Equality and Reservation

Can reservation and equality go together? Does not the idea of reservation undermine equality? Why 'bend' the yardstick to accommodate some? Bending the 'yardstick' seems to go against the concept of equality. 

If 10,000 people are given 1 million each, how many will have exactly 1 million at the end of a year?  I bet none of them will have exactly the same amount. Some would have invested the money and make lot more; while some would have spent the whole amount and have even borrowed money from others. Some of those who spent the whole amount might have done it because one of their relatives fell sick;  or she met an accident herself and now needs help to continue living. So due to certain unfortunate events in their lives, some people have lost everything. There are going to be those who have lost everything because they were lazy or just got into drugs.  For those who have made more money, depending on how skilful or educated one is, different people might have made different amount of money.  Given this inequality in the way human beings are, there will be differences of earning and spending money. 

The children of these different people will then face different conditions depending on how their parents lived -- earned or spent money. The children of these children will go through these difference too. Once these differences have solidified, certain children will not be able to get out of the pithole themselves. That's when reservation system has to come in and take people out of the pithole. Not everyone who has lost everything lost it due to laziness or carelessness. There are circumstances in life which are beyond our control. Given these circumstances, there are those who genuinely need help in the form of reservation... so that a society of equals can be established -- or sought to be established. Without such reservation system in place, these people in pithole will never be able to rise up. Equality and reservation can go hand in hand; in fact, a society committed to equality has to have reservation system.

Our human history has arrived where we are today from different vantage point. In fact, we all did not start equally. Some landed in a fertile place; others in a rocky soil. Some in hot place, and others in cold place. Not only are humans gifted differently; even our environments are different. And these differences will reinforce our differences even more as time goes. Those who are more fortunate should not forget those who are less fortunate. To be human is to be different from others; yet to be a good human is to care for those who are less fortunate. 

Wolterstorff's Justice: Chapters 12-17

The link to the previous chapter is here.

These chapters argue about how rights are not grounded and how they are grounded. Chapter 12 argues that rights are not grounded on duties that one has towards another person. The following chapter argues that rights are grounded on the worth of a person. An individual has different sort of rights that come about through different ways. But the most elementary form of right is the inherent right of a person. This sort of right emerges because the individual person has worth/dignity inherently. To deny this sort of right to the person is to treat the person as less than what his or her worth is. 

Nick underscores that this inherent right of a person that gives rise to the worth of the person cannot emerge from some sort of capacity that an individual possesses or can do. For example, if it's the capacity to reason, then the problem emerges with respect to those who are not able to reason. So capacity to reason is not the appropriate category that should serve as the ground that gives rise to the worth of  a person. Nick argues that this way, secular grounding of the worth of a person fails. Here he illustrates how, for example, Kantian way of grounding rights fails. He then argues that only a theistic grounding -- God's love (love as attachment) -- is the only sort that can ground the worth of a person for which the person possesses inherent right. Given this inherent right and other sorts of rights, a right theorist approach to justice can only provide a theory of justice. 

Increase Spending on Road Connectivity

If the state government employs more people, more money would be utilised to pay salary to the employees. With less number of employees, the government would have more money to spend in other areas. Since public good like roadways and sewerage system are essential to sustainable development, with more money available government can increase spending in these areas. Given this simple arithmetic, government should not employ more than what it requires to run the administration.

One of the twists to the arguments is that those who are responsible to run the administration benefit privately when more people are employed as government servants. Such overcrowding in government departments harm the people in general, yet those responsible for the recruitment get far richer than they used to be. The income of the officials through bribery runs in terms of several millions for many of the recruitment programmes into government service. The rate is 'fixed' for a constable or for a Sub Inspector for the police department and even for a primary teacher or for a graduate teacher in schools. Since private companies hardly invest in the state, and government employment is the considered the only source of stable and decent income, educated unemployed are coerced into paying bribes to get employed. Given the massive amount of money involved in such day-light robbery', those in responsible position are tempted to recruit more than the required number. (This is day-light robbery because it is taking what ought not to be taken during the day as opposed to robbers taking what ought not to be taken during the night.) But this overcrowding of government departments results in harming the larger community. This is a practice that should come to an immediate halt.

