The Duty of Privilege

Inspiration For This Post

My ideas in this post are similar to the earlier post, ie, 'The Civic Imperative'. They focus on how and why the preference of people in general (and Indian People in particular) needs to shift from rights and entitlements towards duties and responsibilities. This is because in my observation people tend to distance themselves a lot from the problems faced by the country and the society right now and that could be either related simple things like cleanliness and pollution or more complex and serious problems like crimes. People tend to do this because everyone has a very rights and entitlement centric approach to leading their life in the public sphere, and what this leads to is that people start focusing on what they're getting from the society, state and other people and how they are feeling about those things, ie, if they are happy or not; which are all very good and worthy things to look forward to since we are a democratic polity. However, it is very important to understand that along with these things (how they are felling and what they are getting), it's also very important to focus on what people can do or what they should be doing to conserve the democratic fabric of the Indian society. I am saying this because too much rights centric, entitlement centric approach will lead to everyone thinking about I, Me and Myself, and not a lot about how their actions are affecting others, affecting the society in general and the country as a whole.

One reason why I think people tend to focus a little too much on rights and entitlements is first-of-all because we are a democratic polity and people living in democratic nations tend to focus a lot on rights, which is good because India has come out of a very depressing oppressive colonial past around 78 years ago, hence, focusing on rights is good. Also, I think people focus on rights and entitlements because we have been a developing country for quite a long time now, even after independence. And in developing nations there tends to be a deficit in terms of facilities, in terms of good conditions that can provide a good quality of life. However, a more problematic and a more disturbing reason, in my opinion, that people tend to focus more on rights and entitlements is because it's easy and because it's easy everyone is after, like I mentioned earlier, what am I getting, how am I feeling and not towards what i should be doing and who should I be talking care of. And an even more problematic reason, atleast in my mind, why people tend to think on the basis of rights and entitlements and not on duties and responsibilities, is that it sort of gives them a reason to somehow distance themselves from the problems of the society or the country (pollution, crimes, corruption, apathy, indifference, insensitivity, violence etc.). Not thinking about responsibilities and duties helps people to distance themselves from such problems since there is no imperative, at least in their head, to make an effort or play a role in preserving the societal fabric. In their mind they somehow convince themselves, or sometimes they don't even have to convince themselves, in their mind it is a given, that whatever the problem is, someone else is causing it, and since they had no role to play in the society, they naturally had no role to play in causing the problems of the society. And when this happens it leads to the very problematic idea of banality of evil (I have discussed this concept in more depth in the post, 'The Civic Imperative').
Hence, my idea of this post is to basically cover the importance of duties and responsibilities, which I've already covered in the post called ‘The Civic Imperative’, and go a step further and discuss that why some people should be even more concerned and should be even more conscious and should be even more responsible and dutiful in fulfilling their role in society so that the societal fabric does not break. This will lead to a more conscience-stricken populace and hence a more compassionate, more responsible, more upright and more valuable society in this great country called India.

