Symposium - Ending Atrocties A Personal Note in Exploration
Historian Yehuda Bauer enunciated three commandments as the human imperative following the Jewish Holocaust: "Thou shalt not be a victim. Thou shalt not be a perpetrator. Above all, thou shalt not be a bystander."
I should like to re-emphasize that I think of the Symposium as a starting point for a three or five year action-research project into the socio-pathology of riot atrocities, with the explicit purpose of strengthening civil society, and its organizations against the perpetration of communal atrocities; establishing early warning indicators; training civil society activists to act in time; and producing workable recommendations to governments to establish administrative measures which could come into operation almost 'automatically' to prevent communal atrocities from taking place.
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A key objective is recommending and supporting effective governmental measures to prevent Atrocities and large-scale communal violence
After the massive famines of the 19th century the Indian government created the famous Famines Codes, early warning systems that triggered measures which have prevented famines till now, despite large-scale hunger. Civil Society also needs a set of discernible early warning signals that atrocities between communities could occur if forming social attitudes continue to go unchallenged.
Training of civil society bodies and strengthening of communities are required to resist and defuse potentially violent situations.
Some Keywords that come to mind in the area of:
Governance, Political Policy, and Administrative Issues Responsible Timely Governmental Actions; Shared Political Responsibility across Party lines; Blocking out External Political Force; Better Governmental focus on issues of Social Justice; Legal Punishment for Evil-Doers whatever their rank; the Protection of Minorities; Social Education for Respect of Women; Long-term Psychiatric Care of people suffering from Trauma occasioned by violence.
I read together Donald Horowitz's book, The Deadly Ethnic Riot, and Clark McCauley's paper on genocide to get a preliminary understanding how major riots occur, and mob violence turns into 'ethnic cleansing.'
The preventive administrative prescriptions come out clearly. If genocides are created by a government's actions, or inactions, so are major riots, if not actually instigated by governmental forces, then enabled to happen through culpable negligence, and delays in taking timely forcible action. Both Horowitz and McCauley identify the 'lull' between a 'provocative' act and the occurrence of large-scale violence. The history of events in India, when riots have been prevented by firm governmental action being taken during the lull bears ample witness to the truth of this premise. If the sense of impunity is sharply reduced by timely measures, 'the construction of a so-called moral consensus,' and 'shared outrage and intention for violence' must also be blocked by a set of actions. We must also not forget Foucault's chilling reminder that State sponsored brutality is an integral part of the 'policing' by the modern 'security state.' Or, is atrocity a new tactic in the third world armoury for one group to establish 'hegemony' over the other, and have the subordinated group accept as 'normalcy' a life of threat, servility, and conditional survival? And why does India burn where economic growth is most evident, first in the Punjab, and now in Gujarat?
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A key objective is to educate and empower civil society bodies to take effective societal preventive measures against the commission of large-scale acts of violence
In my experience, the immediate defusing of false rumours of purposeful attacks by the 'other,' on sacred symbols, and 'our people'-especially stories of rape of women, is important and should be scotched as soon as possible, through senior representatives of the community itself.
Some Keywords that come to mind in the area of:
Socio-Economic Inter-Community Interactions Un-Prejudicial Education; Less-Skewed Access to Resources; Lessening of Poverty, and Unemployment; Removal of Lumpen Leadership and Inter-Communal biases; Lessening of Frustrations among Youth; Lessening of Societal Stresses of Modernization; Gender Equality; Caste Equality; Dispelling Rumours.
Smelser's 'growth of generalized belief,' Le Bon's 'group mind,' and the construction of shared outrage, as detailed by Brown and Horowitz depends to some extent on the belief in the authenticity of stories of provocation. Sudhir Kaker calls such moments 'switching to a community mind.' How does 'responsibility' move from the individual to the 'group level?' If in the century that separates us from LeBon, we have come to see that the crowd 'is qualitatively different' with its own 'emergent mind,' what are the discreet social processes that contribute to 'structural conduciveness, structural strain, growth and spread of generalised belief, precipitating factors, mobilisation for action and absence of social control?'
