Social Evil: The Four People

There’s a phrase in India, a very common phrase, char log kya kahenge? (What will people say?) And yet no one knows who those people are.

These 4 words have destroyed many dreams. It has stopped a bud from blooming, a caterpillar from transiting and a seed from growing.

I came across an article by SUPERCALIFRAGILISTICEXPIALIDOCIOUS named The Mysterious Four. It is about same char log kya kahenge which she ends by asking who those four people are. I am going to answer her. Though, my answers may not be work of genius, still what’s the harm in trying?

Also, I feel that these four people are interrelated to each other. One is the result of other; the other is created by the third and so on. Without further delay…

Let’s get started, shall we?

• Society

The society, in which we grew up, has certain rules which the people living in it are expected to follow them. Otherwise how will those in power be in power anymore if the democracy prevails in nation? How will those upper class people be respected if the lower ones will not be treated as inferior? How will the patriarchal ego be soothed if the women will not be suppressed? How will the normal ones live if the LGBT will be accepted? How will be comfort enjoyed if someone takes risk? How will a particular profession will be respectable if others are given equal importance?

Yes, the society that we live in, we grew up in and the generations will continue to reside in is a social evil.

Oh, no, no, no, don’t get started with that it does not happen in urban areas, these rules are only followed in villages. No, my dear, even in those urban areas this still exists. If it was the case, then the newspaper headlines wouldn’t have been about the politician’s son, who drank and drove, killing 3 people just because he thought he is the son of esteemed dignity, so he can do anything.

• Thinking

These societal rules, as we know, are ages old. The rules were formulated and made by the ancestors who died ages ago, were reborn, died and again reborn and may be today, they are currently living their 255th birth and suffering for what they did in their 1st birth (karma, karma all the way). These rules have been in our society for so long that now they have became the integrated part of our beliefs and thinking. These rules are no longer any rules; they are now norms and a way of life that no one wants to change. Because duh! We should blindly follow what our elders say. And being a rebel is going to get wiper, slippers and rolling pin all over your face, hands and legs.

“Bol karega tu? Phir karega aise?”, “Aise kapde pehan kar jayegi tu bahar?”,”Tune doctor hi bana hai!” “Kitne bar bolna padega ladkio ke saath na ghuma kar”

English Translation: “Say, will you? Will you do this again?”, “Are you going out wearing this kind of clothes?”, “You have be doctor”, “How many times should I tell you to not to hang out with girls?”

Haven’t we all grown up listening to all this?

Though, times are changing and India is progressing, but still there are many places where it still exists. People are not ready to accept and embrace the change because they feel what they have been taught and their thinking is right.

 

 

• Discrimination

If the thinking is generations old, the result will be what was practiced in those times – discrimination. Discrimination on the basis of caste, creed, gender, age, sexuality, clothes, physical disability, profession, etc. is a social evil. In fact, I feel any differentiation (in a bad way) is being discriminating. The person who is discriminated, feels inferior, he loses his self-esteem and confidence in himself. Discrimination is a mental torture. A person knows how it feels, is the person who has gone through it. These age old discrimination are no longer relevant in today’s world. Progress in science and technology has demolished the reasons (health and hygiene) for the discrimination that might have been relevant in those times. But today, they are no longer relevant.

An open-minded and accepting perspective needs to be adopted for the complete extinction of discrimination.

• Fear

The last of those four people is fear. The society, the thinking and the discrimination has inculcated a deep fear in hearts of people. The fear of not being socially accepted, being an outcast. It is the fear because of which the people don’t want to accept the change. The fear that others are gonna badmouth about them, they will be ill-famed and they won’t be able to live in the society anymore.

This fear has made several of us to be congested in the four walls of the house.

The society with backward thinking; led to discrimination; which resulted in fear.

We need a change; a revolutionary change that will lead to a open-minded, free thinking and accepting society, where a being will not be stopped from pursuing his/her dreams in the fear of what people will say? A person will not be refrained from their basic rights, where he/she will live with dignity and respect, others will look at them with acceptance if not affection; the person will live with freedom, safety and honor. That’s when the nation and its people will truly gain autonomy.

And this change is going to begin from us. Accept and encourage that one should be allowed to do what they want to do, live the way they want and how they want as long as it does not harm anyone. Change, Accept and Encourage.