Rites of Passage

People throughout the world have heightened emotions during times of major life changes. These stressful changes may be physiological or social in nature. They are usually connected with personal transitions between important stages that occur during our lives. These transitions are generally emotionally charged -they are life crises.

Lately, media has brought to the fore incidences of violence in our country, maybe this has been prevalent for sometime, but has got media attention lately, but what maybe of importance to note is that these incidents are localized to a particular state in India – Bihar and taking place in short span of time. In this past week, cases of violence, brutality, and apathy have risen like we have not previously witnessed. This could be on account of an increased media coverage in the state or if we can believe the media these events are indeed not just incidental, but are being covered by the media in earnest response to make the rest of the country aware.
10 killed by Mob for killing – 12th September
3 thieves blinded on apprehension – 11th September
2 kids age 12 and 13, physically assaulted for stealing – 11th September
1500 villagers stripped in search of rapist/murdrer – 11th September
100 girls have gone on strike, as food provided by school was insect infested – 11th September
It may be of consequence to compare these incidents in Bihar with another state.
"The local population is now totally disillusioned in relation to what the government and the coalition has been trying to do," "They see no change in their daily lives. They still live in extreme poverty. And this is only getting worse. And the only thing they see coming at them is forces destroying their livelihoods -- and kids and women being killed."
The afore comment is pertaining to Afghanistan.
The situation in the state of Bihar in India and that of Afghanistan has congruence and similarities. There seems to be a general break down of the law, as the people feel that the established law does not give them the security to live in a community. In both situations, the people feel the law is not identifying the outlaw. In both situations there seems to be a divide between the people and the system that has been established.
The outlaw is being identified as the system. The system being incapable or condoned in not identifying the outlaw, as a result the common citizen is mobilizing acts of violence on the outlaw. In Bihar the outlaw is identified as the perpetuator of the act, while in Afghanistan the outlaw is the very coalition forces trying to bring about some order. This is what the media is covering, I feel they are missing on the stimulus of the action, they are focusing on the response and getting the rest of the country and the world community to focus on the response.
The moot point is not the random acts of violence but in realizing that the system is not making a change to the daily lives of these citizens. We have no precedents but we do have parallel acts in history, understanding the ‘rites of passage’ could probably help us address the situation better rather than an action by deploying larger forces in these areas.
On the contrary, governments in either county are following a pattern where they are looking a larger deployment of armed forces to control the situation. We may not require so much an army or police but an anthropologist or sociologist to cull the present predicament.