Government employment is not the answer to solving the economic bottleneck facing the state. A government employee can at the most sustain his or her family. Since government will never be in a position to provide each individual in a family a job in its different departments, it has to expand its vision beyond providing jobs in the tertiary sector or the service sector. Even when private companies come in, white collar job will never be sufficiently available nor can tertiary sector alone sustains the economy.

To provide jobs in the secondary and the primary sector, and induce overall economic growth in the state, state government in the North East region, notably Manipur, has to increase spending on road connectivity. With proper roadways, those in the hills can provide agricultural produce to those in towns and city at a much cheaper rate. This will benefit both the parties – dwellers in the rural area as well as dwellers in the urban areas. Healthcare providers and teachers will find it much easier to provide services to far flung villages when road connectivity is in place. Inefficient service sector plaguing the rural area is largely due to bad roads. As of today, most cases of medical emergency require dashing off to the state capital. When a patient from a village has to be carried on bamboo stretcher specially during rainy season till pucca road, which for certain villages will be for half a day's walk, it may be too late. To think that a corrupt politician is responsible for the death of such patients every year is haunting! For states like Manipur, Nagaland or Mizoram which is largely composed of rugged hilly terrain, unless government spends in massive amount for road connectivity, much of the hilly terrain will remain cut off from the outside world. Thus, ensuring development and healthcare largely rest with government machinery. This spending can come only from the government; no private individuals will have money big enough to effect change in this respect unlike one can do so in education and healthcare.

A democratic state exists on certain moral principles. And it is a moral obligation of the state that public good such as proper road connectivity is provided to all the villages in the state. More important than employment in the public sector is road connectivity to ensure overall development in the state. For too long government has failed to live up to its moral obligation. To fulfilling this moral obligation, it is high time that government increases its spending on roadway programmes. 

( The Hornbill Express, 29th December, 2014) 

Christmas and Its Significance

It has been well established today that the four Gospels were written to record the life and story of Jesus Christ as biographies. The Gospels fit into the pattern 'bios' of the Greco-Roman civilisation within which the larger Jewish culture of the day was embedded. Scholars like Richard Bauckham, David Aune and Richard Burridge have made significant contribution to this inquiry in recent times. Yet this has been the traditionally accepted position of the church. Besides, the biographies locate the narrative of Jesus birth in the larger scheme of God's work in history in which the birth is presented as the culmination of the salvation plan that God has been orchestrating for the whole world – the living as well as the non-living world. The birth of Jesus Christ inaugurates a new world order!

The birth of Jesus was not taken well by the power structure of the day. The immediate implication of the arrival of the eagerly awaited Messiah is that the wicked and despotic power structure will face judgement; that which is unjust and ugly will be set right. No wonder Herod the Great tried hard to murder Jesus at birth. Herod had massive building projects finished and even served as the President of the Olympic Games in his last days. He was a philanthropic too! However, he was also a murderer so much so that the slaughter of the infants of a small town like Bethlehem was too insignificant to find its place outside of the Gospel records.

Luke records that Mary envisions a new world order – a society where the proud are humbled and the hungry fed. Luke further records John the Baptist's father Zechariah say that the days of holiness and righteousness are at hand. The birth of Jesus raises hope that justice and peace will eventually triumph over sin and death.

When confronted by a just person, unjust rulers and leaders cringe. Wicked rulers are afraid of justice. Jesus did not occupy any political office in his thirty three years of life on earth. However, his speech and actions were often politically and culturally subversive. He confronted the corrupt political and religious leaders of the day. He uses strong words to denounce hypocrisy of the rich and the powerful, yet to the self-confessed sinners and the out-caste, he showed love and mercy. The lost ones were sought and the ostracised given recognition. Those who have been marginalised were taken in as members of his kingdom. His life, death and resurrection usher in a new order!

