Not My India: Social Justice and Responsibility
“To all of you who, after watching Slumdog Millionaire or reading The White Tiger, say “This is not my India”, well I just have to ask whose India is it, then? Because that is the India I see every day from my auto or bicycle rickshaw, or when I go to teach English or visit Doral Putty in the Wazirpur slum, or when I go to KFC and see Punit almost get kicked out.
But don’t worry, after traveling for two hours and watching the India that is “not yours” pass me by, then I arrive in Gurgaon and get to see “your India” too. I walk in your pristine malls and there are no Punits anywhere in sight.” (Punit is a friend who drives a rickshaw).
This is something I wrote a few weeks ago, while trying to process life in India and Amy read it and asked me to write about social justice.
In order to fully understand social justice one must first define what “social justice” is. According to the Wikipedia entry, “social justice” is “a term, generally applied by the left, to describe a society with a greater degree of economic egalitarianism through progressive taxation, income redistribution, or even property redistribution, policies aimed toward achieving that which developmental economists refer to as equality of opportunity and equality of outcome.”
Many people in the United States believe that social justice is for heart-bleeding liberals and not at all in line with traditional capitalist, conservative and thus Christian ideology. For example, who wants to redistribute property or income if they worked hard for it and those who lack wealth only lack it because they have not taken fully taken advantage of their opportunities. And they are right, equality of outcome, while appealing, is unrealistic.
However, according to the American Heritage Dictionary justice is “the upholding of what is just, especially fair treatment and due reward in accordance with honor, standards, or law”. I believe that this definition of justice is also the definition and essence of social justice. To deny humans an equal opportunity and quality of life is, well, inhumane. As one blogger put it “every person deserves a certain fair share of society’s benefits and burdens” and I would argue that social justice is not about equality of outcome but equality of opportunity. The idea that “all men are created equal” is the foundation of our constitution and country and this idea is effused throughout our entire society and educational system. Though India has similar rights and protections written in its constitution, due to a culture and tradition of caste (or ‘jati’), it is still in need of social justice. The opportunities for citizens are not the same. From education, to jobs, to social status in society, discrimination still runs strong. These barriers must be broken down and I would argue that it is Christians, out of all religious and ethnic groups, who have the greatest mandate to achieve this goal.
Some Christians say that they are unwilling to “jump on the social justice” bandwagon, however, I believe that “social justice” can not only be accepted by those of Christian faith but that fundamentally it should be! Social justice is supported by both the Old and New Testament. Proverbs 31:8-9 says, “Open your mouth, judge righteously, and defend the rights of the afflicted and needy.” Social justice is intrinsic to the teachings of Jesus and there are countless verses on loving your neighbor, helping the poor and in general, caring about others and their welfare.
I will leave you with two thought provoking quotes. The first addresses the consequences of ignoring social injustices. The second addresses (once one has chosen to advocate for social justice) how to be effective. Having warm and fuzzy feelings about helping people, will not aid anyone in the end. Real action is required.
“It is no service to the country to turn away from the hard problems–to ignore injustice and human suffering. It is simply not the American way of doing things. Of course, there are always a lot of people whose motto is ‘Don’t rock the boat.’ They are so afraid of rocking the boat, that they stop rowing. We can never get ahead that way. We can only drift with the current and finally go over the falls into oblivion with nothing accomplished.” -Harry Truman
“Power without love is reckless and abusive, and love without power is sentimental and anemic. Power at its best is love implementing the demands of justice, and justice at its best is power correcting everything that stands against love.”
— Martin Luther King Jr.
Above is the first ever guest blog post. It is written by Lynnelle, who is not only married to my brother, but is also my good friend. Recently she spent three months here in Delhi.
