The Demands of Dignity: In Death, and In Life

Abstract

The visual images of dead bodies floating in the Ganges in Bihar and Uttar Pradesh have justifiably stirred the nation‟s conscience notwithstanding the bureaucratic recriminations to shift the responsibility from one state to the other. Likewise, the media coverage of the dumping of bodies in secluded places like river banks, ponds, fields and farms, and the gruesome sight of dogs and vultures having a feast on these decomposing bodies has led to the much required debate on the rights of the dead with the National Human Rights Commission taking the lead. Reportedly, in some cases, the deadCovid-19 patients have simply been abandoned by their own kith and kin for cremations/burials (and the associated rituals) cost money which the latter did not have. True, a society which does not know to honour its dead is civilisationally deficient and culturally morose. However, it would be wrong to put the entire blame on the families of the dead and their utter lack of pathos and pity. The latter‟s apparent insensitivity, nay, cruelty, are in no way matters of their psychological dispositions and temperamental flaws. Rather, they necessitate a thorough-going critique of some of the fundamental building blocks of our society and polity.