Detective Beckett: “They
are just clothes.”
Teddy (dress
designer): “Just clothes detective! Clothes are civilisation. Clothes are what separates
us from animals.”
Detective Beckett: “...Not
always”
~Castle Season 2
Episode 3 – “Inventing the girl”
A friend of mine once teasingly told me that as we evolved
into humans from apes our body hair reduced and since she (being one of those
lucky females) hardly had any body hair she was more human than me. I know some
people who believe that wearing branded clothes makes them better than those
who wear clothes bought off the street. The city people believe they are more
cultured than villagers, who in turn feel they are better than the forest
dwellers. The whole concept of western civilisation is based on west being more
civil and some believe that it is through emulating the western model of
development and culture can one be more ‘civil’ or by extension more ‘human’.
What is it that makes us human? Clothes? Culture? Money?
In Delhi, a couple went on a holiday to Thailand locking
their 13-year-old maid behind. They threatened her not to touch the food or
else they will beat her when they will return. They had cctv cameras installed
in the house to track her movements. The newspaper report went on to say that
the girl had uneven hair and bruise marks showing that she was habitually
abused. As the couple went on a vacation to Thailand, it is safe to assume that
a) they were literate and b) they were well-off and probably wore branded
clothes. So do they qualify as humans?
This incident is not exclusive.
“Geeta, Priyanka
and Parul were 12, 9 and 7 respectively when they were sent to work at the
house of Manish and Ritu Gupta in Faridabad, Haryana, in January 2006. Priyanka
and Parul would wash the clothes and manage the household cleaning (which included
scrubbing the washrooms barehanded with acid), and Geeta would do the kitchen
work. By the girls’ account, punishment in the Gupta household for slip-ups at
work was nothing if not sadistic. Being locked into a wet bathroom on winter
nights was perhaps the mildest. Beatings with dumbbells and cricket bats were
common; the children would be gagged so their screams would not be heard. “When
we did not finish our work on time,” says Parul, “Madam (Ritu Gupta) would
throw our food into the commode from where we picked it up to eat.” During the
two years the children worked for the Guptas, they neither got any money nor
were they allowed to visit their homes. Says Geeta, “I was desperate to call my
parents, and I once became adamant about it. She (Ritu Gupta) snatched the
paper on which I had the number, put chillies in my eyes and tied me naked to
the kitchen door. She did not give me food for the next five or six days.”
Geeta says Manish Gupta attempted to rape her several times. He also shot
Priyanka in the thigh with an airgun, apparently because he thought she ate too
much. “They did not even call a doctor after that,” Priyanka says. Manish Gupta
is an architect; his wife is what is commonly referred to as an ‘educated’
woman'.” (From Tehelka)
Do these people qualify as humans? These are people we see
and meet every day. An acquaintance told me about her friend who was studying
in IIT-Delhi at that time. He was her neighbour and they had a teenage boy as
their domestic help. She told me that once after a party, this friend and his
sister went to their mother and said the help should not be given such good
clothes as everyone in the party thought that he was their sibling. In another
incident, their mother was worried about her security when construction work
was taking place near her house. She locked herself and her dog inside the
house during night and made the help sleep outside. These episodes make you
wonder if there is something critically wrong with our education system or just
with our conscience.
“A man becomes what his society rewards him to become.”
~ Amish Tripathi in Immortals of Meluha
Unfortunately our society rewards only the rich and
glorifies their action which makes other in the society emulate them. There are
no rewards for being nice or for having qualities that once defined humanity. It
is our actions and our sensitivity to those around us that makes us human. But
this sensitivity brings us no rewards, which is why it is not a treasured
virtue. In the race for filling coffers and imitating the rich, humans have
forgotten humanity.
In his book 'The Division of Labour in Society' (1893), renowned sociologist Emile Durkheim talks about collective conscience. He says early societies had moral basis for being integrated. Modern society, on the other hand, has weaker collective conscience and is held by complex division of labour. I suppose there is a lot of truth in that. If the moral fibre is weak, what then defines humanity? It seems 'to err a human' is not an exception but a norm. As Dr.Gregory House (from the popular series House) tells his junior Dr. Cameron, "Your problem is that you expect people to do the right thing." I suppose that is a problem. But the following sequence helps me make my point: House: “You, on the other hand, continue to be flabbergasted every time someone actually acts like a human being. Foreman did what he did because it worked out best that way for him. That's what everyone does.”
Cameron: “That is not the definition of being a human. That is the definition of being an ass.”
~House Season 2 Episode 18 – “Sleeping Dogs Lie”
There it is. Selfish and malicious acts are not 'being human'. The modern society has given each one a fair share of problems. Some have received more that their share and some less, but the least we can do is make sure that we are not adding to someone else's woes and be a little more sensitive to those around us. Doing that is the first step towards being human.