Christmas brings a hope of a new order in my individual life and also with those I relate. Christ Jesus restores those who are neck-deep in immoral activities and conceited heart if one is willing to come to him. The invitation to be part of the this new order is open to anyone. And this new order is for the whole world. The significance of Christmas is political as much as it is spiritual and social. The politicians, traders, bureaucrats, doctors, students etc. are all invited to come to him, giving up their ungodly ways; and unless their ungodly ways are given up and choose the new order and life offered, destruction is what awaits them. For Jesus is the visible image of the invisible God who is the creator of all. Thus no power or hell can withstand his sovereignty. This monotheistic feature that Jesus is the Lord of all results in Christians attempting to share or sharing the love and lordship of Jesus to every human individual; every domain of human enterprise – economics, astronomy, art, medicine etc. – to be under the authority of the crucified yet risen Jesus Christ. There is no force involved – or ought to involve for anyone to come to Christ; it must all be voluntary. At the most the messenger invites is through persuasion.

St. Francis of Assisi ( 1181-1126) popularises the famous nativity scene where the young and tender Jesus lay in the manger. But the tender baby in the manger is also the Aslan, the lion, of C S Lewis' Chronicles of Narnia series. If the baby in the manger is vulnerable and tender, Aslan is untamed and powerful. Let this Christmas season remind each one that no forces of the evil one or the Herod or the emperor Tiberius will prevail over the One that is untamed and powerful, the source of all which is good, true and beautiful. The Lord's kingdom is inaugurated, and in his return every knee shall bow! 

( This article appears in The Hornbill Express on 22 December, 2014) 

Religions and Politics in Indian Sub-Continent

One of the repeated calls of Saffron Parivar – RSS, VHP, Bajrang Dal etc. – against Christianity and Islam is that they are foreign religion. The objectionable remark made by Food Processing Minister Niranjan Jyoti in Delhi where she tried to polarise the citizens as followers of Ram or bastards (Ramzadon ya haramzadon) points to this. RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat statement that all Indians are Hindus, thereby implying that Indians who are not Hindus are foreigners offers another glaring example. The state also perhaps unwittingly reinforces this idea when those from Scheduled Caste lose their entitlements to certain benefit, say, reservation in state/Central scheme, once they convert of Islam or Christianity. Conversion to Buddhism, Sikhism, Jainism etc. do not merit losing the reservation benefit. The Scheduled Tribes are exempted from this implication though.

From time to time one hears the rhetoric that the religious majority in India is not allowed to exercise its religiosity openly; that the religion is under siege. This is also the kind of rhetoric emerging from the Buddhist Sinhala community in Sri Lanka. The solution to get out this siege then is to pedestal the religion of the majority above the rest. The proposal by Union Minister for External Affairs Sushma Swaraj to declare Bhagavat Gita as the national holy book of India has to be interpreted as a call for such measure. On the flip side, by associating nationalism with religion, the rhetorical device becomes a perfect political tool to subdue the religious minority and hound them into a ghetto. Religion of the minorities are labelled as foreign and unpatriotic, if not traitorous. In Sri Lanka, Muslims and Christians become the victim of such scheme in the hand of Sinhala Buddhist nationalists. Even in India, during Vajpayee's tenure, religious minority received battering in significant measure specially in Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh and Odisha. In Myanmar and Nepal too, such voices emerge from time to time, sending messages of intimidation to certain religious minorities.

With widespread use of modern technology, information of any kind now quickly spreads to different corner of the globe. The demolition of Babri Masjid in 1992 at Ayodhya, UP, by the volunteers of Sangh Parivars brought about religious riots between Hindu and Muslims across different Indian cities. The effect was felt in Pakistan and Bangladesh too, resulting in Islamic hardliners destroying hundreds of temples and homes. A Danish political cartoon on prophet Mohammad (Peace Be Upon Him) evokes sharp response even in Indian subcontinent as well. Nearer home, Christians and Muslims are not in minority in all the states in India. Sangh Parivar violent mischief can backfire in states where these communities are in majority. Given this volatile and complex environment, it is the responsibility of every religious and institutional leader to uphold and instil democratic values. To that end, forceful conversion or attempt to convert others through inducement should be restrained. Those in the government must also ensure that non-Hindus are not pushed to second class citizens of the country.

