Giving Sociological meanings to Road ‘Barring’ (situation COVID-19)
By Suan Muanlian Tonsing, Research Scholar
“...ironically, in order to prevent from getting infected and further outbreak of the virus: social distancing protocols are breached, they have stopped the tendency for any surface mobility of transport, they have put more lives at risk by road blockade, the list can go on...” social media criticises.
On the other hand, is this not the problem of modernity rather than the problem of the confused social? Is it not possible that the society is still in the process of fitting themselves into the modern world? Because to fit into something we were not, being traditionally shaped, could be a hell of a challenge.
Why does people block the roads, kept vigilance (to the extend of using arms as circulated in the social media) with the culmination of COVID-19 as an alarming factor in Lamka? Where is power in this factor? Does the patterns of attempt for prevention from such virus have any significance with power relations?
Textual and Verbal attacks and counter attacks in media dominated electronic communications such as Zogam.com, Phualva times, WhatsApp groups and the spatial public spaces too. Condemning the immediate reflections of certain groups from different localities in barring the roads at different vicinities which could halt surface movements, especially vehicles, have lately shaped the the discourse and discussions around such debates. While certain mediated texts drops thoughts on how preventive and alert these people were, there are also negotiations that claims that these acts are ‘foolish’ without rational thoughts. Well, our interest is not to put a judgemental perspective on the comments, but to see these attempts of prevention at another level of analysis. How?
We shall look at it from two very broad perspectives by inviting questions into the social phenomena. Why did they perform such acts and How is that act related to power? What conditions does these reactions to the virus tells us of our society? Hence, we are looking into the concepts of power and the location of the society in the age of modernity.
Our society have experienced the decline of significant elitist intervention since several decades back, due to political experiences. The state also seemed to have turned secondary to our day to day activities as there is an engagement from the part of the social in a manner in which the social pursue their own interest in their own capabilities amidst functioning alongside the government within the whole social structural framework. Today, the social have taken matters into their hands, from the private to the public: corruption fits perfectly into the pockets of our ‘Holy Bible’,
exploitation at the political level has become a mere everyday phenomena. The growing mistrust against the government is also signified with the untoward conflict that the society have experienced in the late 1990s. The late intervention of the government in this conflict has cause turmoil to the situation as the early intervention of the government could have at least saved more number of lives than was lost, more number of properties. Do not get carried away, we are not here to unravel the past, but to unravel what the analysis of the past can teach us in the present. The trust of the government lost, the trust of the elites lost, the trust of the social by the social is at the verge of its losing end. The social losing the social. At this rate, what happens when epidemics and public alarms are raised across populations who no longer trust the government, who no longer trust the elites and who, most significantly, no longer trust the social? Well, in this case, at best scenario the matters are taken into their own hands, and at worst the government’s or the non- state actors intervention could add fuel to the fire. But what we have witnessed in the past few days shows that a sense of community feeling is still alive to some extend, but limited at the level of the locality to which one belongs. The fact that several localities or veng (it is cautious not to generalise this) have barred the roads signifies their love or attachment for the locality, or so, the people of that locality. At the other end, this also displays the relation the social have with the government or the elites. The trust is subsidised. Considering that trust deficit is the factor behind such conduct of the population, some readers will not be satisfied with this argument. Even with the issue of trust, what is the significance of barring roads and disturbing the surface mobility such as transportation, emergencies, etc.,? To answer that requires to look closely into the condition with which their actions are carried out. This condition is the power relation.