Understanding Intersectionality 

The concept of intersectionality was first defined by feminist scholar Kimberle Crenshaw. She used this concept to define the network of deprivations on an individual in a society that might arise from various identity-based factors like gender, religion, race or skin color, language, way of life, ethnicity, etc, that lead to a network of deprivations on individuals. In the end, the result is more than the sum of parts created by those identity-based deprivations. So, if you take the example of the societal deprivations on a Dalit disabled woman, they will be more than the sum of parts, ie, they will be more than the arithmetic sum of deprivations created by the Dalit identity, the disabled identity, and the identity of a female taken separately.
This concept of intersectionality of deprivation is very important to understand because Democratic states need to take care of their people while keeping in mind this intersectionality of deprivations and ensure that the modes of grievance redressal that people require increase in sync with the amount of deprivations that people face. And this is also a very good justification why India has multiple commissions to take care of vulnerable sections. For example, we have separate National Commissions for Women, Scheduled castes, Scheduled Tribes, Backward Classes, Minorities, and of course, we have the National Human Rights Commission itself as well. These multiplicities of institutions ensure that a deprived person has the maximum number of gates open to approach the state to take care of him or her.
Now I've extended this concept of intersectionality of deprivations to understand the intersectionality of privileges that people are often born with or that people get by virtue of their birth. Similar to what was explained in terms of deprivations earlier, intersectionality of privileges also make people reap benefits that they perhaps didn't even deserve in the first place, but what luck got them through their birth. Hence, a person who is, for example, a male, born in a rich family, upper caste, has studied in an English medium school, and has got the family names and identities to support him will be more privileged, and this privilege will be more than the sum of individual parts of the various privileges that each of these labels gets that person separately. Since India still remains a Feudal /Semi-Feudal society, privileges automatically translate to more entitlements, more rights, more pleasure, more fulfilled desires, more satisfaction, and unfortunately sexism, casteism, elitism and classism as well. Although these observations are based on no research, they are based on my very pertinent anecdotal observations in people - even the good ones - around me who I have watched.
Hence, although I can't produce any research to support these arguments that all people behave like this, there are many who do and there are many who will even justify these things that they are entitled to holding such views by virtue of their birth or because they perhaps haven't faced many issues in life. Because, as far as I've seen, people generally don't have the time or the energy to empathize with others. And if they haven't faced issues themselves, there's a very big chance that they will not understand them. (Disclaimer- I know that I'm sounding very pessimistic regarding human nature, but for the purposes of this post, I need to bring home the point that I'm trying to explain, and hence this view. Also, although I have seen too many people who fall in this category, I have also seen many who don't as well. But I wish that people of all categories, whether they are like this or not like this, do read this to make sense of the points that I'm trying to put through . I don't expect anyone to follow these. I just want to put across my message and attempt to make sure that people understand what I'm saying and where I'm coming from. That is it. That's where my efforts end.)

The Duty Of Privilege 

My only message from this post is to bring forth the idea of the duty of privilege. A humble request to people in general or the readers who are reading this. Just stop and take a moment. Now observe yourself and the people around you and ask yourself these few questions -

• Am I in any sort of way more privileged than the average person around me?
• Have I been born with some things that I perhaps don't deserve based on the actions that I've done or undertaken in my life?
• Have I been too harshly judgmental of people around me based on their identity, or how they preach or how they talk or how they live or what they eat or how they look?
• What are the positives and the good qualities that I have today? Are they there in me because of my efforts, my actions, my own learnings, or because of what and how much good people around me have done for me and to me?
• Is there anything that I have, that I did not deserve in the 1st place, but got it because I was endowed well in terms of money, happiness, a good family, a good house?

It is a humble request to the reader that they take a brief yet deep introspection of their person and try and answer these questions to themselves with utmost integrity and sincerity. If any of these questions is a yes or if the answer to any of these questions even makes you think for a moment that "Is this a yes?’", then I would say that this requires, an even deeper reflection of how you are leading your life and how you are being with your loved ones and with people around you in general.

I very well do realize that the way I framed these questions, the answer will be a yes to at least one of them for 99% people or perhaps even 100% (It is a yes in case of multiple answers even for me). And that is fine. It's fine because we are all humans. No one is born a god. No one can become god. Hell, I don't even know if god even exists (I have an agnostic position towards the concept and existence of god). But I would say that we humans are currently the most important species on this planet and hence, the most important stakeholders that can make this planet, this country, and most importantly, our Indian society function and flourish. Not for one moment should we think that our actions don't matter. Not for one moment should we even feel that crime happening halfway across the country had nothing to do with me. This is because we are all part of the same society. We are all part of the same history, the same civilization. Somewhere or the other, even a small thought, comment, an innocuous action that we might have done that was not good or responsible but was hurtful to someone, anyone, contributed in some way or the other to a chain of events (Called the Butterfly Effect) that led to that very bad action halfway across the country. It might not even be true. And I'm not kidding here when I say it might not even be true as it is perhaps 100% sure that our actions did not lead to that very gruesome murder or that very gruesome sexual assault or that very gruesome butchery on the opposite end of the country. Because let's face it, there's a chance we didn't even visit that place once in our life. But if we realize that our actions are more than how they affect us or just the people surrounding us, our actions have a very important role to play in how societal equations function. Like I mentioned before, the butterfly effect can very well be real here. So if you say that there is no conclusive proof that your actions led to that crime halfway across the country, there'll be a person, much like this author, who will counteract with the statement that there is no conclusive proof that your actions did not lead to that crime halfway across the country either. Hence, the reality that we choose to believe is exactly that, a chosen reality. It is not of a 100% holistic absolute reality. It is what we are choosing to tell ourselves. It is what the story we are choosing to convince our mind of.

