FREEDOM FROM FEAR: LITERATURE AND HUMAN RIGHTS - KEYNOTE ADDRESS By NIBIR K. GHOSH International Multidisciplinary Conference on Posthumanism, Cybernetics and Human Rights

 

Jagat Guru Nanak Dev Punjab State Open University Patiala

International Multidisciplinary Conference on

Posthumanism, Cybernetics and Human Rights

25-26 July 2023 

 

FREEDOM FROM FEAR: LITERATURE AND HUMAN RIGHTS

KEYNOTE ADDRESS

Nibir K. Ghosh

 

Dr. Karamjeet Singh, Hon’ble VC, Dignitaries of the University, Dr. Navleen Multani, distinguished guests, worthy participants, students, friends, ladies and gentlemen:

I deem it a pleasure to greet you all from the city of the Taj at the inaugural session of this two-day international conference on a topic of supreme contemporary relevance. I am thankful to Dr. Karamjeet Singh and his team for the invitation to contribute to this conference as a Keynote speaker. Since a Keynote speech is not likely to be followed by question-answer session, I can easily feel reassured that no one would take the trouble of listening to me. 

Friends, Today I wish to share with you a collage of impressions based on my experiences as a passionate lover of literature on the topic “Freedom from Fear: Literature and Human Rights.” But before I talk about ‘Freedom from Fear’, I find it imperative to share my anxiety and dread about the impact of apocalyptic high-sounding terms like Posthumanism and Cybernetics on the current academia and general intellectual perception. Rather than take up your valuable time defining such terminology, I would prefer to give two examples of human evolution in posthuman and cybernetics times.

An astronomer once declared in a scientific meeting: “To an astronomer man is nothing more than an insignificant dot in the infinite universe’. Einstein, who was present at the meeting, is reported to have observed: ‘I have often felt that, but then I realize that the insignificant dot, who is man, is also the astronomer.”

 

In the Zoo at Lusaka, Zambia, there is a cage where the notice reads “The world’s most dangerous animal.” Inside the cage there is no animal but a mirror where you see yourself.

In the context of the above instances, I wish to ask my young friends present here, “what happens to the cultural politics of human rights when atrocities are rendered calculable, abuses are transformed into data, and victims become vectors?” It is imperative that in answering this question we are bound to re-think about what is truly ‘human’ about human rights.

Freedom from Fear

'Freedom from fear' could be said to sum up the whole philosophy of human rights, remarked Dag Hammarskjold, the former secretary general of the UNO.

After the creation of the United Nations, the international community strongly felt that the human rights to life, dignity, integrity, and to other necessary things for a meaningful survival needed to be preserved and propagated by rule of law. The U.N.'s blue flag came forth as a banner of hope. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights mentions freedom more than twenty times. Human rights are praised more than ever -- and violated as much as ever.

Let me quickly take you to an excursion around some recent happenings. Let us begin with Paris, the capital of the nation that is known as the cradle of democracy where ideals like “liberty, equality and fraternity” resonate not merely as principles of governance but as a way of life.

On 27 June 2023, i.e. less than a month ago, a French police officer shot and killed a 17-year-old named Nahel.  His death led to widespread protests that saw many parts of the country in flames. Nahel’s mother said that the police officer who pulled the trigger "saw an Arab face, a little kid, and wanted to take his life." On 16 September 2022, in Iran, 22-year old Mahsa Amini, was killed in police custody for not covering her head with a hijab. Iran burned as hundreds of girls and women lost their lives protesting against the self-proclaimed guardians of morality. We may not have forgotten the case of George Floyd, the Black man murdered by a police officer in Minneapolis, Minnesota on 25 May 2020. And, as we engage ourselves in deliberations on Human rights, haunting us is the recent video of two women who were paraded naked and raped in Manipur.

These episodes remind us of what Alfred Hitchcock said about fear: 

“Fear isn't so difficult to understand. After all, weren't we all frightened as children? Nothing has changed since Little Red Riding Hood faced the big bad wolf. What frightens us today is exactly the same sort of thing that frightened us yesterday. It's just a different wolf. This fright complex is rooted in every individual.”

