While studying history in school, I always wondered, how stupid was the whole world that it took them direct poke from Germany to consider what it was doing to Jews as a genocide and “save” them. I always wondered, why was it that in the freedom struggle of India, why it took so much time for Indians or Africans to gather courage and call out wrong as wrong. Why was it that when Dusshasan was undressing Draupadi in a huge court, nobody, not even widely proclaimed legends of the time came forward to question it, let alone stop it?
The perpetrators of violence are always powerful, the victims helpless and the bystanders hide behind the reasoning of confusion. Ever looked at a home of domestic violence carefully enough? Is it not the same there too? But there’s also always a war of narrative going on simultaneously.
A river flows stained red – people stand in horror and aghast. When they try to investigate where the colour red comes from, some would say they’ve come from the origin of the river and that it’s stained because some cosmos or bixa orllena fell into it and some would say they’ve witnessed a whole town was slaughtered and thrown into the river. You’d think looking at decapitated arms or legs surfacing you’d be sure of what has happened, but either you’ll receive a blindfold, a gag or shown remnants of some flower flowing in the blood-stained river.
Why are we shocked that nobody is saying anything outright? It is like you haven’t seen people shut their doors and windows on listening to the cries of a woman being beaten up at her home; it’s like you didn’t see the whole world keep mum when Kashmiri pandits were incinerated and outed from their homes; when Hitler kept making soaps of jews’ skins, because they were ‘not sure’, because the woman could be at fault, or because the perpetrators were too crazy and it was risky. But aren’t all perpetrators crazy?
The saviours come, after several votings, informal panchayats, and vetoes, in their own precious time, when the destruction has happened, and as and when they are safest to extract maximum benefits. Until then, the bystanders debate, perpetrators continue the massacre, and the victims know the reality that this cannot be heaven, for it is the worst hell.