Concluding Argument

That is the duty of privilege. Therefore, dear reader, convince yourself that you are not the ‘’Little Man’’ or the ‘’Little Woman’’ whose actions don't matter, whose conscience doesn't matter, and whose beliefs don't matter. Each and every single one of us belongs to that single reality, that single fabric, that single tapestry of social, cultural, and even philosophical relations between each other. Every action of every human being belonging to this fabric will never be inconsequential. It will almost never go unheard of.

Every bad thing we do will get amplified and cause havoc and perhaps even come back to us to make our life miserable. And this is perhaps why I like to believe that sometimes people, even when they are almost convinced that they have not done anything wrong to anyone, still live miserable lives. Here, I would like to say that I don't understand the concept of karma that much, ie, what you do to unto others, others will do unto you. What I would like to say that, why I'm saying that people live miserable lives even when they convince, or they know themselves that they don't do anything wrong is perhaps because they are not looking deep inside themselves that deeply. Because if they do, look that into themselves deeply, they will perhaps realize that although they convince themselves that they're not doing anything wrong, they have done wrong unto others. And even when those others are not doing wrong unto them directly, the values one needs to do bad to others or the values that the lines of thought that one needs to have to do bad to others, if one is harbouring such values, such, emotions, such ideas, then it is almost impossible that they don't break a part of themselves and put themselves down just to push the other people down. Because like it said that, to hold someone down, to put someone down, to hurt someone, one needs to keep a part of themselves down with that person to hold them down. If we are not and because, we ourselves are harbouring such values and emotions and ideas that are doing negative to others. We end up doing negative to ourselves because somewhere we are hurting ourselves as well when we do bad to others, and, hence, the misery.

Therefore, if the bad equations, bad actions that we do get amplified, the good actions that we do will also get amplified. A simple act of kindness to anyone and especially to people around us, loved ones around us, who we often take for granted, will go a long way in preserving harmony of societal relations, in preserving the fabric of society, in preserving the wholesomeness of our existence as a beautiful country.

And that is what I call the duty of privilege, my friends. And here the duty of privilege shall go hand in hand with the concept of intersectionality of privileges. People who are more up the hierarchy of privilege, for example, rich, male, English speaking, good looking, upper caste, etc, should have the conscience to consider their duty of doing good to others, uplifting others, because only when people start taking responsibility of their duties, of their dharma, only then can it lead to a righteous and a just society. Only when people start valuing themselves and understand the value of their actions, their sayings, their speech, their thoughts, even their gestures that they do in the public sphere or even in the private sphere, only then will the society tread on the path to becoming more nurturing and more cultivating for every single person that has taken birth on this planet.

I do realise these are all very worthy and might sound even like very lofty goals and values, perhaps no one, including myself, is doing them or can do them or will ever be able to do everything written here. But that's the importance of these conversations, these messages, that we all realize collectively that the society is very much built of us, of every single individual here. And only when we actually start talking of what a righteous just society is or should be like, only then we can perhaps start making a conscious effort or even a subconscious effort towards achieving that.

Although all this seems idealistic, it is very much real and pragmatic and doable. None of these things here is something that any of us can't do. Perhaps the more privileged can even do them more easily, and that's what the message of this essay is. And what's that's perhaps the message of this essay is next. Keep this and everyone should try to keep in mind that no one shall do all these actions or any of these actions, thoughts, speeches for anyone else but themselves.

People need to realize that when they uplift themselves in their own eyes and in their own mind and in their own conscience, only then they can truly emerge with the completeness of their personality and their true manifestation. How it was meant to be like. If we are doing this for anyone else, then again, we are somehow stopping ourselves from emerging from achieving the true potentiality that is there in us. Only when we do this for ourselves, irrespective of if anyone else is doing these things or not, only then can we emerge as truly the responsible and the dutiful and the dharmic being.

And only centred around the fulcrum of dharma, can the Indian society emerge as righteous and just. And that is the message of this post.