The terror-management theory, mentioned in McCauley's paper on genocide, requires a degree of self belief to lead towards 'categorical killing,' for a cause 'more important than life,' in support of which people are willing to take and give life - a cause, which is a 'way of life, or world-view that gives meaning to life and meaning to death.'
Ashutosh Varshney wisely points to the breakdown, or effective lack, of economic inter-dependency between communities as a societal factor that permits motivated political forces to engender acts of communal or ethnic violence. If such interdependent linkages exist they form an 'institutionalized peace system.' Economic historians have pointed to the existence of such economic inter-dependence among castes and communities in the pre-colonial period, which effectively maintained overall social harmony despite occasional religious conflicts.
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A key objective is fostering better understanding between communities of strongly-held beliefs and values
I think we need to explore how the Socialization of people into Evil takes place; and what Psychological, Cultural, Religious, and Value boundaries have to be crossed, or eroded, to enable great numbers to perpetrate atrocities in public. Despite Indians being formed out of more than 4,500 communities and 28,000 endogamous 'families,' there is little appreciation among communities of each other's cultural or religious values, or histories.
Some Keywords that come to mind in the area of:
Culture, Religion, Myth and History
Re-reading Colonial Histories; Dialoguing on Traditional Social Biases; Exploring Differences, Similarities; Understanding what is 'fundamental, what is 'fanatic;' Dialoguing on what is 'spiritual,' what is 'secular;' Understanding the roles of Myths, concepts of the Apocalyptic, the Eschatological; Re-stating the nature of 'Community'.
The attitudes that produce atrocities in different parts of the world, in my belief, are far more dangerous for humanity as a whole than a virus borne disease such as AIDS. It can tear us all apart, for the forces are not confined to one set of communities, but arise out of the inter-linkage of all - 9/11 has demonstrated that.
Robert Lifton's work comes to mind; his concepts of 'psychic numbing,' 'doubling of self,' to be able to create atrocities. He also identifies the Apocalyptic vision of 'destroying the world to save it.' Much of his work dealt with the social process of brutalization under the Nazis, especially of ordinary doctors turned into vulgar killers at death camps. In a way their psychic history is similar to that of other torturers, as noted by the present-day International Rehabilitation Council for Torture Victims (IRCT) in Copenhagen.
Perhaps, the first barrier is crossed in tribal jokes about the other groups incompetence, jokes about Sikhs, Irish, Arabs. Then there is stereotyping: "Dalits are like., Brahmins are like., Blacks are like., WASPS are like.." The next barrier is the sullen resentment of people 'who take away jobs,' as working-class Germans voiced about professional Jews even in the 19th century, or as the British do about Patels and their corner stores. Business competition is at the bottom of much anti-Muslim hatred. But all this does not yet lead to Atrocity, even if there is government or majority community support, for ordinary people have to live with themselves, go home to families where they must behave in an accepted manner.
Why do all atrocities always involve sexual assault? Are there deep-seated sexual insecurities, anxieties in perpetrators? Why do they Defile the Womb? Is it akin to what Lifton calls 'destroying to save?' Many creation myths feature incest among Gods, unacceptable behaviour. Are they destroying the other's Womb, who in their understanding has already defiled their own purity? How do we change the 'symbolization of the sexed body, the mother's body?'(Robin Schott) Social Stigmatization is part of psychological warfare. IRCT's work in Bosnia has shown that rape of 'enemy women' rape of 'territory' and his total defeat. Or are sexual assaults 'polluting' enemy women 'symbolic' of the violent breakdown of 'moral order?'(Mary Douglas). Kristeva sees 'defilement as an objective evil.' Feminists like Brownmiller assert that subjugation of women by war-raping reinforces patriarchal society, while Libby Arcel maintains, that war rapes happen because leaders give the 'licence to rape,' a form of 'condoned violence,' prohibited by law but permitted by authorities.
