The Matrix of Marginality

It is an irony that recent incidents such as the chopping off of a living human body into several pieces, granting remission to rapists, and release of those who committed heinous social crimes against Dalits, provide ample grounds for us to position ourselves in a matrix within which an enlightenment project is threatening to take a dystopian turn. It has seemingly trapped humanity in its barbaric logic, which is otherwise constitutive of peace-loving beings. The editorial comment in the current issue of EPW brings the much wider context of such a matrix to our critical notice within which it seeks to position the barbaric act of the tormentors who were driven by superstitions, on the one hand, and the challenge that the left parties in Kerala have to mount for creating a robust social basis for enlightenment, on the other. It also argues for taking a consistent position through one’s moral assessment as to where does one stand vis-à-vis such barbaric acts that jeopardise humanity.

It is important to examine as to where does one stand on the ethical scale of acquiring a decent humanhood. Achieving such a state of being depends upon expanding the moral and ethical basis of our society. This can be done by taking on board and accounting for what we owe to each other. This consists of all those who situate their sense of reciprocal concerns in a community of shared principles that exists well beyond the narrow frames of caste and religion. As human beings, they owe equal moral worth to each other. One could perhaps define humanhood in terms of going beyond narrow social confines by refraining from subjecting other human beings to horrendous violence inflicted by tormentors who, in some cases, also enjoy the protection of the ruling party.