On the other hand it is important to take note that Christianity in the sub-continent is almost 2000 years old. If one is to insist that Christianity is of foreign origin because Jesus Christ was born in present day Israel, one must also insist that Guru Nanak of Sikhism was born in present day Pakistan, and Gautama Buddha in present day Nepal; and Parsis came from Iran. Besides, the tribals in the North East have never been exposed to Hinduism. There was no point in Indian history when every individual followed Hinduism. Any attempt to rewrite history that India has always belonged to the Hindus will be based on concoction of history. Christians must resist religious bully with pen and truth.

It is high time that everyone realises that Christianity is here to stay. Jesus Christ was born in a hostile political environment. The Roman empire, however, could not keep him buried in the tomb; the tomb lies empty. Tertullian in the third century says that the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church. History has proved the words right. Whether it is the might of the state or the jaw of the lion, the church is the kind that does not crack under persecution. The church means no harm to anyone; the church prays and works for truth and peace to prevail!

(This article appears in The Hornbill Express on 15th December, 2015)

Conversion and GharWapsi

I am not against GharWapsi ( homecoming) programme per se. If those Hindus who have converted to Christianity at some point of time want to 'return home', I would respect their decision. And I would have no objection to Christians converting to Buddhism or Islam or Sikhism. Each individual must be given the freedom to choose whatever religion she wants to follow. The problem with 'homecoming' programme of the kind that Saffron brigades undertook in Agra recently involved bully and allurement. Had the Saffron brigades used persuasion to convince the Agra Muslims that Hinduism is the better religion, there would be no reason to make hue and cry about the episode. However, possibly to create hype that there is a 'homecoming wave',  the Saffron brigades had invited the media, and eventually the truth beneath the surface emerged. Conversion or reconversion in a fair and transparent manner must be allowed in a democratic setting. 

I am not quite happy with the terminology 'Gharwapsi' (homecoming). Not every present Indian were Hindus in the past. The people of the community (Nagas) I come from were never Hindus. Today one third of the Nagas are in Burma, and two third in India. Animism, Buddhism and Christianity are the main religions among the Nagas today. And Animism and Buddhism are not equivalent to Hinduism despite the Saffron Brigades claiming otherwise. The assertion that everybody in the world was at one point of time Hindu is nonsense. It is as nonsensical as the assertions that plastic surgery, missiles, cloning etc were all practised in India's ancient past. 

In the entire controversy, one can notice well meaning scholars sometime not just getting Christianity right. It is fine for a person to reject Christianity as much as it is fine for one to reject Marxism. However, it is important to correctly understand what Christianity is. One will not learn about Christianity by reading Da Vinci Code. To learn about Christianity one would have to engage with the writings of C S Lewis, Dostoyevsky, Locke, Calvin, Aquinas, Augustine  et al.; and most importantly the Bible. From the Indian sub-continent one writer to engage with, to know Christianity, would be Sri Lankan thinker Vinoth Ramachandra.  A religion that has thrived for 2000 requires a least that much of respect. After all there is something worth engaging with that it captured the heart and mind of over two billion people today. 

Is Christianity Foreign Born?

Traditionally it is believed that Christianity came to India in the first century. Thomas, a disciple of Jesus Christ, is believed to have arrived in Kerala in 52 AD and spread the message of Jesus Christ, resulting in certain native of Kerala and Tamil Nadu eventually becoming Christians. This makes Christianity 2,000 years old in the Indian subcontinent. Given that it is such an old religion, it is surprising that the Hindutva brigades still consider it foreign born. 

If Christianity is foreign to India, similar logic implies that Hinduism is foreign to Nepal or Sri Lanka. Buddhism has to be considered foreign because Buddha was born in Nepal; Sikhism too has to be considered foreign because Guru Nanak was born in Pakistan. But would Russian consider Hinduism or Christianity foreign because these religions were not born there? Would Americans or Australia try to wipe out Christianity because it came from Asia? Such thought would be bizarre. Sane people would not answer the questions in affirmative! The Hindutva brigades have bizarre ideas! 