“Apna Apna Bhagya”

When we discuss the issue of Freedom from fear it may not be restricted to abuse of human rights by those in power. In fact, it could be related to something less complicated than that. I would like to share excerpts from “Apna Apna Bhagya” by Jainendra Kumar Jain.

तीन गज की दूरी से दीख पड़ा, एक लड़का सिर के बड़े-बड़े बालों को खुजलाता चला आ रहा है. नंगे पैर है, नंगा सिर. एक मैली-सी कमीज़ लटकाए है. पैर उसके न जाने कहां पड़ रहे हैं, और वह न जाने कहां जा रहा है- कहां जाना चाहता है. उसके कदमों में जैसे कोई न अगला है, न पिछला है, न दायां है, न बायां है.

कोई दस बरस का होगा. गोरे रंग का है, पर मैल से काला पड़ गया है. आंखें अच्छी बड़ी पर रूखी हैं. माथा जैसे अभी से झुर्रियां खा गया है. वह हमें न देख पाया. वह जैसे कुछ भी नहीं देख रहा था. न नीचे की धरती, न ऊपर चारों तरफ फैला हुआ कुहरा, न सामने का तालाब और न बाकी दुनिया. वह बस, अपने विकट वर्तमान को देख रहा था.

मित्र ने आवाज दी- “ए!”

उसने जैसे जागकर देखा और पास आ गया.

“तू कहां जा रहा है?”

उसने अपनी सूनी आंखें फाड़ दीं.

“दुनिया सो गई, तू ही क्यों घूम रहा है?”

बालक मौन-मूक, फिर भी बोलता हुआ चेहरा लेकर खड़ा रहा.

“कहां सोएगा?”

“यहीं कहीं.”

“कल कहां सोया था?”

“दुकान पर.”

“आज वहां क्यों नहीं?”

“नौकरी से हटा दिया.”

“क्या नौकरी थी?”

“सब काम. एक रुपया और जूठा खाना!”

“फिर नौकरी करेगा?”

“हां.”

“बाहर चलेगा?”

“हां.”

“आज क्या खाना खाया?”

“कुछ नहीं.”

“अब खाना मिलेगा?”

“नहीं मिलेगा!”

“यों ही सो जाएगा?”

“हां.”

“कहां.”

“यहीं कहीं.”

“इन्हीं कपड़ों में?”

बालक फिर आंखों से बोलकर मूक खड़ा रहा. आंखें मानो बोलती थीं- यह भी कैसा मूर्ख प्रश्न!

“माँ-बाप हैं?”

“हैं.”

“कहां?”

“पन्द्रह कोस दूर गाँव में.”

“तू भाग आया?”

“हां!”

“क्यों?”

“मेरे कई छोटे भाई-बहिन हैं- सो भाग आया वहां काम नहीं, रोटी नहीं. बाप भूखा रहता था और मारता था, माँ भूखी रहती थी और रोती थी. सो भाग आया. एक साथी और था. उसी गाँव का. मुझसे बड़ा था. दोनों साथ यहां आए. वह अब नहीं हैं.

“कहां गया?”

“मर गया.”

“मर गया?”

“हां, साहब ने मारा, मर गया.”

 

Here are the concluding lines from the story:

 

मोटर में सवार होते ही यह समाचार मिली कि पिछली रात, एक पहाड़ी बालक सड़क के किनारे, पेड़के नीचे, ठिठुरकर मर गया! मरने के लिए उसे वही जगह, वही दस बरस की उम्र और वही काले चीथड़ों की कमीज मिली।

 

आदमियों की दुनिया ने बस यही उपहार उसके पास छोड़ा था।

 

पर बताने वाले ने बताया कि गरीब के मुँह पर, छाती मुठ्ठी और पैरों पर बरफ की हलकी-सी चादर चिपक गई थी। मानो दुनिया की बेहयाई ढ़कने के लिए प्रकृति ने शव के लिए सफेद और ठण्डे कफ़न का प्रबंध कर दिया था।

 

सब सूना और सोचा, अपना-अपना भाग्य।

 

This story written in 1931 shows the face of poverty and misery under an alien rule. 92 years later, in 2023, as we celebrate the Amritotsav of our Independence, we cannot say with any certainty that the scene has changed much. However, it is significant to point out the impact this simple story has in sensitizing us to the poverty and misery of the millions of such children who inhabit this great land. Though I first read this unforgettable story as a child in school, I can never forget the impact it left on me. This is the power of literature.

