Pissing on Democracy

A man standing and peeing into the face of a tribal Dalit boy is a video that has shaken even the increasingly callous soul of new India. The boy sat helplessly as the urine poured on to his face as the tormentor went on with an almost deadpan expression on his face as he performed the ghastly, hideous act. The reason why the Dalit boy sat through it was simple – the choice was between silence and death. He chose the former as any person in a similar situation would, as if he had not he would have been thrashed to an inch of his life. And more.

Not a day passes really with some such incident, of an attack, of lynchings, of violent beatings with the targets being muslims, christians, dalits, tribals and of course women over and over again. Many of them are reported through videos, often made by the perpetrators of the violence. One wonders at a system where riches and power and fame and glory are cited as development but the underbelly of India remains full of communal and caste hate, poverty, illness, gender bias, violence that is fast becoming the norm.

How can such base and cruel action be condoned and protected? A country cannot be seen as developed if the faultlines are so gaping, the chasm so wide, where large sections of the people cannot even speak out for fear of their lives. And have to tolerate abuse on a daily basis with no relief. Instead of resolving these gaps, we have moved to add more and more people to the low end of the fence. Instead of lending a hand to pull the underprivileged and the discriminated over the fence, our system and our prejudice and our hate is actually serving to push more and more people into the abyss.

It is all very well for the US President and his administration to give India a red carpet chit where democracy is concerned. He needs to as his democracy too is faltering, where racism abounds, where women still do not have full rights such as equal pay for equal work, where migrants are looked upon with suspicion and prejudice, and where walls are built to segregate humanity.

Where Biden is now all set to hold a democracy summit in Africa to teach the Africans the importance of democracy. This would have been laughable had it not had such a tragic gory past — in the decades long imprisonment of Nelson Mandela described as a ‘terrorist’ by these very same leaders of the so called western democratic world, the arrest, dismemberment and hideous murder of the former President of Congo by the western powers, and the apartheid regime that was guilty of some of the most barbaric crimes the world has ever known.

Democracy was seen to be a good form of government as inbuilt into at least the Constitution of India is equality and justice for all. The practice,however, has failed to deal with societal reforms, social equity, and true equality to a point where a man can openly piss on the face of a person simply because he is a Dalit. Where a minister can use his position for sexual assault and harassment of women, and even when found out stay in the post with the full knowledge that he will not have to bear the consequences of his action. Where groups of vigilantes can move around with impunity, attacking and killing Muslims confident that even if arrested they will be released almost immediately. Where a state of India can burn for weeks on end, with no action or a word from the governments in power. Where citizens are pitted against each other, as pawns in a political game.

Lopsided development creates fissures. Prejudice and hate divides society. Both feed into each other with increasing viciousness. The tensions of inequality and injustice tear into the democratic fabric which cannot be mended easily, as we have long since lost our master weaver with his charkha of secular harmony and democratic dreams.