If the cure is not right, or when the patient cannot trust the ‘“‘doctor’’ the prevention should be tried. The social scientists have outlined the fol. lowing strategies:

  1. When a _ powerless population does not get protection, keeping arms for self-defense is the only answer. Arming for self-defense by a considerable number of Black Panthers in the U.S.A., did eliminate the vulnerability of the black population to the “Guilt Free Massacre.”
  2. The strategy of persuasion, reason, moral pressure, civil disobedience should also be tried. They all work if the other party is ethical or believe in some moral values.
  3. Most of the guilt free massacres take place because of the “‘irresponsibility at the higher level.” In the case of Delhi riots, the prosecution of Bhagat, Tytler, Commissioners of Police, two deputy commissioners and three assistant commissioners could produce the desired impact. Prosecutions of high level officials make the violations very visible and bring credibility to the strategy system.
  4. Civilian judiciary of India, whatever is left of it in India, is the logical place to bring top level officials to account. But we must note that the process is very slow and to find witness is not an easy task. It is also a very expensive and frustrating route.

THE INDIAN PSYCHE

The directionless Indian Psyche is gradually losing its ‘“‘capacity to feel.” The psychological aberrations and the moral disintegration have reached a very advanced stage of brutalization. There are some serious historical contradictions between what Indian _ scriptures say and what Indians do. Communal riots serve as a psychological crucible for the doubts and misgivings, the whole nation is developing. The common man has become the agent and the victim of this directionless violent psyche. He has been desensitized to indiscriminate killing by giving all kinds of rationalization. The rationalizations may be, “that it never happened’”’ and, ‘‘besides, they deserved it.’ This emotional detachment and logical self-contradiction seems to serve a common purpose namely, self-centeredness. Koestler writing for his famous article, “‘on disbelieving atrocities” in the New York Time magazine, has this to say about this paradoxical emotional detachment. “You shake yourself like puppies that got their fur wet; then the transparent screen descends again, and you walk on, protected by the dream barrier which stifles all sounds.”

Denial, doubts and justification seems to dominate the Indian psyche. Justification can take the form of blaming the victims. Such phrases as enemies, subnormal’s, for the sake of the national unity, “when a great tree falls, the earth is bound to shake’” are used with compulsiveness intended to produce distortions, disassociation, leading to the mitigation of bloodlust sadism.

The intellectuals use denial defense mechanism to cover the barbarism that they see. Darshan Singh Maini’s article entitled ‘“‘The Politics of Retribution” which ends with an ‘‘advice’’ to the Sikhs (the illustrated weekly of India, January 1985) is a good example of this defense mechanism.

SOCIOPATHIC PERSONALITY AND VIOLENCE

Many empirical and explanations of sociopath etic behavior leading to violence have been quoted in the recent psychiatric literature. Sociopaths are usually very superficial, shallow and transient, in their emotional behavior. At times, the sociopath, because of his poor control and impulsivity demonstrates emotions even more intensely than do normal people. A sociopath who has no capacity to identifying with people treats people and objects at the same level. He seeks arousal through propaganda, fear, and violence. It may be that Indians are becoming a nation controlled and ruled by the power hungry sociopaths. I hope I am wrong.

Article extracted from this publication >> March 1, 1985