Few people are born without the capacity for sin, like Kabir and Jesus are said to have been. Most of the rest have the demon lurking inside, waiting to take control; and if they do not act on impulse, it is because of an understanding of the consequences. Some will not do wrong because they do not wish to disappoint their parents; or be shamed before their children; or because they care for their wives. Some care for their standing in society, while others simply fear retributive justice.
At the same time, however, there are those in society who are either ‘allowed’ to break the law, or forcibly do so, overcome by desire, greed or anger. The average citizen can abide by the law because of the ability to distinguish between right and wrong. His or her circumstances in life permit the ability to discriminate. On the other hand, there are a large number of persons whose living conditions are such that they live all the time in contravention of some law or the other. Merely to exist, they have to pay off those in power at every step in their lives; be it to occupy a stretch of the payment to sleep on, or make a living in the unforgiving urban environment. After years and years of this, they lose the ability to distinguish between right or wrong. The same act is alright, if the payoff is made; otherwise, it is wrong. They see around them people having to endure injustice on a regular and unending basis, without relief from the system. Even in the thana, so very often, gratification of various kinds helps wrongdoers escape the consequences of their actions.
In such a world of dog eat dog, how does one retain a moral compass? How does the person make the distinction between laws that ‘have’ to be broken to satisfy the urge to survive, and those that ‘cannot’ be broken no matter how strong an urge? If a person’s entire existence is sub-human, where does he or she acquire a ‘human’ value system, or the ability to practice restraint?
There was a time when there was a concept of ‘paap’ and ‘punya’ that pervaded society, which was central to the religion one practiced. It can be seen, however, that religion has withdrawn from this underbelly of society. The garish and materialistic turn religion has taken pushes this section of society to the shadowy margins. (Witness the unwashed, underfed slum child carrying the lights in a marriage procession – ubiquitously present, but invisible.) Priests and preachers will not venture into their world, except to perform the mandatory ritual. Practiced religion is more or less a middle-class activity. Godmen teach how to manage one’s millions, rather than the demons within.
How should mainstream society react to such a state of affairs? Ratcheting street protests up to hysterical levels is not a very different lack of restraint as exhibited by some sexually frustrated pedophile, or blood-thirsty terrorist. Predators can only be identified and tracked when their actions can be seen apart from those of others. Unfortunately, in the free-for-all that passes for Indian society today, who can make the distinction? Certainly not the confused and impotent cops, striving hard to defend a system that attacks itself! India’s weak and defenceless are paying the price.