But are the Hindutva brigades willing to say that Hindus in Nepal, Sri Lanka, US, UK, New Zealand etc. should leave Hinduism because Hinduism was not the religion of their ancestors and Hinduism is a foreign religion there? If they insist that ISKCON should be allowed to propagate Hinduism to these people, then they should allow Christianity to prevail here in India. To insist that Christians are second class citizens in India because Christianity is foreign born, while insisting that Hindus in the West must be accorded first class citizens though it was born elsewhere, is bigotry. 

Against Anti-Conversion Law

Is BJP's suggestion to introduce anti-conversion bill in the Parliament a good idea? Well, I don't think so. Here is one of the reasons. Suppose, a person from India goes to Cambridge University and receives the finest education available. He then realises that her religion, say, Christianity is not a good religion. He renounces it and becomes an atheist. Well, because anti-conversion bill is in place, there seems to me two options available before him: live as an adherent of this religion which he now believes is bad till his last breathe or go to jail and rot there. 

Or, say, an atheist from India after having done proper study of the matter in Cambridge University realises that Christianity is true and right. Should he convert or still live with the belief that he now considers is mistaken? Well, it would be a bad law if he is not allowed to exercise his freedom of conscience and so freedom of religious belief. Why imprisoned a person in the religious belief that he is born with? Why not let people explore and exercise their choice? If the religious belief is good and right, it will eventually prevail; it has nothing to be afraid of. 

What needs curbing is forceful conversion or conversion through allurement. Let the right to propagate one's religion and so the right to choose religion remain as it is. 

Chapter 18: The Lost World of Genesis One

This is the last chapter of the book and it is titled 'Public Science Education Should Be Neutral Regarding Purpose". In this chapter there are two important terminologies that require proper understanding. The first is the metaphysical naturalism; and the second, methodological naturalism. 

Metaphysical naturalism is a philosophy that excludes 'God' in its perception, understanding and explanation of the world.  Methodological naturalism is a methodology that is used is Science or Social Science in order to explain an event without invoking metaphysical hand in the event. This does not deny God's existence nor God's work, but this also does not affirm God's existence nor God's work; it just tries to explain an event using naturalistic explanation. 

In writing about evolution, certain people have this tendency to insert a philosophical category that says that evolutionary process is purposeless. If one is a metaphysical naturalist, she may never see God's hand guiding the process because her philosophy has already removed this element. However, if one is a theist, the process is not really purposeless. She will God's design/hand in the process. However, whether the process is purposeless or otherwise is informed by the philosophy one has already carried along as part of his/her baggage. Evolutionary theory does not inform her whether it is purposeless or purposeful. Given this neutral nature of the theory, scientific inquiry should rather be left metaphysically neutral. Those who want to see the event through atheistic lens, let them; those who want to see the event through theistic lens, let them. But the scientific theory should be left neutral. 

Revisiting AFSPA: A Moral Inquiry

Despite Irom Sharmila's silent protest for over fourteen years, the Okram Ibobi Singh governmnet has once again extended Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act, 1958 (AFSPA) for another year in the state. Since its introduction in 1958 to deal with the armed Naga nationalists, the Act has continued to remain controversial because of the kind of power given to the army personnel to even shoot to kill. Shooting to kill an armed combatant that threatens the serenity and political order of the day is different from shooting to kill an unarmed civilian. The Act would not have been considered draconian had every single case of misuse of the Act been investigated and erring personnel been taken to task. Unfortunately, until the judgement of the Court martial proceeding of the army personnel came out on November 13, 2014, for the fake encounter killing of three Kashmiri youths who were lured to work as porters for the military personnel in Macchil, Jammu and Kashmir in 2010, virtually every army personnel who have raped women or killed innocent villagers have been given immunity by the AFSPA. And in a state like Manipur or Nagaland, where there is no vibrant international exposure, army excesses will continue to remain unnoticed and unattended.

