Politics of border-crossing in times of corona

If humanity has no ethics in confronting its enemies, why should Covid-19? Maybe, it’s a lesson at this juncture to change the ways in which the other is looked upon, the way we turn away the homeless exiles from our borders and the way we engage in merciless violence, leaving many in pain for their lost dear ones. Moreover, when the virus has struck in the ‘wet markets’ of meat-eating people, the question of the ethics of animal rights foregrounds not only the value of animals, but also of what

Shelley Walia

Professor and Fellow, English and Cultural Studies, Panjab University

In a world ridden with sectarian violence, uncontrolled terrorist killings and widespread demagoguery, a moral abyss, dark and deep, emerges in which pervasive repression and an upsurge of lawlessness against those considered disposable become the defining feature of our times. We realise that we have entered an age of uncertainty, and uncertainty breeds fear. There is an alarm of decline, alarm of the unknown, a kind of fear of strangers, fear of adjustment that is wearing away the trust and interdependence on which civil society rests. The spectre of terrorism, climate change and ruthless economics haunts people around the globe. Open societies rapidly take precautions against people on the move by closing their borders, sacrificing freedom and security. But what about the scourge of Covid-19, the unassailable invader?

In a world split by religion and hate crimes against ethnic minorities, the only reason that unites nations is the collective battle against one common enemy: the virus on the rampage. The civilisational aphorism is apparent: ‘Exterminate in the name of religion, but come together against the wrath of a stubborn antagonist.’ It is a historical fact that this strategy is also salient to nations where different religious and ethnic groups come together to throw the aggressor out. The anti-colonial wars are a striking example of the diverse forces uniting against the aggressor. The fences, thus, stand symbolically dismantled. And yet, though you want to be together, you fixate on self-quarantine or non-contact in human relations, which is your only defence at this dark moment.

Interestingly, the anger of the opponent’s ‘bigotry’ or ‘racism’ is against the entire human race, irrespective of race, gender or class. The microorganism respects no boundaries or religions, treating the world as one nation. Like the predatory forces of capitalism, it is everywhere. It has a single adversary which calls itself ‘humans’ but that stands divided unnaturally into varied nations and religions. Using Machiavellian tactics of remaining latent and deceptive for days, as in the parallel of the Greek myth of the Trojan Horse, the virus silently spreads its snake-like venom into the enemy camp deceived by its oblivious existence within.

Like the Trojan Horse computer virus, it maliciously damages and inflicts paralysis on the humans. Initially seeming mild, it surreptitiously turns lethal, ready to mutate to keep the epidemiologists on tenterhooks. Labs around the globe scramble to meet the insurmountable challenge and virologists set to work to develop diagnostic tests for the new enemy. The triumph of modern medical science that the human race has been so arrogant about now embarrassingly flounders.

The united armies of nations are at a loss, with no sophisticated fighter planes or nuclear missiles potent enough to obliterate it. Though this time around, there are again seemingly only two superpowers: the humans and the novel coronavirus, now known as SARS-CoV-2. It is the humans who remain outdone and mortified with their superciliousness flattened by the indomitable forces of nature. Brought to its knees by a power unheard of before, it struggles to wage a fight against an enemy it cannot see. The target is there on the screen, but no bullet is there in our arsenal, lethal enough against its invincibility. It remains as undetectable as the US bombers, cold-bloodedly targeting their enemies on their computer screens from 30,000 feet above the earth. A face-to-face confrontation, as in the times of Homeric wars, is indeed, unheard of in advanced technological warfare that looks more of a masquerade than a war. Jean Baudrillard, the French sociologist, had similarly argued in his book The Gulf War did not take place that the Iraq war was conducted as a media spectacle. The real violence was systematically overwritten by a video game or an electronic narrative of simulation far from being an ethical war.

Correspondingly, the creepy-crawly remains evasive and imperceptible, attacking its victims on the sly, and without a war cry. And we humans on the receiving end remain helpless and frail in the face of a fully-programmed assault. Donald Trump’s nuclear arsenal, or the armoured vehicles of the Revolutionary Islamic Guard in Iran carrying the banners declaring ‘Operation Crackdown on the Coronavirus’, or PM Narendra Modi’s ‘56-inch chest’ are of no consequence. The dominant nations of the world are indeed caught flatfooted for once in the face of the speed of the spread of the enemy that is unheard of in the history of modern combat warfare.

Deeply ideological and aesthetic questions arise from such a belligerence. One thing is loud and clear; the ethics of war are apparently missing in the history of our civilisation except in the Hellenic period. If humanity has no ethics in confronting its enemies, why should the Covid-19? Maybe, it is a lesson at this juncture to change the ways in which the other is looked upon, the way we turn away the homeless exiles from our borders and the way we so heartlessly engage in merciless violence, leaving many in pain for their lost dear ones. Moreover, when the virus has struck in the ‘wet markets’ of meat-eating people, the question of the ethics of animal rights foregrounds not only the value of animals, but also of what it is to be human.

Thanks to this Armageddon, we urgently need to strategise continually to defend ourselves through some semblance of principled behaviour towards those we inhumanly consider our enemies. Maybe, we need to learn to keep our environment clean with absolute respect for nature as well as for human and animal rights. The human crisis we face should somewhat blunt our racist or carnivorous appetite, a manifestation of our apathetic concern for the world we live in. Our nemesis lies in our assault not only on nature, but also on our very own species. For too long we have considered the scales enormously on our side, allowing great harm to the world around us for the sake of benefits. It is now payback time.