HOW DO I SEE THE ATUL SUBHASH CASE?

Hey! 

How you guys doing? 

You know, When I woke up today, I saw a clip, where someone was talking about this case and how people are even at this point, saying that this man could have handled things better and so on. 

So, I thought, without any ill thought, without any pre-judice, let me pen it down what do I feel about this and how it fits currently in our socio-political system. 

You know, when I first heard about the case, I saw it in thumbnails on YouTube. I did not have enough courage to watch an explained video about this case because whenever such cases come, I become mentally disturbed. I am not that strong person. I get affected. So, I prioritized my mental health over social awareness, and I rejected this kind of flow of information in my head. And if you believe me, I still do not know the whole case. All I know, is that this man was tortured for Alimony from his wife and advocates and hence he committed suicide. So, one thing if you can learn from me, is not everything is knowledge, Prioritize mental health. Do not try to know everything. Let it slide. Remain unaware. There are many things in this world that happen that you need not know. Child trafficking, Dark web, smuggling of humans, these are things its better you do not have an experience. 

So, now that I see it, you know there are two ways to see this. The feminists, the way they are seeing it, I know where they are coming from. In the Global positioning of women today, it is counter to their narrative. Hence, they are being defensive of the woman. All I am saying is that to hate the Patriarchal structure, you need not hate the subjects, neither should we have preference for a particular subject, here in this case, this woman. 

The situation of the Gender unequal laws in India is truly alarming. Actually, even while writing this, I feel a little shaking because this goes against my value system. I am a feminist, and I admit it. I stand with women because I know, historically they have been subjugated and marginalized and even tortured in worse forms than this. You have no idea how my conscience is shaking while writing this.

But still, I will write it. Whatever happened with Atul was wrong. And yes, it was the fault of the woman. She and the allies must be punished in the courts of law. 

Actually, this is our problem, our predicament. Our experience of the past dictates our present laws while the nature of laws remains static over a period of time, the social scenarios keep changing. I am not saying that women are completely uplifted, nor am I saying that there is no need for these laws, but all I am saying is that if a woman is in position to exploit these laws for her own benefits, she is already fucking uplifted and even more than that. These kinds of women are detrimental to even the cause of Gender equality and feminism. 

Last time, I read someone's Suicide note, it converted me to a different human being. I am talking about Rohith Vemula's note. Atul recorded a video before dying. I do not have the courage to watch it. I cannot be sad. I have been sad for a long time now. You know that is the thing I have observed about life. If you want to do something in life, Optimism is the way. I want to be an IAS officer. Of course, Optimism and action are ways. But to be a philosopher, to be a thinker in any age, Pessimism and action are the ways. If a thinker is not pessimistic, I have no idea how he will theorize. 

Nevertheless, I wish to remain optimistic. Gender equal laws are need of the hour, some relaxations regarding class and caste backgrounds in gender might help. Like, do not give these provisions of Alimony to all women, but to some women, with specific caste and class considerations. We, in academics, talk about Dalit patriarchy and how is it distinct from Savarna Patriarchy. I believe let's practice it now, through our legal system.

Legal system is static, while the social system is dynamic. that is our predicament. 

Also, every experience of the past, makes us very cautious of the present and we, as generations, live in a perpetual paranoia of the past. Like, I believe after a point, when material resources have been redistributed, the fight against historical injustices become an ego fight. Lower castes, women, tribals, they do it as an ego fight. 

I think, this name, "Identity Politics" is a fancy word for Ego-fight. I know, the discourse, that these identities have been historically marginalized and so on. But still, it seems like people fight because they want to fight, not because they want justice. To serve justice is not that hard. But to serve egos can be harder than diamond. 

When Osho says that the people are retarded, so Democracy won't work, he seems correct. People are genuinely retarded. People, who exploit others for their own gain, people who torture others for their own benefit, people who misuse laws who are they but retarded people. And worse kind of people are those, who try to theoretically justify this behavior of theirs saying that they were "Practical". 

I am actually disgusted by this word. "Practicality", "Pragmatism". These are words used by cowards. Cowards who cannot live a moral and ethical life. They say things like, "Oh! the world is like that, be practical, or whatever you are saying, it's all ideal, these are not practical things!". 

I think, the world is like that precisely because we have people who use this word, "Practical" to justify every bad behavior and every heinous crime. 

So, in a nutshell, I believe, women have been historically marginalized and that's why these gender unequal laws were formed, as a form of positive discrimination. But Atul's case depicts that the form of positive discrimination has now changed in quite a few cases to negative and proper exploitative discrimination. 

Gender equal laws are the need of the hour with special considerations for women on a case-by-case basis, like for a lower caste women, or a lower status woman, or a lower-class woman.