Given that AFSPA has been legislated by the state, even if the army personnel kill unarmed civilians with impunity, the act is legally right. However, just because an action is legally right and justifiable that does not necessarily translate the action into a morally justifiable action. There are so many cases in human history where actions have been considered legally right, yet morally unjustifiable and obnoxious. For example, Hitler's Germany banned the Jews from using parks, restaurants and swimming pools. From the legal point of view, any German citizen ejecting a person of Jewish origin from such places would be doing something that is legally right. However, discrimination of such sort based on race is not morally justifiable. So though the act is legally right; morally it is wrong.

The AFSPA has been notoriously devised to include the license to kill even a suspect. 'Suspect' is a highly subjective term. The army personnel can shoot to kill anyone he likes to kill and attribute it to 'suspect'. One does not need a verifiable evidence to justify shooting; mere suspicion is sufficient to shoot. The burden to prove innocence thus lies with the victim, not the one doing the shooting. Given the way civilians have been killed, and the army personnel provided 100% legal protection from any sort of prosecution, AFSPA can legitimately be termed as an oppressive law – a law that should not find a place in a modern liberal political community.

Another notorious feature of the AFSPA is to protect army personnel who commit rape on male or female. The Act nowhere provides legal protection to those who commit rape. However, practically even those who commit rape are given legal protection.

If the AFSPA does not result in civilian casualty, there is no reason to complain against it. The army personnel engaging in a battle with the armed militant or sub-nationalist groups is a fair fight. The fight becomes unfair when unarmed civilians are dragged into the battle and killed and reported as part of the collateral damage. The massive number of civilians tortured, raped and killed for decades is morally not unacceptable. The state may have given legal protection in the name of AFSPA and allowed massive human right violation – even given protection when army personnel acted beyond the authorised limit. However, this does not entail moral immunity. The erring army personnel and the political leadership that authorised such human right violation are morally blameworthy.

The kind of non-violent protest initiated by Irom Sharmila to demand repealing of AFSPA deserves support from the civil society. Not everyone could undertake the kind of challenging task that she has begun. However, understanding the moral nature of AFSPA and expressing solidarity with her in whichever democratic way one could raise voice against the Act is the minimum thing that is required from the political community. Unless the members of civil society continues to raise voice against the Act till it is repealed, a significant number of casualty will continue to be fom the civil society.

(This article is to appear on the Hornbill Express on 8th December, 2014) 

Chapter 17: The Lord World of Genesis One

What kind of theological implications are there for interpreting Genesis 1 as the author did? Few things stand out. But before that for the sake of clarity., it must be reiterated that whatever duration God takes or whatever form he uses to make the world, God is the author. This chapter is titled ' Resulting Theology in This View of Genesis 1 is Stronger, Not Weaker'. Being so it argues for few theological implications.

That the world is not really natural; it is rather sacred. It is the dwelling place of the divine one. The world is not divine nor is it natural. Since it is not divine, it is not to be worshipped. And since it is not natural, it is not to be exploited. Humans are rather stewards.

Wolterstorff's Justice: Chapter 11

I have been trying to provide a summary of the book Justice: Right and Wrong by Nicholas Wolterstorff. The wide ranging issues he covers in the book is amazing. As much as he developed this theory, so much so he fended off objections from his critic. The link of the previous chapter is here.

In Chapter 11, Nick picks up theoretical matter once again. The chapter is titled 'Accounting for Rights'. This chapter is important because this one explains what right really means. And he argues that rights are about social relationships. It is something you have a claim against me and I have a claim against you by virtue of being a social being. And when this kind of claims are adequately respected by members of the society, there is justice in the society and society flourishes. Without such respect of claims, there is a violation of justice.

For example, I have a right claim against you to your not holding me back from speaking my native tongue. If you hold me back from speaking my native tongue just because you are the police officer, you wrong me by not allowing me to enjoy my right. I have been deprived of a good I have a claim against you. Just as I have a right claim against you for your doing or not doing certain thing towards me, you have an obligation of duty towards me for doing or not doing certain things towards me. Similarly, you have a right claim against me for doing or not doing certain thing towards you, and I have an obligation of duty to not doing  or doing certain things towards. And respecting this right claim-obligation duty relation is the key component in a just society. If this relation collapses, injustice will prevail.

