Between cruelty and humanity

“Knowledge without character is dangerous and a man of knowledge without moral character is more dangerous than a wild beast,” said Dr. B.R. Ambadkar.

Human beings share various common traits with beasts, but humans alone have the propensity to control the beastly traits and raise above the beastly nature by developing righteousness and other human qualities. There are various characteristics that distinguish humans from beasts.

Rational apprehension, morality, sense of responsibility, social relations, values, make humans human in a profound sense. It is important to see what made me rethink this distinction. The unnecessary change in human behavior and actions intended to harm fellow humans transforms them into beasts.

With the result despite progress in various dimensions, the human realm is facing a serious crisis that has threatened peace security and harmony of our societies.

This is one of the reasons that violence and hatred rule our societies, peace, and harmony disappears from societies today. It is observed that a society deprived of peace and harmony certainly falls apart and return to the jungle era in which the strong, dominant prey on the weak.

The phenomenon of violence, dehumanization, and humiliation not only exists but the way it expands seems it is supported by established systems and ideologies. In this connection, human rights and values need to be prioritized that facilitate peace, harmony and social control. The wrong prioritizing is always the basic flaw that leads a society to catastrophic destruction.

It is in the capacity of the majority to do terrible things to the minority. One of the most unpleasant damage initiates in hegemony is the process of “dehumanization” because all sorts of cruelty come from it. It was Nazi ideology during the holocaust that exterminates millions of Jews in part. The act of extermination made them think of Jews as “subhuman” a class of objects, devoid of freedom, dignity and even life itself.

What happened in the Nazi concentration camps humans were reduced to working machines, treated like animals as means for labor. But a lot of what disgusted happened during that time were the acts of degradation and humiliation. The torture and slaughter of the oppressed were the pleasure and power for the oppressor.

The unpleasant phenomenon that occurred after a tragic Pulwama event. Kashmiri’s students, employees, and business class are experiencing fear and insecurity in different parts of India. They are being recognized terrorists before humans or anything else.

This approach dehumanizes Kashmiri’s and reduced them to “subhuman” category. With this hostile and unfriendly treatment, people of Kashmir find themselves alienated from a democratic country. I think whenever people failed to see humans as humans and failed to appreciate the humanity of another human, that’s the beginning of cruelty and inhumanity that further gives birth to harsh and harmful elements like atrocities, tortures genocide, slavery and so on.

However, a lot of really awful things will arise if the country’s general public failed to see the people of Kashmir as humans with honor and dignity instead of blameworthy people.

 Alas! the people of Kashmir finds India horrible today. They experience instrumental violence and humiliation. And the irony is people do it because they believe it is the only way to show love and loyalty to the nation. I call it “criminal patriotism”.

Since Kashmiri students, employees and business class people encounter ugly and violent faces of hyper-nationalists, peace and harmony have come into a sharp focus in rational political and social debates. But the questions remain who suffers? Who is in trouble?

Whenever such incidents happen it is Kashmiri general public who suffers. Kashmiri students who have been ruthlessly beaten threatened even rusticated. Businessmen who have been warned to close and leave.

Vehicles have been burnt, standard passengers were stoned. Patients are stuck and afraid to travel. Hotel managers refused to accommodate, shopkeepers wrote dogs but not Kashmir’s allowed and much more cruelty. I think this cruelty is born of the acts of dehumanization as well as certain psychological appetites, like an appetite to punish those who are being labeled as terrorists, doubted not loyal to the country and blamed for the wrong which they never did. Now not only the nation but the whole world wants to know,  how such sheer inhuman acts can be justified?

In this whole scenario, a Kashmiri civilian finds himself between cruelty and humanity. The whole scenario reveals two pictures one of (cruelty) and (humanity) the other.

The cruelty still rides on the streets of Jammu, Dehradun, Behar, Haryana, and many more places to harm  Kashmiri civilians. But “humanity” came to rescue “humanity”. The cruelty of those people hurt the conscience and contemplative aspects of Kashmiri people.

However, the poor and cruel treatment to the people of Kashmir unveils a “false-bond” between India and Kashmir. On the other hand, during the target violence and uprising Sikh community not only protected Kashmiri people but also provide them all necessary assistance.

The “great humans kings of the deed” won the hearts of the Kashmiri people by love and courtesy which rest of India failed to do from decades. It shows that the love and loyalty of Kashmiri people cannot be gained by power, domination, instrumental violence, hated and cruel tactics.

Time is to realize how terror, oppression, violation of rights, hatred, conflict and similar other instants are the great obstacles that upset the balance and stability of a society. It has devastating consequences for human life and society at large.

In such situations peace and harmony are fragile. The need is to focus on strengthening peace, harmony, and security, as well as stability.

Having said that, a crucial point needs to be taken into the highest consideration before thinking about the cultivation of peace and harmony that “you won’t be allowed to treat Kashmiri like garbage”. Furthermore, I believe If you have changed your approach to Kashmir and the people of Kashmir as I suggested in my earlier paper entitled, “Trouble in the Paradise”.

If you could have accepted Kashmiris your own people respected their dignity and identity without bigotry and bias. That approach might have made you the righteous ones, but you chose to remain just regular old biased Sanghi’s, hyper-nationalists, hatemongers.

When the people of Kashmiri is labeled as “terrorists” allegedly not loyal to nation-state etc. this terrible encounter recalls us the Sarterian phrase of the “other” as being “hell”. In this sense, our relationship or I shall say the “imaginary-bond” to the “other” is based on conflict because it leads one to objectify the “other” and the “other” tries to objectify them.

So this activity becomes a reciprocal activity of objectifying. In this whole course, we cannot succeed to establish relations on the optimistic ground where all humans could enjoy collectively freedom, equality, and social well being.

Thus we need to be conscious of our’s as well as other’s individuality, subjectivity, and freedom. We need to base our relationship on the purely democratic ground such a relationship should be “subject to subject” not as “master-slave ”.

Under a political shield, it's easy to behave like a beast, violate social and moral values. It's easy to preach hatred and violence. But let me remind you, do these elements help us to cultivate peace and prosperity?

Do you think this is the right way to make our societies balanced and harmonious?  If my thesis is right, then it’s foolish to think we can get rid of cruelty if only we got rid of those noxious ideologies that justify it. Ultimately, we require better ideas to practice, better ideologies to follow.

Our societies needs satisfied not hungry people. People who are less obsessed with power and honor and more concerned with human “rights”, “values”, “mindfulness” and “dignity to life”. It’s the best way to quell the appetites for dominance and punishment.