The health of a Virus-Affected Society

Human life on this planet has come to a complete standstill now. We are living in a very different and difficult situation. Nothing is moving: the economy is an all-time low, hospitals are crowded with patients; our markets, banks, schools, libraries, and playgrounds are lifeless; restaurants and religious places are deserted and our homes are guestless. Perhaps, never before in history, did we see human species find themselves in such a hapless and frustrated state. Things are so bad and unpredictable that we do not even know where to go from here- as a country and as a society. But one wonders whether this exceptional time is teaching us anything new? Whether there has been any change in our outlook toward the world and the other? Is this crisis motivating us to learn how to live with peace and harmony? Is it making us less cruel? Looking at the current socio-political scenarios of this country, and Northeast India in particular, one does not feel encouraged about these questions. Rather one feels very sad, embarrassed, and humiliated as a citizen.

The state of affairs in our North-eastern region is extremely disturbing. So far the region has more than 100 confirmed cases of novel coronavirus victims, and out of this nearly 60 odd cases are from Assam. Indeed this is a serious health crisis for the people of this region. Certainly, we have an overarching reason to be worried about our public health system. Nevertheless, the amount of harm that the people of Northeast India and Assam, in particular, have experienced in the name of this virus is unprecedentedly disproportionate. Not only has it destroyed our shared understanding and long-inherited values of harmony but also it caused tremendous injury to the moral fabric of the entire society. It all started with the news of the tragic incident of Delhi’s Nizamuddin where a congregation of the Tablighi Jamaat took place in Bangalewaali Masjid from 12^th to 15^th March- a few days before India went into for three-phases lockdown starting from 22^nd March, 2020. The event was attended by thousands of Indian Muslims coming from across the country and more than 500 foreign nationals from the neighbouring South Asian countries. Investigations suggested that the event was one of the major causes that triggered the number of Covid-19 cases in India. Subsequently, this news resulted in creating a barrage of fake news and media-trials about the event- some directly accusing the event organizers others blaming the entire Islamic community for spreading the virus in India. Some of the mainstream media of Assam and North East also followed the suit and went on whole-hog in lambasting the event and its participants. This happened especially after the government of Assam came out with an official declaration that the first case of Covid-19 causality, a 52-year-old cancer patient from Karimganj district, had attended the congregation in Nizamuddin. After this, there were other official and semi-official communications that suggested that almost every COVID-19 patient from the region had attended the Nizamuddin congregation--wilfully ignoring the most important fact that there are also Covid-19 cases which had no links with this event. This was followed by hundreds of fake news, a variety of unverified video footage, and numerous caricatures of Islam on Facebook, WhatsApp and in some news portals in Assam. The Twitter accounts were full of hashtags such as #coronajihad, #biojihad, #nizamuddinidiot etc. Instantly they became a big hit on this platform. They all spread like wildfires to other platforms with full impunity and knowledge of the state.

Amidst all this, one did not know for sure what was real and what was fake. Nobody came to know with certainty who all from Assam were actually present in the congregation and who was not. As most patients were kept under full custody of the State forces nobody knew got a chance to talk to the patient-turned-victims. Their families were in shell-shocked, neighbours were clueless as the entire public space was hijacked by the Islamophobic misinformation and fake news. In a report published in Scroll on 7^th April 2020, economist Saugato Dutta informs that the news of linking a large portion of overall positive cases to Tablighi Jamaat is highly misleading. Pointing toward the heart of the problem Dutta writes- “This is basically sampling bias: since people from this one cluster have been tested at very high rates, and overall testing is low, it is hardly surprising that a large proportion of overall positives is attributed to this cluster. The authorities were able to contact trace and quickly test large numbers of cases from this one event probably because it was so organised. We don’t know how other clusters– religious or otherwise could have spread the coronavirus since unlike the Jamaat, they weren’t aggressively tested.”[iv] But then it was already too late for people to understand. The intended damage had already been done. The opportunists had made full use of those few weeks. The rumour-mongering communal machines had a great time of success. But looking back at the chronology of events, one is deeply puzzled about the entire episode. No doubt that the Nizamudddin congregation was one of the sources from where covid-19 cases started spreading. Also, one does not doubt that these are mindless religious gatherings with hardly any constructive role in today’s society. But that is a separate issue. One must note that there was nothing wrong about congregation and there was nothing wrong in being a part of the congregation as such. This is as good or as bad as any religious event- whether that is a Hindu or Christian event.

At this stage, one must not forget to ask a few critical questions to the public at large. Why did the Indian state allow the foreign national to come to this event in the first place at a time when the whole world was aware of the impending danger of foreign travels? Why weren’t they screened at the international border before allowing them to come in? And most importantly, why did the government allow the participants to be together in such a thickly populated area? Also, one must note that the government had declared the emergency only on 16th March, 2020-one day after the event came to an end. But surprisingly, this is not how the general public was encouraged to reason about the entire course of events. People from all backgrounds got carried away with whatever the political class and their coteries preached and propagated.

Above all what was most disappointing was the manner in which an entire community had been brought to the court of public humiliation without any factual understanding. It seems that there was a well-thought-out plan to take full advantage of the situation for the majoritarian regime. There were direct innuendos everywhere in the public that suggested how a particular religious community was deliberatively involved in spreading the Coronavirus in the Northeastern region. People in the region almost unabashedly equated Covid-19 with the Muslim community. Almost every aspect of Muslim life was brought to the news media for scrutiny. Interestingly the liberal educated Muslim youths were also roped in this process. They shouted in the TV studios about the malpractices of their community. They joined hands with the mainstream forces in blaming the religion with full force and vigour. Small places, like my home town Nazira (a small town in Upper Assam) also did not lag behind. People saw the names of several individuals from my region on Facebook and other social media pages along with their phone number, age, and home address. Contrary to reality, they were prominently portrayed with an accusatory message that they were all present in the Nizamuddin event. Nobody tried to verify what was what. Everybody jumped the gun to accuse them for being who they are. Every patient was made aware of the fact that first of all he was a Muslim. There was a public acceptance that having a virus in one’s body is nothing less than that of committing a crime. Needless to say, the body of those victims was socially abused and disgraced. There was clear a message on the wall: “You are either a traitor or a terrorist if you caught the virus in the congregation”. In simple words, every patient was socially murdered before they came to physically experience the pain of the disease.

Now that the particular phase is over, one must ask about the health of our society. Rather than the health of one body, one must worry about the health of our society at large. The health of a human body can be cured once the vaccine is out. But can we cure the health of this society which has been damaged by this virus so badly? One must know that we are still living in a virus that affected society. It is high time that social distancing is maintained not just for the Coronavirus but also for this communal virus which is out there waiting for an opportune time.

Pariz Pikul Gogoi pursuing Master’s in Sociology at Tezpur University, Assam. Before this he completed Bachelor’s in Political Science from Zakir Husain Delhi College, University of Delhi. Opinions expressed are from the writer.

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