Social Myth and Social Exclusion

Few years back my wife and I were in a village in Senapati district as usual. My wife being a paediatrician was giving free medical consultation to the local population then whenever required. One afternoon a couple brought their child to my wife for consultation. The child was indeed ill. The parents narrated that a spell was cast on their child by a person with an 'evil-eye'. Upon careful examination the child appeared to have chest congestion due to pneumonia. Further examination revealed that it was a case of pneumonia, and the illness had nothing to do with 'evil-eye'.

It is a common belief in our society that if a person from such a family of 'evil-eye' casts a spell in the form of a compliment or something of that sort, the person upon whom the cast is spelled would fall sick. And in certain cases the so-called victim would even die. One of my elder brothers was considered to have been 'attacked' when he was 2 by a person with such 'accursed power' that he remained physically and mentally challenged till his death at 32. If there was such a thing as 'evil-eye' I have a valid reason to consider such people as social nuisance for bringing such hardship and suffering in the life of my parents and their children specially my brother who was the 'victim'.

There is a slight variation between different communities about how 'evil-eye' works; how it is transmitted across generations and how to do away the so-called spell. In the community I come from, it is believed that the 'power' is transmitted from parents to children. And suppose a 'clean' person marries such 'unclean' people, then both of them eventually become 'unclean', and their children will also become 'unclean'. The implication of such belief is that 'clean' people avoid marrying such 'unclean' people. And eventually a kind of caste system prevails in the community. One group is considered clean and the other unclean. This continues to the next generation, and the next and so on thus erecting a wall of social exclusion in term of inter-marriage across different sections of the people.

I have now come to believe that this story that some people possess power to cast spell on others is a myth. If a word or a speech can cast a spell that could make another person sick, how could that power be transmitted from the DNA of the parents to that of the children? This makes no sense at all. But if it is transferred from parents to children like sickle-cell anaemia or HIV is transferred how could it possibly then give power to a person to cast a spell on another person? This too does not make sense scientifically. Someone would counter saying that it is the power of the evil spirit that make such things possible. However, if it is the evil spirit that works then how could the evil spirit possibly be transferred from parents to children? Evil spirit is not in a 'thing' that could be passed on through gene from the parents to the children nor could the power of the evil spirit or any such 'supra-natural' power be transferred from parents' DNA to children's DNA. This belief about the natural transmission of evil spirit from one person to another person is both scientifically and theologically untrue. However, if anyone invites the evil spirit and asks power from the evil one, then of course the issue is altogether different! Otherwise, one can rest assured that a person who calls on the name of the Lord Jesus Christ do not have such power from the evil spirit to cast spell on other people. In Christ there is no ancestral descent that is unclean; all are clean. One does not have to be morally perfect to be pronounced genealogically clean; it is rather the other way round – that once one is cleansed, Christ tells a person to live a morally upright life. And this spiritual journey to be morally upright in His sight continues till death calls a person home. Considering a family lineage unclean – possessing a power to cast spell on others – is scientifically absurd and theologically incorrect.

I believe the traditional story has been passed on from one generation to another. And even today the same story continues about those people about whom the story has been told. And because we typecast such people, we find incidents where it appears that people about whom society tell stories for generations cast a spell on certain people. And in a close knit societies like ours where interaction between members of the community is extremely frequent such 'unclean' people interacting with other members is bound to happen, and when some sickness occurs we just attribute it to such 'unclean' people. And so this story continues in the neighbourhood. However, given that the God of the Bible cleanses all people when anyone calls on the name of Jesus Christ and also the kind of understanding provided by scientific enterprise makes it unintelligible, one can confidently bury such belief about 'evil-eye' as social myth that no longer makes sense in this generation. 

NB: This article appears on The Hornbill Express on 1st December, 2014.