It is significant to understand that power is not necessarily the ability to influence what other people should do, rather power is a relation between people, it circulates and exists only because of the existence of the individual upon which relation of power can organise. Hence, now try and relate how is power relation significant in understanding the barring of the roads? To simplify, the barring of roads or road blockades signifies nothing but the overcoming of the formal ‘power’ that stems from top (government) and goes down to the bottom (the social). The individuals makes the relations of power possible. Power circulates not necessarily from the top and flows down to the bottom. It does not have a beginning or an end, as one might understand that power is intrinsic with the government. It is in this context that the blockade signifies the negation of the forms of power that the government thought it is embodied with. As Foucault would argue Power is always already there, that one is never outside of it. The locality (veng) wise blockade which may or may not come from the direction of authority such as the youth organisations (as an example) signifies an attempt has been significantly made by these localities to uphold their negation of the formal governmental power. Whether that attempt is successful or fruitless is not the concern of this
discussion. Implied from the above discussion it is necessary to look at the process involved in such activities of the people as the implication of power relations and the deficit of trust.
Well, at this rate, where does the society stand at the age of modernity? Where there is huge deficit of trust? To make matters short, firstly, the society is in a confused state since the coming of modernity in Churachandpur through the missionaries and later on significantly modernised or in the process of modernisation by the packages Indian independence has brought with it. We are not condemning modernisation, but the society was not in a position to face with such forces of development. The political participation, media, education, new economy and means of livelihood, rationalities, etc., were too large a package for our fore fathers or grandparents to encounter with. Is was so new for them. It also seems to me that such forms of confusion about modernity’s rationalities are still largely contradicting our sense of understanding of the social world today. What the local calls ‘maiteh khuak’ (in a less derogatory manner) seems to be prevalent within our sense of reasoning, which is not altogether bad. Corona Virus outbreak and the alarming condition the public are faced with shows concern for how the public is still struggling to have an understanding of modern development and its consequences. Connecting to what Avijit Pathak has written in his article, it may be safe to say that these kinds of epidemics are the product of modern uncertainties. Why, at this rate, are we condemning the confused public of their immediate interventions against the virus? Logically, in order to prevent from getting infected, social distancing protocols are breached, they have stopped the tendency for any surface mobility, they have put more lives at risk by road blockade, the list can go on. But what is important here lies with this simple question: Is this not the problem of modernity rather than the problem of the confused social? Is it not possible that the society is still in the process of fitting themselves into the modern world? Because to fit into something we were not, being traditionally shaped, could be a hell of a challenge. For someone who do not know the meaning of ‘social distancing’ (refer to DV Kumar’s article on Sociology of COVID-19) due to lack of educational opportunities or exposure to such forms of understanding, for someone who do not know the meaning of modern values due to broken family conditions which shapes their perspectives of life and for someone who do not possess the calculative tendencies to see negative effects of blockades need a significant leader who is calculative, rational and grounded on truth. After all, this social did a great job by trying their best to prevent themselves from the virus. Well, wouldn’t it be alarming for them because everything comes in shock? Wouldn’t it be confusing for them for the social who do not know what modernity and its consequences are? This is not a tone of sarcasm, but a tone of empathy, a step to put ourselves into the shoe of the other to understand the reality. As Daniel Lerner suggests, modernity is all about empathy and putting ourselves in the shoe of the other. The modern should be self reflexive, not a critique.
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*The author is a Research Scholar in Department of sociology, Delhi School of Economics under University of Delhi.
Contact details:
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Suggested Readings
Foucault, M. (1980). Power/Knowledge: Selected Interviews and Other Writings, 1972-1977 (ed. C. Gordon). Brighton: Harvester.
Habermas, Jurgen (1981). Theory of Communicative Action:Reason and the Rationalization of Society Volume 1), Translated by Thomas McCarthy. Boton: Beacon Press
Kumar, DV (2020). The Sociology Of COVID-19.The Shillong Times.
Lerner, Daniel (1958). The Passing of Traditional Society: Modernizing The Middle East. Macmillan
Pub Co.
Li, Tania Murray (2007).The Will to Improve: Governmentality, Development and the Practices of Politics. USA: Duke University Press.
Pathak, Avijit (2020).Covid & modernity gone farHumans have become terribly
obsessed with order, prediction and certainty. The Tribune. Retrieved from https:// www.tribuneindia.com/news/covid-modernity-gone-far-57054