Covid-19 has brought a new phrase to the people of India – social distancing. It originated with the World Health Organization’s attempt to curb the spread of coronavirus. Though WHO used the phrase ‘social distancing’, it later changed to ‘physical distancing’. The Indian government is campaigning for the phrase (social distancing) with money from the government treasury. The central government is not at all in a position to think over the phrase even once for a second that can bring what a terrible future for the people of India. It seems the government of India is fully aware of the destructive effect on society of using the phrase. Maybe, all this was always the “confidential agenda” of government. Covid-19 unexpectedly has brought this opportunity to implement their heinous agenda.

Inhumane insults in the name of caste are unfortunate realities in Indian society. Although constitutionally this injustice has not been tolerated, the administration that exists to make the constitution effective has failed miserably in this regard. That is, the caste-based social system is real. While religion is the main tool for perpetuating this system, this inhumane division is used in every aspect of social and daily life. The ‘social distance’ theory is used to perpetuate this inhumane system of division.

What is this ‘social distance’ theory? Most Indian villages are caste-dependent and casteism is nothing but staircase of hatred. In a good place in the same village, only those who are at upper stairs called the staircase of hatred of the Indian caste system, live. People, at the bottom of the stairs, are living in a relatively bad and unhealthy place i,e, maintaining a ‘social distance’. Why? Because a lot are shown to sit separately.

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The day will get worse if one sees the faces of the “people at below” of hatred-staircase after just waking up in the morning. If it is touched in the state of religious work, it must be purified again. If the “people at the bottom” touches, would be an insult to the “people at the upper”. Honour must be restored by purification. These are just examples of the external “social distance” theory.

The psychological example of the “social distance” theory is even more frightening. Babasaheb Ambedkar taught us that a bullet can cause the physical death of one person, but an indiscriminate vote can turn the whole society into a “slave” or a single vote can make the whole society a “ruler”. That very “social distance” theory is able to make “slaves” to those “people at the bottom” of hatred-staircase. It is this mental slavery that does not allow one to “rebel” against such hatred but finds mental satisfaction in more slavery.

That is, the theory of “social distance” will help to strengthen the caste system. Because of Covid-19, “social distance” will be used to move people further away from society, just when Covid-19 will be weak. The theory of “social distance” in the name of caste will be sharpened to impose the blame for any failure on the “people at the bottom”.

Read also – Coronavirus, A Great Divider; Effects On Race And Caste

Remember, the episode of religious reverence for cows has come to an end with the tracing of the suspicious purpose of normal routine going to and from the market for the routine purpose of purchasing/selling of cows and leading to human torture and death. In the current climate of fear in India for a variety of reasons, many inhumane incidents will not reach the administration for justice. Again, 1% or 2% of what will arrive at administration will not be able to reach the court for trial and 0.1% of it will not be judged.

Therefore, not “social distance”, we should say “physical distance”. And that will serve the purpose by maintaining physical distance to break the chain of getting infected with Covid-19. Keeping social distance will break the society.

Now let’s look at the direction given by “WHO”. Before that, understand that what the Bengalis of West Bengal and India call “JAL”. But the Bengalis of Bangladesh call it “PANI”. The war of castes in India is the war of blacks and whites in America, The whole of Africa is witnessing a series of black conquests against whites. Indians are Indians on foreign soil, while on Indian soil they are divided into castes, religions, languages and provinces. We may call it adaptation or change, by understanding the environment and the situation. We should not have any difficultly in accepting WHO’s recommendation of physical distancing instead of social distancing propagated by the Indian government. At this crisis, priority must be given to human rights and we must come together, not create further divides. So, let’s maintain lockdown in India by calling maintaining the physical distance, not social distance.

Author – Ranjan Majumder