Indians live in fear. Like most pervasive conditions, after a while it becomes part of you. You don't notice it, and are taken aback when someone points it out to you. You get defensive, especially if it is pointed out by an "outsider". But it's the truth. Having been here now for several months in a row, I find myself starting to succumb to it, and letting it color my thinking and actions. What are Indians afraid of? Most everything. They are afraid of the police, the bureaucrats, the judges, the errant drivers, people with "connections", the utility employees, the local goons, and even the discourteous people who stick their faces and hands in front of you at a service counter. I think this could also be a part of why Indians are so apathetic to the mess and incompetence around them. They- the not-rich and not-powerful- are too afraid to speak up and, instead, defend their inaction with illogical rationalizations.
The first thing that the police do is arrest people. It really doesn't matter what the issue is. Somebody complains about something, and the police promptly arrest the subject of the complaint, even if the complainant was at fault. I will recount two particularly egregious examples of mindless police arrests. There was a young lady who applied to a bank for a student loan. Her mother had previously obtained a loan on her behalf, and defaulted. The bank's loan officer reviewed the application and turned it down on the basis of the previous default. The girl then hanged herself, leaving behind a note on the reason for her suicide, which is that without a student loan, her future was bleak. The police promptly arrested the loan officer on a charge of "abetment of suicide", claiming that the suicide note supported the charge. The second example is an incident when a group of goons invaded a farmhouse, and assaulted and molested people there, on the grounds that "immoral and illegal activities" were taking place. When the police arrived, they arrested not the thugs, but the victims, on the thugs' complaint that "immoral and illegal" activities may have taken place. So people are afraid of goons, because the police may not actually protect them, even if by some means they can be persuaded to come to the scene.
There was an incident when a lawyer, on his way to court, got in a minor traffic incident involving his motorcycle and a judge's car. It so happened that the lawyer had to make an appearance in the same judge's court that day. When he appeared in the courtroom, the judge promptly had him arrested for "contempt of court" and jailed overnight. Apparently what constitutes "contempt of court" is subject to very broad interpretation, unlike freedom of speech. There was another instance in which an Indian litigant filed a complaint in an Indian court against US President George Bush, alleging various misdeeds. The local court issued a summons for the appearance of the US President, and threatened to hold him in contempt of court if he failed to respond or appear. No doubt that caused GWB to quake in his presidential shoes. A proper notion of jurisdiction seems to elude Indian courts.
The propensity of Indian courts to charge "contempt of court" keeps a public discourse on the effectiveness and appropriateness of the judicial system from taking place in anything more than an indirect manner. Indians are afraid of the long arm of an offended judge. Indeed, this very post refrains from more pointed criticism, because I don't know what might be construed as "contempt". While, technically, Indians have the right to free speech, in practice it is rather limited because of the inappropriate and narrow interpretations of what is protected as free speech. [Update: Noted political cartoonist Aseem Trivedi was arrested and charged with sedition] India has human rights activists, but they focus only on violations by the police, army and politicians which result in injury, and occasionally those involving loss of property, and not on judicial rulings or free speech protections. Moreover, they tend to see only violence as human rights violations, not arbitrary abuses of power or the infringement of rights and due process which also constitute human rights violations. To be fair, perhaps they are also trying to steer clear of that diaphanous line which separates free speech from "contempt of court".
When one goes to a government office for even routine matters, such as renewing a license, applying for a passport, getting the ubiquitous "clearance certificates", etc., the preferred and acceptable behavior by the applicant is obsequiousness. Because the bureaucrat can delay, deny or defer your application at whim. The preferred action is liberal bribery, to ease the passage of your supplication to the bureaucratic gods. Cross them at your peril, and face their wrath: slow or no response to service complaints, uncredited payments, arbitrary "inspections", demands for obscure documentation to support your application, missing files, and so on. So you routinely see members of the public incongruously grovelling in front of their own public servants, rather than demanding what is their due under the rules and the law. Fear of harassment, arrest, rejection and inconvenience compels them to supplicate the very people appointed to serve them.
And then there is the ever-present threat of charges and complaints, by anyone who has ever entered your life. Almost every week, I read of at least one case where someone is arrested on a rape charge, because he failed to fulfill an alleged promise of marriage, or merely on the basis of some other non-sexual allegation. Recently, a minor Bollywood actress who had a years-long affair with a married cricket umpire more than twice her age filed rape charges against him when he finally categorically refused to marry her. Fortunately for him, he is not in India at the moment, but has bravely stated that he will be coming to India later this year, whereupon he will no doubt be promptly arrested. You read of people arrested on the complaint that money was borrowed and not repaid, even in the absence of documentary evidence. A model/actress was arrested recently because somebody(from the "Peoples' Power Party") complained that she had modeled a bikini in the colors of the Indian flag. Drivers are arrested when they hit someone who runs out into the middle of a highway(newspaper accounts, of course, always say "hit by a speeding vehicle", doubtless somewhat logical since the vehicle was in motion and therefore "speeding").
Even cursory initial investigation is not undertaken by the police, who follow the unwritten rule of "arrest first, investigate later". That rule carries a potential benefit to the arresting officers, because often people will have to bribe their way out of their arbitrary arrest. So people walk in fear of someone making up charges, just because they know the police are too incompetent and too corrupt to handle it properly. They walk in fear of their neighbors, because perhaps the neighbors have official "connections" who can make life difficult for them. The saddest part is not that such things happen, but that these incidents elicit so little outrage from the people.
A free people generally need to be able to voice and express their opinions freely and without fear of retribution. They need to be able to demand and receive from their government the services that their tax monies have paid for, without fear of reprisal. They should be entitled to due process in all situations, freedom from unconstitutional and arbitrary arrest, and fair and speedy justice. They need to be protected from harassment and arrest when they exercise their fundamental rights, and when they have not broken any law. Above all, they need to be free from fear of their own government officials. Are Indians a free people? I'm almost afraid to ask!
Update: Shaheen Dhada was arrested for criticizing on her Facebook status the shutdown("bandh") of Mumbai in the wake of the death of aged Shiv Sena leader Bal Thackeray, a point of view I strongly support. Her friend Renu Srinivasan was also arrested, for "liking" her status. These "bandhs" are an arbitrary and deliberate violation of the fundamental rights "guaranteed" by the Indian Constitution, a point which seems to have noticeably eluded our esteemed judiciary(and the Indian press and public) over the past six decades.
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