Why humanity matters now more than ever?

2020 worst year ever.

You’ve heard that, haven’t you? Maybe even said it. I hear it from friends and on social media, from commentators on the news almost everywhere.

well, it’s an unspoken truth that the year has turned lives upside down.

when we talk about 2020 as the worst year in history we entangle it to so many things: The death and economic depressions caused by the pandemic. The government mismanagement of the pandemic. The way these failures had exposed our social system over the period. The ways it has divorced us from routines we rely on and people we love and our delusion that the future is in our control.

Even at such a messed up situation how can humans turn against fellow human beings? With the death of George Floyd, Jayaraj, and his son Fenix in the face of police brutality, the common crowd has found voice to protest against the injustice but is it all?

No, what about the 2020 Delhi riots and the migrant crisis at the center of a pandemic.

On March 24, with just 4 hours of notice, the country went under lockdown and triggered the worst migration crisis since partition. Millions of daily wage laborers were left stranded with no food and shelter to live under. Some of the shelter homes the government provided were cramped and a mockery of social distancing. The government did little initially until it turned into a humanitarian crisis. Firstly, it announced a doubling of food rations for those registered in the public distribution system. but ignoring the fact that most of these laborers do not have Ration cards. secondly, the central government issued directives to state governments which in turn issued it to employers to pay full wages to its workers during the lockdown. But the government did not account that many small scale industries had limited cash reserves and again did little to help them out. Lastly, after 5 weeks of anguish and cry, the central government allowed the state governments to arrange trains. With miscommunication between states and limited trains, most of them ended walking and cycling home, sometimes over distances of more than 1,000 km, often on empty stomachs.

“Who are we as human beings if we ignore the suffering of others?”

What started as a peaceful protest against CAA took a violent turn when a group of CAA supporters clashed with the protesters near the Maujpur-Babarpur Metro Station, in East Delhi.

The anti-CAA protests began in mid-December with the amended citizenship law being linked to the updated NPR and NRC. What troubled many was the fear that the combination of CAA, NPR, and NRC was purportedly aimed at, and could be used, against Muslims.

The government did a little to appease the minorities over the controversial bill and within, time it turned into a communal riot. Hate speeches by the ruling MLA’s during the time of Delhi elections did little to help. Soon the situation got out of control with the death toll crossing 40 in the duration.

The construction of Ram Mandir has started in Ayodhya. Chants of “Ram Naam Satya Hai” “Jai Shri Ram” can be clearly heard. The conflicted site has a rich history of bloodshed between the two groups which runs back to the 16th century under the Mughals, I just don’t see a point of marginalizing one community over another. Modi laying the silver bricks definitely shows India’s radical shift towards illiberal majoritarianism, which runs on the idea of maintaining Hindu supremacy in India.

Calling ourselves the biggest secular and democratic country when the minorities get frequently lynched by the majority doesn’t make sense. Its high time we start protecting the secularism we are so proud of.

“No one is born hating another person because of the colour of his skin or his background or his religion …”

The whole point of this is that we need to widen our thought process and understand that every person who is in power and has the power to influence everyone’s mind may not be right all the time. At times, these people create the biggest chaos in the nation.

How many more disasters do we need to unite humanity? We need to rise above religion and consider humanity as the new Moral ground. There is nothing above humanity, every life matters. I felt the pandemic could help us understand the importance and need of each other. A starting point of communal harmony.

“I hope that people will finally come to realize that there is only one ‘race’ — the human race — and that we are all members of it.”