Ramblings: A Kafkaesque Reality
In Franz Kafka’s Metamorphosis, when the protagonist Gregor Samsa wakes up one morning to the rude shock that he has transformed into a sort of horrible vermin, the very first worry that strikes him is about getting to work on time. In fact, amidst all the panic of being late, Samsa initially does not even seem to be able to admit what has happened to him. He attributes the change in physical appearance to a trick being played by his mind as the nature of his work had afforded him little rest and caused grave sickness. When a superior from his workplace arrives at his house to investigate the cause of Samsa not showing up for work, Samsa is warned that his whims would not be tolerated. Such is the cold-hearted and insensitive nature of the world that we have evolved into, where even in the face of impending disaster and crisis, we do not have the liberty, or perhaps the luxury, to take time out and step away. Neither do we possess adequate sympathy or social cohesion for permitting those around us to take their own time and space to repair and recover.
The tragic tale of the days leading up to the death of a National Law University, Jodhpur student in April this year is yet another example of how cruelly we have altered the basic tenets of humanity. This student had been hospitalised with oxygen support after having contracted COVID-19. Nevertheless, the rigid attendance requirements and submission deadlines mandated by the institution translated into a reality where the student was constantly worried about logging into class even from a hospital bed. It is unfathomable how tormenting it would have been for the student to fret over meeting attendance norms whilst also enduring a deadly disease. Did the University not bat an eyelid even in this period of omnipresent suffering? Did they not spare a single thought towards ensuring the well-being of their own students, or is student welfare simply a fancy phrase used in the brochures to collect fees? National Law University, Jodhpur has blood on its hands and shall forever carry this shame.
This is not just a one-off incident. To the contrary, there has been a series of articles published on Lawctopus in recent days, each of which captures the misery and helplessness of students in law schools throughout the country. To put things into perspective, all of this is just a small part of what has been reported from top-notch law schools in India. It is just the tip of the iceberg and we can only imagine the plight of the rest. Take for instance, those medical students being forced to appear for physical examinations or those students whose scholarships have been cut-off for months altogether. The pandemic has only exposed the varying levels of insensitivity that are embedded deep in the veins of our administrations. Even students who have lost their parents, siblings and other loved ones are not being granted any leeway by the authorities. The state of grief is a natural, emotional response to losing someone and it should not be neglected or curbed in such a manner. Grief isn’t something that is supposed to be bottled up and kept inside.
It is in this context, that a Kafkaesque reality comes into picture. What does the word Kafkaesque mean? Well, the Merriam-Webster dictionary defines it as an adjective which is used specially to describe things or situations which have “nightmarishly complex, bizarre or illogical quality.” This is drawn from interpreting Kafka’s stories which show characters stuck in absurd situations where they are helpless to do anything but submit to the powers that be in a totally senseless fashion. There is no better example than that of the NLU, Jodhpur student being stuck in a situation where he is rendered so helpless in complying with the attendance norms and submitting assignments from a hospital bed, something that ultimately turned out to be completely senseless as he lost his life.
Frederick Karl, author of a biography on Franz Kafka, gave the following description, “You don’t give up; you don’t lie down and die. What you do is struggle against this with all of your equipment, with whatever you have. But of course, you don’t stand a chance. That’s Kafkaesque.” In essence, therefore, Kafkaesque is used to represent something that is so distorted that it does not seem to be real in the first place and renders a person incapable of fighting against it.
The most developed models of Kafkaesque situations are found in governance systems and bureaucracies, a form of rot that is seen best in many of Kafka’s stories. As Hannah Arendt puts it, “In a fully developed bureaucracy, there is nobody left with whom one can argue, to whom one can present grievances, on whom the pressures of power can be exerted. Bureaucracy is the form of government in which everybody is deprived of political freedom, of the power to act; for the rule by nobody is not no-rule, and where all are equally powerless, we have a tyranny without a tyrant.”
The level of Kafkaesque-ness in Indian governance is best demonstrated through the vaccine fiasco. Enough has already been written and spoken about the vaccine shortage and all the excruciating mis-steps taken by the Indian Government which have landed us in this burning hot soup today. However, even if there had been no shortage, the very design of the vaccination process through CoWin is bereft of any sense whatsoever. What was the need for creating such a complex puzzle for getting vaccinated in the first place? The Beards & Ladders cartoon above depicts the futility of the entire CoWin procedure from beginning to end perfectly through a popular board game. Another example from the pandemic characteristic of the Kafkaesque nature of Indian governance can be seen from how big and senseless a struggle it was for patients to secure hospital beds and oxygen support, two very basic elements of a robust healthcare system.
Even if we overlook the lack of critical infrastructure and focus simply on policy matters, it has been well documented in various reports that hospitals were admitting only those patients who could produce positive test reports. However, getting a test done and obtaining its report was one herculean task in itself, with labs taking up to a staggering two weeks to furnish test results. In such a scenario, there was no way how patients could get access to hospital beds in the absence of test reports, thus making the entire sequence of events illogical to say the least. It is imperative to note that all of these procedures and policies are deliberately made out to be so confusing and complicated, so that people seeking to avail benefits would get lost in sorting out these intricacies.
The movie Kaagaz, inspired from the life of Lal Bihari “Mritak”, is a succinct portrayal of the Kafkaesque nature of Indian bureaucracy. When the principal character Bharat Lal Bihari seeks to obtain certain official documents from the Revenue Office in order to get a bank loan approved, he finds out that he has already been declared dead in government records. The ensuing nineteen-year long battle with various levels of the maze that is Indian bureaucracy (along with the judiciary) lays bare its illogical and irrational functioning. The convoluted web of bureaucracy is best encapsulated when attempts made by Lal Bihari’s wife to obtain a widows’ pension are thwarted by government officials. She is told that she cannot be entitled to the pension as long as Lal Bihari is alive, regardless of the fact that he is legally dead.
However, when Lal Bihari adopts a similar argument before the Revenue Officer, that the fact of his official death should be disregarded since he is standing there hale and hearty, he is rebuked for questioning the veracity of a government record. Moreover, even the police refuse to file an FIR against him since he is legally a dead man. Lal Bihari goes to the extent of running an election campaign against Rajiv Gandhi in 1989 in order to prove that he is alive, but to no avail. Even in courts, he is only made the subject of ridicule and mockery. It is only after the matter attains significant political mileage that he is able to secure his identity as being alive.
This, sadly, is the Kafkaesque reality of today’s world.
