A spiritless country

It was shocking to see that day on TV how rudely a “student” was talking to a college professor. I use double-quotes because he no way looked a student. He out and out looked like a — what we call them in India — gunda, a goon. After a heated verbal exchange the 64-year-old professor was badly beaten up and he succumbed to his injuries at the very spot and some 20,000 spectators merely looked on. The police, present in ample number, didn’t intercede.

Without underplaying the tragedy of the professor’s murder, I’d like to say the bigger tragedy was the crowd that didn’t save the professor. I don’t want to talk about the police because it anyway doesn’t do much here in India — in fact its presence is more of a nuisance than a sense of security. I don’t even want to talk about the students because anyway they were not students. But the people?

They had all known Professor Sabharwal for years. He had taught in that college perhaps all his teaching career. The tragedy is, in front of your so-called friends and acquaintances — 1000s of them — any small-time goon can beat you and kill you. What’s wrong with our people? This is appalling. I think this inertia is going to prove fatal for our country. There were so many people witnessing the incident that even if 10% had applied one-blow-each to those goons it would have been harder to even find their bones. Why couldn’t they realize such a small thing?

In a similar incident a few days ago a family of 5 were swept away by the surging waters in Rajasthan. For 11 hours they kept on screaming for help but no one — neither the authorities nor the civilians — made a sincere effort to save them. It’s simply unbelievable that nothing could be done for 11 hours. Again, I won’t talk about the administration because they couldn’t arrange even a lousy helicopter to get the family out. But the people?

Are we so helpless? Are we so meek? These incidents make me ashamed of being an Indian. Now when I connect all the pieces, India has been conquered again and again in the past — first by the Muslim invaders and then by the British — precisely for this reason. We are very good at cleaning up the mess. We valiantly got the independence. We help each other after devastating natural disasters, riots and terrorist attacks and shed copious sentimental tears while doing that. Our chests fill with pride when we chase away the Pakistanis (a tiny nation compared to India) after every war. We love to be victims, and we are proud survivors.

But when it comes to tackling problems and attacks in a manner like taking the bull by its horns, we either flee or watch meekly. We are either caught by surprise, or by fear and inertia. We are good at screaming for help in the times of attacks on us, but when our neighbor or a fellow civilian is attacked, we choose to look the other way. A few years ago a mentally-challenged, minor girl was raped by multiple men in the presence of other passengers. Can it happen in some other country? I don’t think so.

Nobody can feel safe like this.