A slap is the most brutal of physical gestures. Nothing hurts like it, nothing prepares you for its impact. The muscular pain could vary, but the mental hit, every single time, is a scar carved deep into your psyche. I would know. Until the age of about 15, I was a regular subscriber. Sometimes the delivery came as expected, for the heinous crime of getting only 80% in my unit test; other times, it would show up suddenly because I forgot to pay obeisance to an elderly person who had come home for tea. Teachers in the school liked this mode of discipline too. We were so desensitised that my friends and I would place bets, worth an extra candy, about which of us gets hit with the vertical edge of the ruler. Once, my friend got slapped for asking me for an eraser. He had forgotten to pack his, and asking his friend for one, in the middle of a writing assignment, was a crime worth getting slapped for. There was a rhythm to our lives with these things: get hit, feel sad, maybe express, move on. We didn't know better.
A line that was parroted at home and school back then, and completely disorients me now, goes something like “Spare the rod, spoil the child.” What a reprehensible thought. I would use the word pathetic, but I realise it is the nicest thing I have to say about people, including teachers, parents, grandparents, close family, and guardians, who hit a child. None of them deserve an ounce of compassion.
I did not plan to write about this in a largely sports-plus newsletter. I rarely let the north star go out of sight. But this week, my social media timelines are inundated with a video that I can't bear to watch. I see a teacher, her desk, a child standing in a pale blue uniform, and his classmate hitting him hard across the face. These I can gather from the autoplay feature of the platform before I can pause or switch tabs. I don't turn on the audio or watch the video for longer.
It turns out that the student, Mohammad Altamash, all of seven years old, is getting hit. His teacher, Trapta Tyagi, is seen asking her students to slap him because she doesn't like his religion. There has been a huge uproar about this. Today, I read that the Muzaffarnagar Police Station will take action against her. For what, though? For violence? For religious intolerance? And how does anyone guarantee that tomorrow, in the same school, someone else isn't getting slapped or bullied, for any reason? Lastly, and I realise I may have committed some oversight with the questions before, does the Indian judiciary even consider a slap problematic? Would it have been okay to slap Altamash had he failed his exam?
Sample this - speaking to a camera, Mohammed Irshad, Atamash’s father, said, “The teacher justified her actions by saying my son did not memorise his lessons.”
I was briefly involved with an organisation that, alongside its main offering, arranged for two elderly teachers to teach computers to underprivileged kids who were about to finish school. Free of cost. It was a sort of academy that equipped these kids to develop skills that could help them choose better education streams or employment down the line. We found it an incredibly noble endeavour. But we can't have good things for too long, can we?
Soon enough, word came out that the teachers were bullying the kids, making personal remarks about their appearance and activities outside of class. There was a case where the female teacher had pulled the hair of a girl in a moment of anger. The two teachers were treated by the organisation like parents: a tremendous amount of respect, every act seen as pure benevolence, and unhinged from any code of conduct. For all they cared, that cafeteria hall was a school classroom where they could do as they pleased. I don't know if they slapped kids, but, given the complaints that were coming out, I wouldn't put it past them. I have no doubts that many of the students thought this was par for the course, a part of the education territory. It is considered normal to be disciplined if you slip away from the neatly-drawn lane by your parents and teachers.
Subservience is highly desirable in India. Every language and dialect has a nice-sounding phrase for such a child. Consider your parents' word as gospel? Here, take the weekly piece of chocolate. But don't you dare peek outside the echo chamber. There is a long thread of cultural breadcrumbs that will explain why most of us think that elders in the family must be treated with godly devotion. Our mythological scriptures, tales, movies, books, and music have an immense trace of that sentiment. It is rare to find a household, even today, even in privileged corners of metropolitan India, where a healthy line is drawn between parents and individuals who were born a few decades before you. Ditto, teachers. How many schools encourage a culture of inquisitiveness? Or the belief that a teacher, irrespective of their expertise in a subject, are individuals that you need to respect but not deify? While I was narrating the story of my classrooms, I never forgot that this experience was not mine alone. It continues to be the standard.
Most of the response around this incident predictably overlooks this bit. We should discuss religious intolerance, this blanket of hatred that the presiding dispensation has spread, until our throats are parched. Altamash will grow up knowing that being a Muslim in India comes with occupational hazards. Scratch that, he, I'm sure, already knows what it's like to be Muslim in 2023 India. But the trauma will be two-fold, and the immediate corrective behaviour, even if it happens, will gloss over the other, more visceral bit.
Altamash and his father will soon be visited by journalists with a video camera and told thousands are disgusted by the teacher’s behaviour. There will be NGOs and other well-meaning parties reaching out to help. Many already are. Some are offering to take care of his education, some others of his academic needs. Engulfing a child with so much love that a ghastly experience gets buried is a nice thought. But in someone's formative years, even one slap is too many. It is likely that he wasn't getting slapped for the first time. Getting placed in front of a class like a hit-me balloon is a psychological torture, nothing less.
An FIR can be a warning for this teacher at best. The child's father was reluctant to file a report, possibly because he realises India isn't a country that is particularly conducive to his kind. There might be some movement because of the immediate optics – the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights is mandating the video to be taken down from news channels and social media sites — but in the long term, both he and his kid are doomed to live a life within their means. And that life will come teeming with people who think it is okay to slap a child, as long as you can justify a reason to yourself.
There will be thousands of similar cases happening as you read this, which won't be picked up on video and shared on social media. Most of these kids will grow up to be scarred adults. Few will have the privilege, like I do, of using these scars as reminders of everything wrong with the power dynamic Indian kids have to endure. A handful will have the privilege to seek therapy. And even fewer, if anyone, will be able to completely wash off the scar. I would know. There isn't a strong enough riposte in the Indian judiciary for that slap.
Everyday my decision of* (edited from ‘about) not being present on any social media platform is proving to be the best decision I ever took (after the decision to subscribe to this fab substack).
That said, hiding my rather weird head in sand and pretending all is well wouldn’t stop the meanies from being meaner and meaner. I wasn't aware of this incident. Until now. There are moments where I get enraged so bad that if I tell you what I feel in those moments, you will probably call animal helpline and human helpline together and rat me out.
The slap and the place of self confidence from where it is coming is just way too evident now. What I am worried is that there are limits to everything and mere silence should not be viewed as being silent. One of these days, someone innocent (from the privileged and ‘in power’ section of the society) will be made an example of. I hope it doesn’t happen but one cannot be sure of anything these days.
Thank you for writing this. Also, I was beaten (yes beaten) a lot by the educator who was my ‘tuition bhaiyya’ growing up. He is now a staunch anti muslim RSS BJP man. Filled with rage and filth.
There are moments where I get enraged so bad that if I tell you what I feel in those moments, you will probably call animal helpline and human helpline together and rat me out. This is one such moment.
Incidents like these are heartbreaking. The ragging incident at Jadavpur University is also symptomatic of the warped notion of being deferential to "seniors". And how even a smidgeon of power can corrupt people.