What does Consuming Pesticide Reveal of Human Existence?

On 16th July 2020, many Newspapers flashed the news of a 'Dalit couple' consuming pesticide in Guna district in Madhya Pradesh. The couple - Rajkumar Ahirwar and wife Savitri made an attempt at ending their life when they saw the 45 bigha plot with soyabean cultivation on it being destroyed by the bulldozers sent by the anti-encroachment team. It was indeed heartbreaking when they saw all their investment lost. This incident kept me thinking about Human existence and what it would possibly reveal.

Human Existence reveals conflict and Struggle 

 

Existence is struggle and conflict ridden. With Darwinian theory of natural selection and survival, we now understand that 'fitness' is what matters today. We have heard about 'survival of the fittest'. We also hear in the corporate world about the 'survival of the fastest and the efficient' and fitness is not what ultimately counts. In the natural world, for a lion to survive, it needs to prey upon other animals. Those animals that are preyed upon live in an apparent conflict-ridden world. Of course, human beings do not live preying upon other human beings. However, it can happen that human beings can manifest predatory instincts in varied ways. Mr. Gabbu Pardhi who leased the land that does not belong to him for money cheated the couple. No one willfully wishes to be cheated. It is a classic case of cheating the vulnerable persons for gain. Can we not say that the couple had purity of intention rather than encroaching on a land that did not belong to them. The intention of the couple was perhaps a temporary relief from their struggle through cultivation. However, the conflict widened when they realized that they had encroached a government land cut out for a government college. Who understands their struggle to maintain a family of eight members (parents and six children)? Could the anti-encroachment team wait till the harvest was done as the couple requested? What was the hurry in beginning the work of a college during lockdown days? The sweat of the poor is always tinged with the cry of struggle. Perhaps the couple lived in a constant struggle. But they could not handle the conflict when they realized that they have reached the end of the rope. When the bulldozers rolled in, Savitri went in and consumed pesticide, the husband followed her. Succumbing to helplessness is the result of a felt inability to face the predatory giants of corrupted humanity.

Human Existence reveals the innate beauty of the dignity of being human

As it can be gauged, the couple bore the burden of being landless, poverty-stricken. However, they mustered courage to do something worthy of human dignity (cultivation: to eat from the sweat of their brow rather than stealing or engaging in any act of easy money). They even took a loan to do such an act (as the neighbors suggest). They accepted the struggles of life and moved on amidst difficulties. That's the innate beauty of being human.

The cry of children tell us a bold truth "we are dependent on each other for survival". Just as the nature has an ecosystem, the family has an ecosystem of dependence. No man is an island. No human institution stands alone. We need each other. The cries of children tell us that the human values are on the verge of extinction.