THE PSYCHOLOGICAL ANALYSIS OF RAGE

THOUGHTS

Peerzada Muzamil

"As Bertrand Russell puts it, ‘’If you wish to know what men will do, you must know not only, or principally, their material circumstances, but rather the whole system of their desires with their relative strengths.”

Here, in the Indian Administered Kashmir, authorities often desperately try to use the maneuvers of utopian politics, flawed tactics and abhorrent reactions against what is and what has been happening. It gets even worse when they try use the yardsticks of the statistics to put forth the dubious statements wherein they try to claim that they’ve estimated the number of people who perpetrate violence, but when they get a reply, statistically sound and unambiguous – it depicts the picture exactly opposite –that only 7% of the people admire them, ironically, they remain silent and denounce these outright statistical figures mysteriously heretic.  But mere statistics are not enough to understand what the people of Kashmir exactly want, what their desires are and what are their aspirations. And unless these things are understood, the forest fire will gobble up the entire countryside.  It is evident, because recently there has been a drastic spread of the conflagration and this time it is the students who have come out on the roads and poured out their resentment.

Being a student, it often occurs to me that our community is the one which is rationally more active and psychologically more vulnerable than the other classes of the society.  And by putting to use the Machiavellian and Hobbesian politics of ruthlessness, injustice and fear, government is repeatedly failing at appealing to our rationality and they will keep doing so unless they keenly scrutinize the current psychological state of our minds. Being raised up as the children of conflict, our psychological conditioning has taken place in the atmosphere where nobody would desire to live. Their self-centered political maneuvers have shattered our belief system and they can no longer ride on our sentiments. It is equally correct that the perpetration of the violence on their behalf has psychologically made us resilient and fearless.

It is true that since the times immemorial, actions of men are being driven by their desires and instinctive impulses, but we are living in the age where the primary desires like food shelter and clothing have ceased to be the only desires that have serious political implications. It is rather that our actions are governed by the fact that we are conscious of being economically and politically deprived, subjugated and suppressed. Moreover, we being young, there is no limit in our efforts we make and actions we do in order to display our emotions, whether those emotions be righteous rage or pious love. Being conscious of getting crippled, raped, killed, and even worse, blinded, there is only one vent through which we can pour out our indignation and sadly this only vent ‘VIOLENCE’ is harmful because it triggers and elevates the cycle to a dangerous level which results in begetting further rage. Being a writer, I am able to take the shelter of constructive outlet, say for instance, by writing resistance literature, to ease my psyche. But not all students are artists and since they cannot use brushes or guitars, stones and guns are the only alternatives through which they can channelize their rage and desire serious political results from it. What adds to it is that it consequently gets even worse when their voices remain unheard.

It is often maintained that people are indignant because their voices are not heard. But there is always more than that meets the eye. People, I believe, are indignant when their voices are heard and consciously ignored afterwards.  ‘Indifference’ is more dangerous than the outright rejection, because it is offensive and humiliating. How can we forget the lessons of history that humiliation has given birth to endless wars and forged nothing but the swords of ruthless and vindictive bloodshed?

  

It is indubitable that as long as the government hides behind the shields of immoral ingenuities, and does not pay any heed to the status quo, our voices will remain unheard and unaddressed. And I would say, in conclusion, unless the government understands our desires and aspirations, with a tinge of empathy and moral intelligence, the issue will remain as it is. As Bertrand Russell puts it, ‘’If you wish to know what men will do, you must know not only, or principally, their material circumstances, but rather the whole system of their desires with their relative strengths.”


[The article was also published in the Cover Story of Kashmir Ink (VOL 3 | ISSUE 21 | 14th-20th MAY)  - although it was abridged and cut short by the editorial board ]