Of course no atrocity can take place unless the other's humanity is first conceptually destroyed. Torture further adds to such destruction making it possible to kill, remove, 'cleanse.' But is it possible to sink to such depths without destroying one's own humanity, one's own image of humanity? Why does it become necessary for some to do this, and again what boundaries are crossed to make it happen? Lifton says that the American soldier perpetrators of atrocity in Vietnam were also 'victims' since they were unwittingly led to do so ( like our policemen, perhaps). But the difference is that Americans perpetrated atrocities far away, in strange surroundings, in the non-natural condition of war. The Gujarat atrocity perpetrators did so at home, in their own world, and went home that evening after killing, and raping in clear view of thousands. What was the role of the thousand or so bystanders? Did they remain passive withdrawing moral conscience,' stand back' as Staub says? Or is the individual bystander under the 'pluralistic ignorance effect,' (Cialdini) seeing that all the others are not recognizing 'an emergency?' When there is vast breakdown f the moral order, there is the 'fearsome word-and-thought-defying banality of evil.' (Hannah Arendt on Eichmann).
Before the immediacy of events can dictate preventive action, seems to me lies a whole field of consciousness building between communities with a sense of persistent hostility towards each other. I find two concepts in McCauley's paper on genocide powerful and fruitful: First, people are de-sensitized by their acts, an act of violence leading down the slippery slope towards more, and the concept of 'commitment' to one's behaviour. If people have been bad, they will try and rationalize and justify their behaviour by continuing to be worse. Buddhists call this, I believe, the bond of 'samskara.' In Asiatic traditional societies, elders and mothers exercise a great deal of influence. I would imagine that they could lead in early condemnation of opinions and actions, trivial in themselves, but injurious of the 'other.' As McCauley points out there could also be positive commitments to good behaviour, which should be the bedrock of any culture.
Coming to McCauley's 'terror-management theory,' which makes it possible for us to take or give life to 'save,' I find the 'mythologic' of several epics, to use a phrase of Claude Levi Strauss, is precisely to warn us of the futility of war and violence. In my view that is the message of the great Hindu epic, the Mahabharata, and I read little else in Sophocles, or Euripides. Surely the very roots of Buddhism or Christianity expose the futility of belief in violence. And the concept of 'the just war,' in my understanding, deals more with protecting the weak and saving lives, rather than destroying an enemy, who should be reformed at the first opportunity. So should we not be able to strengthen compassionate bonds between communities and enlarge the essential to cover all of humanity?
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A Key objective is to understand broad psychological patterns and even ethological imperatives contributing to atrocities being perpetrated
McCauley mentions the de-humanization process by which one community comes to regard another as sub-human, which can be exterminated. They see the 'other' as 'essentially' bad, or posing a grave threat to themselves, calling forth 'terror management mechanisms.' If there are 'biologically-determined' acceptance of 'essences' as ways of recognition, it seems to me the problem lies in giving a 'threat' or a 'bad' connotation to the 'essence of the other.' While there is a belief in the 'immutability,' and 'heritability' of 'essences,' there is also scope for 'discrimination.' Surely, cultures, arts, philosophies, and sciences can enlarge through such discrimination devices the concept of essence to embrace all of humanity? We say that we recognize tigers of all sorts as essentially 'tiger.' But what do we mean by 'tiger?' If the construct is a human-being eating or threatening creature, than the construct of the essence comes out of sheer ignorance. In my childhood, when I lived in forest areas, it was common knowledge that tigers in the wild attacked people only when disabled, or very old. A recent film made by Russians who are hand-raising scarce Ussuri Tigers shows a huge tiger being scared into retreat by a small goat that butts him. Clearly the concept of the 'essence of a being' grows through knowledge, which places a key responsibility on the role of education.
