How do we understand the violence that seems to have taken our society by storm? Is it mindless and irrational? Maybe the best instance for this scrutiny is the violence of the Ghau Rakshaks. It has human aggression laced with a sacred aspect to it. Michel Foucault teaches that all human violence has its own rationale. Fyodor Dotesvesky reminds us that Humans become most creative when they torture and kill other humans. There seem to be a mind to all human violence. Violence is not simply physical. It can be verbal as well as manifest in the form of insensitive silence. We are indeed facing many faces of violence today. Maybe we have to deal with violence and its relations to the sacred to understand and respond to violence that is afflicting us today in our country. The sacred character of violence flows from its links with a sacrifice. Henry Hubert and Marcel Mauss, in their book, Sacrifice: Its Nature and Function teach that sacredness associated with the victim is linked to an ambiguous circular thinking. It reasons out that the victim is sacred and therefore cannot be killed. But the victim becomes sacred by virtue of its sacrificial killing. Besides, this ambiguity, there is a mind banding claim of Rene Girard who says that religious sacrifice resembles criminal violence. Hence, along with rational dimension there is also religious side to it.
Scholars like Anthony Storr’s work on Human Aggression teaches that once aroused human biology prepares us for a battle. Storr claims that it is more difficult to quell human impulse to violence than to arouse it in the first place. This might tell us why it is so easy to instigate violent mobs and set them on a rampage. This is why it should worry us when innocent people are brain washed and set on a killing spree by what can be only called politics of hate that seem to be engulfing our society today. When unappeased, it always seeks a surrogate when the real victim is not easily available. Surrogacy of violence can take the shape vandalism of all hues and shades. The surrogacy associated with violence can result into such a calamity but it is not the only way the un-quelled violence might trace its surrogate. The story of Abraham sacrificing a ram in place of his son does point to this propensity of violence towards surrogacy. Hence, the violence of the rampaging mobs can spiral on any innocent victim or things (public property) besides their own masters.
The substitutions or surrogate victims are said to be brings peace to the society by sublimating the violent impulse of the people. Girard emphasises on this expiatory nature of surrogate violence. The bloody animal sacrifice certainly placated the violent instincts in humans and brought peace to several ancient societies. This can happen only when the victim becomes a substitute to the entire community. Such a substitute has been shown to protect the community from its own violence. What faces us in India is allied to human sacrifice via lynching mobs. It does not seem to have the benefit of surrogacy. It is not a sacrificial animal but another demonised human and not a sacrificial lamb. This is why the spiral of violence in our society engenders more violence and not peace.
Human sacrifice of any kind is monstrous and reflects barbaric lack of moral development. Often human sacrifices become a practice of infanticide among several people. Somehow these societies believed that violence that is unappeased accumulates and explodes. Similarly, some scholars suggest that animals sacrifice is a substitute for human sacrifice and point out that only those animals that exhibit some resemblance to humans are deemed as worthy of the sacrificial ritual.
The surrogate violence that afflicts our society seems to substitute humans and not animals. In fact this is clear because humans are lynched to save the holy cow. This surrogate humans that are somewhat sacrificed may have the roots of violence in what is called mimesis. Aristotle teaches us that human ability to imitate distinguishes them from animals. Girard teaches that desire is mediated by the desire of other people. He brings the third element between the desiring self and the object of desire. Third element is the other. We can find that Jacques Lacan who teaches that unconscious is the discourse of the other echoes this position of Girard. The other becomes the mediator that shapes the manner in which we want the object of desire. Thus, Girard teaches that our desire is mimetic. As mimetic human desire become truly bound to surrogacy. We desire the desire of the other. This means we live on a borrowed desire. It sets what Girard calls mimetic rivalry. What is being played out by the politics of hate in our country seems to be mimetic rivalry and has become a disintegrating force masquerading in the name of nationalism.
Ancient mimetic rivalry between the Kauravas and the Pandavas appears is played again with the minorities substituting for the Kauravas and the majority substituting for the Pandavas. As the blood of the innocent calls us to responsibility, we are challenged rise bring about the ideals of justice , equality and fraternity enshrined in our constitution. Lila of substitute or surrogate has to be brought to a halt. We need to become aware of desire. Buddhist mindfulness has to be cultivated with great diligence to bring stop this lila. Perhaps we need high doses of five yamas that teach ahimsa, satya, asteya (non-stealing) brahmacharya (moderating senses), aprigraha (non-possession) to face the rising flames of violence that have become a furnace in our society. There are no easy solutions to violence that emanates from politics of hate.
(The author is Professor of Rachol Seminary)
