Thursday, August 14, 2014

EBOLA & UNTOUCHABILITY - TIME TO RECONSIDER THE CRASS ASSUMPTIONS ABOUT & CONDEMNATION OF UNTOUCHABILITY

 

Prevention  of  (spread of) epidemics and  communicable diseases were built into  the social life in India . Communities are prone to certain diseases due to their customs and manners. eg food-habits. 'Knowledgeable Indians' in the upper echelons, allowed other castes and communities to pursue their own lives without restraint, but conforming to the general and accepted social customs. They had devised a brilliant template, in which all types of  communities could be accommodated. They did not butcher/exterminate those who did not conform to their own highly REFINED lifestyles.This is quite unlike the happenings in N.America, where White Colonists, assuming themselves to be superior, exterminated   the native Red-Indians there.  Contrasted to this, in India, it was a policy of live and let live. Despite such humanistic attitude, members of the so called 'upper-castes'  are subjected to negative portrayal in the name of CASTE & UNTOUCHABILITY.

Untouchability was essential in 'those' times to preserve self, family and community. Refer http://msradha.blogspot.in/2014/05/untouchability-fully-justified-was.html Or imagine a situation where the men wielding knowledge and power  forcing the  various 'non-refined' (non-Sanskritised) castes into 'REFORMATION' camps, and teaching them habits of cleanliness and hygiene   by the use of  FORCE. Since they were 'knowledgeable' and imbibed with wisdom, they did did not resort to such inhuman tactics.Further  fully realizing the impracticability of VIOLENT methods,  some made their own enclaves to live their refined lives unhindered and at times zealously guarding such spaces. (eg. Agrahara).

Ultimately, we have to take charge of our own lives.That is what the pandemic EBOLA reminds us. Neither the State nor SCIENCE can guarantee protection against such DEADLY  micro-organisms, the knowledge of which is NOT fully grasped by modern science. In the Atharva-Veda, there is awareness of disease causing organisms, seen & unseen (Drishtam & Adirshtam). That may be  one reason why the learned-men were careful & selective  in their social intercourse. 

N.B- Those who are freely willing, without any second thoughts to share their tooth-brush , with kith & kin may condemn this post.

 Ebola: the return of cordon sanitaire

Donald G. Mcneil Jr.

The Ebola outbreak in West Africa is so out of control that governments there have revived a disease-fighting tactic not used in nearly a century: the “ cordon sanitaire ,” in which a line is drawn around the infected area, and no one is allowed out.
Cordons, common in the medieval era of the Black Death, have not been seen since the border between Poland and the Soviet Union was closed in 1918 to stop typhus from spreading west. They have the potential to become brutal and inhumane. Centuries ago, in their most extreme form, everyone within the boundaries was left to die or survive, until the outbreak ended.
Plans for the new cordon were announced August 1 at an emergency meeting in Conakry, Guinea, of the Mano River Union, a regional association of Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia, the three countries hardest hit by Ebola, according to Agence France-Presse. The plan was to isolate a triangular area where the three countries meet, separated only by porous borders, and where 70 per cent of the cases known at that time had been found.
Officials at the World Health Organisation and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which have experts advising the countries, say the tactic could help contain the outbreak but want to see it used humanely. Experts said that any cordon must let food, water and medical care reach those inside, and that the trust of inhabitants must be won through communication with their leaders.
The phrase cordon sanitaire , or sanitary barrier, appears to date from 1821, when France sent 30,000 troops into the Pyrenees to stop a lethal fever raging in Spain from crossing the border.
In Sierra Leone, large sections of the Kailahun and Kenema districts, an area the size of Jamaica, have been cut off by military roadblocks.
Inside the cordoned area of Sierra Leone and Liberia, alarmed residents have told reporters that they fear starving because food prices are rising. It is not clear whether plans to deliver food, water and care are under way. New York Times News Service
 
Cordons, common in the medieval era of the Black Death, have not been seen since 1918

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