THERE is no word other than ‘barbarism’ to describe the act of murder first by stabbing and then by bludgeoning of a 16-year-old girl in New Delhi by a young man who was described as her boyfriend. That he stabbed her as many as twenty times and then thrashed her head three times with a cement slab, can be imagined only in horror films or fiction. Yet, this barbaric incident took place in full public view in a narrow lane in New Delhi -- bringing shame to the larger society. ‘The Hitavada’ news-room was stunned and shocked beyond words as the news of the ghastly murder came in. And each time such a news item comes in, all of us are shocked out of our wits. This reaction is also the reaction of all common people across the country.

Yet, there is something far more serious than just the act of brutality -- and that concerns all of us, the larger society. For, when that young man was attacking the 16-year-old girl with knife and stabbing her repeatedly in that narrow and crowded lane, there were people who had the mind to turn and videograph the incident. And there also were countless many others who saw the murder taking place but did not feel like stopping the attacker and overpower him -- and save the girl’s life. All that societal inaction was far more shocking than anything else.

This is our concern, a very serious concern. For, when such an act of brutality is taking place in full public view and no one stepping forward to intervene, is something that is most difficult to digest. If just five or six persons had gathered courage and charged at the attacker, they could have stopped him from the barbaric act. But that did not happen. Many people passed by in panic, unwilling to intervene, while some had the raw temerity to film the incident without doing anything to save the girl’s life. Utterly disgusting! What has happened to our society -- may we ask?!! Why have our people become so self-centered so as not to intervene even when a murder is taking place in full public view,?!! There, of course, are multiple dimensions to this situation, one being some missing factor in our education in schools and colleges and also in the sanskaar at home, in the family. Something critical is missing in our upbringing -- which needs to be researched and pinpointed so that corrective measures can be initiated.

Most unfortunately, as we all know, we live in a society in which we advise one another not to interfere in other people’s matters and issues. This was what seems to have happened in the New Delhi incident. Everybody followed the advice of not interfering in somebody else’s matters or issues. On a practical level, that may be a sane advice to follow. But to stretch its implementation to such a distance is sheer insanity on the part of the larger society.

Swatantryaveer Vinayak Damodar Savarkar, a great litterateur besides being a great patriot and social reformer, described a similar social condition in a novel titled Mala Kai Tyache? (meaning, ‘What is that to me?’, or ‘It does not matter to me’). The novel set in the social background of Kerala describes how the whole society was afflicted by heinous crime just because there was nobody to intervene when one person or one family was being attacked by hordes of goons. The Delhi situation also happened to be somewhat like that. This situation needs to be probed in all seriousness -- so that an appropriate answer can be known and implemented to ensure that such deadpanness does not occur again in the society. This, of course, is a tall order, but the process of correction in the societal mindset needs to be initiated on an urgent basis.