Some Keywords that come to mind in the area of:
The Ethological and Psychological Grounds for Atrocities
Understanding: Issues of 'Territoriality,' Overcrowding, the Alpha Male behavioral pattern, and the Cult of the Hero; Questioning 'determinations' for violence; Accommodating the Fear of Death; Sexual Repression and Inadequacies; Gendering Patriarchy-determined behaviour; resisting amoral authorities and their values of aggression, or their pressures to conform
I should like to distinguish between several categories of atrocities:
Professional Atrocities of state-organized torturers, police interrogators, who undergo perhaps 'psychic numbing.'
Psychopathic atrocities of the sick and the lonely, perhaps, not so socially consequential though much dwelt upon by media.
Political Atrocities; such as the massacre of resisting tribes by Caesar's armies, the massacre of the Incas by Pissaro, Cromwell's massacre of the Irish at Drogeda, Nadir Shah's destruction of Delhi, Genghis Khan's mountains of skulls, General Dyer's massacre at Jallianwala Bagh, or the U.S. bombing of Afghanistan. All this was done 'dispassionately,' to create terror, to safeguard retreat, to achieve political control.
Heroic Atrocities; say, as practiced by Vikings or Amerindian tribes on prisoners. Perhaps this was a form of vindication of manhood, of patriarchal norms, to strengthen oneself - perhaps if captured oneself in the future - through the fearless death of enemies. There are cases where heroic atrocities edge on the sick, like Achilles dragging the body of Hector around the walls of Troy instead of treating his enemy with honour. But Achilles like the Indian Bronze Age Arjuna seemed to glory in being the perfect killing machine, and distanced from women?
How do we humanize male victims of Patriarchy? How do we resist the 'erotization of violence' and the 'abjection and fascination' with horror and death, as Kristeva observes? Staub observes a 'continuum in the processes that lead to the destruction' of moral order: 'compartmentization,' that permits exclusion of moral values; 'reversal' of morality; and relinquishing 'responsibility' for victims.
The Symposium hopes to create a project, which will address the following:
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Monitor inter-community relationships in selected areas
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Set up Dialogue processes at the community level
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Highlight and Build Social, Civil Society, and Community positive engagement and conflict preventive measures
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Move towards governmental adoption of administrative measures to prevent Atrocities, which will become measures of Good Governance, [just as Environmental Impact and Indigenous Peoples Impact studies are utilized at present to secure World Bank or other international agency support]
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Engineer a high visibility Public Awareness campaign just like the AIDS campaign at present
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Build cumulative multi-disciplinary knowledge about Atrocities, and the forces, political, economic, sociological, cultural, and psychological that lock people into committing evil deeds
It has been established by several researchers prompt governmental action, if taken immediately after an incident, in the period of the 'lull' can prevent mob violence and atrocities from being committed. If civil society is to bring pressure to bear on governments for such prompt governmental and administrative action, it must illuminate the murky arena where violence is forged, and bring sufficient public pressure to bear on public policy decisions. Civil Society needs to empower itself with Knowledge and Organization to resist violence.
I would submit that the project could make a start by initiating pilot activities in the area of: Socio-Economic Inter-Community Interactions. Networks and communication links could be set up among respected leaders of adjacent communities to foster healthy interaction. Projects should strengthen ties of economic inter-dependence. Non-prejudicial Educational Projects should also be started. Projects should work for better allocation and sharing of resources. Equitable sharing of political power and authority among local bodies should be fostered. Women's groups can be established for mutual assistance and support - Staub's concept of creating 'the habit of helping others.'
The Project should also start Dialogue processes in the area of:
Culture, Religion, Myth and History.
It is important that possibilities should be created through respected religious and social leaders for communities to learn about each other. Civil Society should take every opportunity to celebrate its multi-cultural heritage. Hannah Arendt considered crucial in human affairs: 'sociality, communicability, publicity.'
The project should also create sub-projects involving academics, and psychiatrists, and other leaders to Understand:
The Ethological and Psychological Grounds of Violence
It is important that such knowledge inform in the long run educational, community building, and conflict management processes.
