilitaion, we waste it or sell it further.
Do you really think that talking will help us ?
Think over again..

And offcourse, nice thought process :-)