Trial by fire

Do you have this nagging feeling that all high-profile, allegedly corrupt people now in prisons will be set free? The whole system of justice in India is based on evidence and testimonials. So it is not about being corrupt, it is about finding enough evidence and enough testimonials. If you don't have enough evidence and enough testimonials, then you cannot be convicted even if you are a criminal.


Illustration/ Devdutt Pattanaik

Every time I see our politicians say, "I have full faith in the law," I shudder. They know this too. And they have enough power to ensure there will never be enough evidence or testimonials to convict them. And what if there is enough evidence and enough testimonials against you? Just get a brilliant lawyer who will twist and turn the law so wonderfully, that it will be impossible for the judge to accept that evidence and testimonial as proof.

So where is the so-called justice people are talking about? If you are convicted, it does not mean you are a criminal -- it just means you had a bad lawyer. If you don't get convicted, it does not mean you are not a criminal. It just means that there was not enough evidence against you.

In the Gond Ramayani, which is a folk Ramayana of the Gond people, there's a story of how Indra's daughter is smitten by Ram's brother Lakshman. He rejects her sexual advances and so in rage, while he is asleep, she tears her clothes and jewels and leaves them around him. Sita finds this and concludes her brother-in-law has been dallying with forest women. She informs Ram about this. Ram asks Lakshman if this is true but Lakshman pleads innocence. He says he has always been faithful to his wife, Urmila, back home. But no one believes him.

There is evidence after all. So Lakshman does an Agni-Pariksha: he walks through fire unscathed. The story is unusual and rare and the stuff of many a feminist conversation as it deals with male chastity, quite unlike the story of Sita's Agni-Pariksha. Why is this trial by fire such an important theme in mythology? It is not a memory of a primitive practice as there is a tendency to assume, but a method to show how some things cannot be proved. How does one prove adultery if there is no evidence or testimonial? How does one prove chastity when there is evidence and testimonial pointing otherwise? How does one really know if a man or woman have been faithful? And what is faithfulness -- that of the body or that of the mind?

Physically, our politicians are clean. They leave no paper trail. And soon they will leave no telephone or SMS trail. It will be done with clinical precision -- wiping out every possible evidence and testimonial. And the law will run its course. No corruption charges will be upheld, as there will be no proof. Everyone will be set free. And we will either grow wiser or more cynical.

Devdutt Pattanaik is a Mumbai-based mythologist who makes sacred stories, symbols and rituals relevant to modern times. He is also Chief Belief Officer of the Future Group, and can be reached at devdutt@devdutt.com.

The views expressed in this column are the individual's and don't necessarily represent those of the paper