 

It is not insignificant that Mr. Kailash Satyarthi mentions in his Nobel Peace Prize Acceptance speech how in the foothills of the Himalayas, he met a small, skinny boy who asked him: "Is the world so poor that it cannot give me a toy and a book, instead of forcing me to take a tool or gun?"

 

Once I was invited to talk to the English PG students at a premium women’s college in Hyderabad. The topic that was given to me was Women Empowerment. Before turning to the theme, I asked the audience comprising 125+girls and women teachers how many among them would still feel the truth expressed in the line from the famous song, “Abke janam mohe bitiya na kijo…ro bhi na paye aisi gudiya na kijo.” I was amazed to see all the hands rise up except of just two students. I immediately understood the challenges are a part of a woman’s destiny despite all the changes we see around us.

I would also like to share the travails of a woman under the brutal Communist dictatorship of Nicolae Ceausescu in Romania:

“One day, on the way to the hairdresser, somebody suddenly grabbed me by the arm: it was a policeman who took me to the basement of a nearby block of flats, where three men lay in wait for me. The one who seemed to be the boss accused me, amongst others, of being a prostitute of Arab students and that I was doing it to be paid for in kind for cosmetics (under communism beauty products considered inessential were absent from shops). I answered that I knew no Arab students to which he retorted that if he wanted to he could find twenty Arab students to testify against me. Then the slender policeman opened the door to let me out and threw my ID card on the ground. As I bent he kicked me hard in the back: I fell face down on the grass, behind some bushes.”

This woman who underwent ceaseless persecution and torture for refusing to conform to the government ideology and diktat, is none other than Herta Müller, the recipient of the 2009 Nobel Prize for Literature. In The Land of Green Plums Herta Müller, writes: 

“I sang without hearing my voice. I fell from a fear full of doubt into a fear full of absolute certainty. I could sing the way water sings. Maybe the tune came from my singing grandmother’s dementia. Perhaps I knew tunes she lost when she lost her reason. Perhaps things that lay fallow in her brain had to pass to my lips.”

This is what literature can do and what Artificial Intelligence and all the posthuman creations can’t.

It was Socrates in ancient Greece who taught us that “an unexamined life is not worth living.” In modern times, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. reiterated that “an injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.” It is literature that helps us in examining the reasons we live for and the sense and meaning that we can impart to our lives. How right is George Orwell when he says, “During times of universal deceit, telling the truth becomes a revolutionary act.”

To me the success of this great conference lies not to what extent it will enhance your API scores but in how you approach your own human instincts to work for creating a space where everyone, without discrimination in any form, can work together, without fear, for the common good characterized by tolerance, respect for freedom, compassion and progressive democracy.

You may ask: what can one person do? Let me tell you a Buddhist tale:

A terrible fire had broken out in the forest. All the animals were running away, including the lion, king of the forest. Suddenly, the lion saw a tiny bird rushing towards the fire. He asked the bird, "what are you doing?" To the lion's surprise, the bird replied "I am on my way to extinguish the fire." He laughed and said, "how can you kill the fire with just one drop of water, in your beak?" The bird was adamant, and said, "But I am doing my bit."

Let us, then, do our bit, like the tiny bird in the fable, and show with compassion what Wordsworth pointed out in “Tintern Abbey”: “that best portion of a good man's life,/ His little, nameless, unremembered, acts/ Of kindness and of love.”

While deliberating on the theme of the Conference, I am optimistic that you will not miss the value of the “little, nameless, unremembered, acts/ Of kindness and of love” that will help you become a truly good, compassionate and fearless human being.

With these words, I wish you and the conference all success!

Valedictory Session Pictures

 

Thank You!