Unfading memory of riots

Manju Gupta

IN the thirty years of my practice, their number has decreased and I used to think that there will come a time when none will be left. Fresh out of medical school, brimming with bookish knowledge, more idealistic than worldly wise, it bothered me no end. Back then, it was common for my elderly patients to calculate their age from the riots of the partition, as in ‘Maar kaat ke waqt mein dus saal ki thi’. Being a border state it was expected that it bore the brunt of the violence surrounding our independence. But I still found it disconcerting that it was all they remembered of that time. 

And then one day a patient asked me how it mattered, ‘Raja kaun hai kya farak padta hai, hum toh rank hi rahenge, khet tab jot te the, khet ab jot te hain’. Although he had a point, I still found it unsettling that for many people in this part of the country the year 1947, is called ‘maar kaat’ and brought only tragic memories. It is sad that the birth of independent India was overshadowed by labour pains of such magnitude that the baby itself lay ignored.

As I mentioned, the number of people who remember the Partition has declined over the years. But recently, quite unexpectedly, a Sikh patient told me that he was about 12 years old at the time of the riots. I looked at him with surprise. He seemed around 40, maybe a well preserved 50 but not a day older. And then it dawned on me. He was talking about 1984 riots, which followed Indira Gandhi’s assassination. With mob violence becoming a recurring theme, our society will always have people fighting the demons of the past: people who were caught in the crossfire and scarred for life. 

I am not a social scientist but interact with enough people to understand that such incidents have ramifications beyond the individual. This is a social trauma and affects the way we think and function. The hurt lingers on and becomes the victim’s identity. The thread of trust is broken, irreparably, in most cases. Victims feel betrayed and have difficulty in trusting friends and neighbours. 

The repercussions don’t end here. It affects economic growth too. People avoid places associated with unpleasant memories for education or livelihood. The worst fallout is the creation of ghettos. Victims start believing in the safety of numbers and gravitate towards their own kind. In rural Haryana, it is common to have whole villages dominated by one caste. Even in urban India such separation exists with entire colonies inhabited by a particular sect. The segregation of society on the lines of religion and caste is never good. 

These incidents of violence, communal or otherwise, are on the rise. With prejudice and preconceived notions deeply etched in our intellect, distrust and suspicion in our hearts, discontent and resentment brewing in our minds and our blood simmering with contempt, it is not surprising that we boil over at the smallest provocation. 

Till the time we fully understand and eradicate this mindset the only solution is to forgive, forget and move on. Resilience, the ability to bounce back is our only saviour. Personal resilience is more common than perceived and almost half of the subjects in a study conducted by George Bonanno had it. It is not a lack of emotion but the ability to function despite the grief, a quality which needs to be bolstered. 

Social order thus falls on the shoulders of the common man who is able to see the futility of communalism and understands Gandhi;s words: “This lawlessness is a monster with many faces. It hurts all in the end, including those who are primarily responsible for it.”

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