The War Of The worlds: Justice and Charity

My friend urged me often to not abdicate your rights and be indifferent. He was talking about rickshaw drivers taking us for a ride. I always observed my friend fighting for this cause and it never caught on. Until one day, I myself realized that I may not be able to reform all drivers across the city. I thought he was right. We can do it one fellow at a time.

Initially, it began with enlightening drivers about our rights and how they cannot do what they want. Often this didn’t work as they didn’t give two hoots to be awakened about our rights. Next began coercion, using law to intimidate him: if you do not wish to go then take me to the nearby police station. This gives them few indications that we are not going to take it lying down. But two can play that game. Often drivers prefer playing ‘who will blink first’ and say: fine! let us go to the station :)

True, he doesn’t really wish to face the cop but even we don’t really wish to take them there. Often my friend never got out of the rickshaw until he took him where he wishes. I too resorted to such means, lost my temper, threatened them with the consequences of being penalized, concocted a story of how my father is a cop and he will beat him up. I wondered often, where is the line between persuasion and coercion?

I love Jesus Christ not only as a Catholic but as boy who adores his teachings. Mahatma Gandhi too adored Christ’s teachings. Gandhi was so exemplary that many often were so aghast at his means to righteousness and justice that they considered him a threat to their comfort and way of life. Indeed, many were and are used to arm twisting, resorting to violence and manhandling to get their work done. Gandhi changed it all. Gandhi, in a conversation with a doctor in Africa remarked: I now understand what Christ meant by saying ‘if they strike you on one cheek, offer the other’. He meant, that if they oppose you and attack you, do not give up. Offer another resistance. Offer resistance until they realize you are convinced for your cause and are ready to suffer for it

We all have ideologies in life. If your ideology is success, then you wish to reach success perhaps, in the shortest, fastest, and easiest way. If your ideology is happiness, then you may wish to reach it in a way that gives you utmost joy. Now this means you are ready to undergo endless strife. But that’s not a problem as your ideology is utmost happiness without constraints. Inspired by Christ, and wishing to be an exemplary Christian, my ideal in life is to be charitable: charitable in action, words, conduct, character and spirit.

And in comes the obstacle. What about justice? What about fighting for causes? If you are in tune with my ideology then you will realize our first problem is what do we do when it comes to seeking justice? Take the rickshaw drivers incident for one. I tried being expressive and assertive. But some of them displayed hooligan behavior to have any hope of budging. The predicament is that if you leave him (and his rickshaw and take another), you conclude that, he got his way and he will keep getting his way if he wishes and there is nothing we can do about it. Or I arm-twist, threaten, intimidate and take him to task, everything that admittedly opposes charity. No one can lie that after taking someone to task, they have been calm enough to engage back in charitable atmosphere. There is resentment in the air that you got your way by force and ill-will.

There are chances that you may leave the rickshaw and forget your cell phone in it. Now the driver has a reason to keep your phone. This is not the same as stealing as much as it is ‘vengeance’. Clearly, you have been uncharitable and he seeks revenge. I understand keeping the phone is not justified as it is not related to hiring a vehicle by your right but you understand where I am getting. Not showing charity does not inspire people. Even in a brawl, it is the one who keeps patience, calm and composure that is admired. Many may come to the rescue of one who does not raise his hand but only his opinion.

Also, let us for one moment forget virtue of charity and stick to reason. If one is forced to obey the law, it means that he has no freedom to break it. If there is no freedom to break the law, it is not a law but tyrannical force. If there is a penalty to break the law, there is implementation of it. Because the means to appeal to this implementation is poor, one cannot take law in one’s own hands and force someone to accede to the law. If the driver has no freedom to break the law, he has no free will. The irony is that the customer trying to fight for his right is now the hooligan.

This brings me back to ideologies. Pursuit of transcendental virtues is not the same as pursuit of higher education. You cannot always expect a positive outcome in the latter given the right inputs. This does not apply to virtues, especially transcendental ones. One has to remember that it is ‘I’ who choose to practice virtue and it should be at the expense of my own life not another. If I wish the other to act in a just way with me and I resort to means that oppose charity, what have I achieved? The one thing I wished to show him, Charity, I have not, only because I wished to extort justice from him.

Justice by definition means fair play. What is owed to you is due unto you. But charity is not the same. You may be at the losing end all the time and still be a winner as you have shown charity. At the same time, no one tells you not to punish people for not playing fair. Gandhi understood what charity is and he tried to teach the country overnight. What he forgot was that developing virtue is a deep conviction and often the trade-off is, time. Indians, during the freedom struggle looked at charity as a “strategy”. We won freedom and soon lost charity. The strategy was only to serve a purpose, it seems. Gandhi lost in turn as cared more about building a humane independent nation as opposed to an independent nation. He did not connive a plan to be charitable as if it was a tried-and-tested way to win independence. It is quite patent, it is the worst. He did not stumble on to the Bible which gave him a master plan for independence. He realized that it is more worthy to be right in the eyes of God and get your way than to use wrong means to get your way and lead others astray.

Charity and justice will often collide. Charity seeks to move the person by touching his heart and making him seek his conscience. Justice makes a person bypass his conscience and compels him to toe the line by showing him the baton. While justice seeks one’s own good, Charity seeks not its own. Charity is the highest ideal. The bible says: And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love¹. It is our scarred human nature that does not wish to lose or be wronged or suffer that seeks justice and forsakes charity. Justice serves well-being of this world. Charity seeks God. Each of us decides where our loyalties lie. Whom do I wish to serve?

1. 1 Corinthians 13