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Trial By Fire

By Chaitali Dasgupta - 1:54 PM Wednesday 09 August 2006

Legends and myths have always fascinated people all over the world. Myths are unique creations of the human mind, which manage to travel through spatial time and history, influencing people, both in their thoughts and actions.

At the cost of repeating myself, myths, we know play a vital role in shaping and influencing the social, cultural, religious and even political aspects of our lives. We saw this aspect in the Ayyappa myth, the Yellamma myth on this blog itself. Political campaigns such as the ‘Rath Yatra’, slogans such as ‘Ram Janam Bhoomi’, the recent controversy and opposition over the entry of women in the sacro-sanctum of the Sabrimala temple are some of the examples of the power that myths hold over us.

The ‘Trial by Fire’ or the infamous ‘Agni-pariksha’ dealing with female sexuality is perhaps the most popular of all myths in the Indian sub-continent. One would have thought that with social reforms, feminist and human rights activism, laws banning Sati and with 21st century modern thinking, this myth of putting women through fire would have come to an end. To some extent it may have but only to surface now and again within whole new settings.

In a school in Howrah, West Bengal, three girls belonging to class V were punished with the ‘Fire Test’ for a scuffle with a fellow student in the class. According to the newspaper report, the three girls were accused by a fellow male classmate for deliberately pushing him and causing injury to his head. The history teacher summoned the girls and asked them to own up for the act. The trio remained silent. The teacher deciding to get to the root of the matter placed three paper-balls in their hands and set them on fire. “Whoever is guilty will throw the ball” announced the teacher. Two of the girls dropped the paper balls, while the third girl, 10 year old Halima Khatun, froze with fright and remained clutching the paper balls burning her hand till above the wrist.

All this happened in front of three other teachers who did nothing to protest or stop but act as accomplice in playing out this atrocious crime. And if this was not enough no first-aid or medicine was applied or given to the injured girl. She had to wait for one-and-a-half hours with the burning blisters before her mother could come and take her to a doctor.

Halima is the first in her family to go to school. But the incident has shattered her mother’s dream of wanting to give her daughter education. Halima’s mother is perplexed as to how a teacher could do such a thing. While she is fearful and anxious that the teacher might take revenge if she sends her to the school, young Halima keeps weeping and refuses to go to school.

We do not need to go into any lengthy research or analysis to trace the origin of the method used in carrying out this violent behaviour. Halima’s case is an indicator of how the age-old ‘Sita-Myth’ continues to influence human psyche. This time as an exploitative tool of abuse. It would be naïve on our part to assume that the teachers actually believed that the ‘Fire Test’ would prove whether the girls were lying or speaking the truth. The behaviour of the teachers was nothing more that an act of cruelty seeking sadistic pleasure in inflicting pain and violence on the young girls.

As long as the ‘Sita-Myth’ is eulogized for affirming the ‘virtuous’ female sexuality, the ‘Trials by Fire’ will continue. The characters may change and the context may vary but the exploitation will persist.

Posted By Chaitali Dasgupta - 1:54 PM Wednesday 09 August 2006

Comments

Shudder. Unacceptable and repulsive enough that someone tortures a child. When a TEACHER engages in such a despicable act, what does it indicate of the state of the society?

One can severely punish the sick teacher, his/her colleagues and the school authorities for hiring and empowering such a twisted mind. Yet it does nothing to heal the deep scars of the child. How does the poor girl even begin to heal? What kind of an education are the children in that school receiving?

Posted by

Vedant

on August 11, 2006 08:59 AM

Thanks for a lucid post Chaitali on something so important. Truly, myths leave a deep impact and powerful myths a powerful impression.

Sita has and will haunt us for a long, long time until the story and its implications are reclaimed and retold. Something like the power of religious myths like the 'crucifixtion' which has become the fulcrum of Christ's life and persona and therefore continues to trigger negative responses such as anger/hatred/martyrdom. "The Passion of Christ" by Mel gibson becomes a profound statement then of how even a modern day mind interprets not the passion of his teaching, love, compassion or fearlessness but the gore and violence of rejection. No wonder recently Mel Gibson was being hounded for making anti-semitic comments. How can it be otherwise? When the central symbol become so violent what will it trigger but violence as a moral and religious virtue.

Similarly with Muharram you have the death of Hasan and Hussain being mourned even to this day with acts which can only be looked upon as barbaric. Why were the deaths of all the others like the many other followers of the Prohet killed at the histroic Karbala less important? Why can the rememberance of that day not lead to acts of great compassion, silence or even inner contemplation? No! the myths rule powerfully , feeding the ignorance in all and in fact giving them outlets and justification for all the rage, prejudice and power mongering that lurk within.

Thanks for taking what could have been lost as an innocuous incident in the daily news and pegging it to the power of your insight.

Posted by

Jasjit

on August 11, 2006 10:00 AM

Dear Vedant,

The only way I can see how the liitle girl can be healed is by receiving lots of love and affection not only from her parents but from other sane teachers of the same school. Obviously an act like this has broken her trust and re-building that trust gradually and with patience is the only way.

Jasjit,

When Passion of Christ had released I had missed it. But I got to see it much later on TV. And I too must say that the amount of violence in it was too much to watch. To think of passion of/for Christ in such a violent manner is doing just that which Christ did not preach.

I remember a scene from Ben Hur where they don't show Christ but they show an incident where a man gives Ben Hur water to drik while he is enslaved by the Romans. That scene was so mesmerising and full of love and that is what passion of Christ is about.

Posted by

Chaitali

on August 11, 2006 10:37 AM

Hi Chaitali

All I feel like doing is getting a huge roll of paper, stuffing it you know where of that teacher, setting it on fire and asking him if he feels like Raja Harishchandra. That should do it for him. Shocking and tragic what goes by the name of education in our country.

Thanx for sharing this story.

Posted by

Ananya

on August 11, 2006 11:28 AM

Trial By Fire

By Chaitali Dasgupta - 1:54 PM Wednesday 09 August 2006

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