Why & Wherefore

Last week, a man was brutally butchered by a mob driven by a rumour that he was consuming beef, which is banned by the law in that state. Worse was to follow with the ‘why and wherefore’ of weird justification for the killing a human being, which is not acceptable to the law as well as rationality. It is akin to the wolf, in an Aesop’s fable, which runs into a lamb.

Wanting to find reason to turn the lamb into lunch, the wolf growls: ‘last year you insulted me’! The lamb replied, ‘I was just born a few months back.’ The wolf retorts, ‘You grazed in my pasture.’ The lamb said, ‘I don't eat grass yet.’ But the wolf persisted, ‘You drank from my pond.’ The lamb replied, ‘The only thing I drink is my mother’s milk.’  At that point the wolf ate the lamb saying, ‘Well! You certainly like to argue!’

The wolf finds many why and wherefores for his predetermined act of violence against the innocent lamb. The phrase ‘why and wherefore’ is as old as Shakespeare, who used it in the Comedy of Errors in 1590: ‘Was there ever any man thus beaten out of season, When in the why and the wherefore is neither rhyme nor reason?’

So often, some of us defend the indefensible.  We scout for justifications based on our prejudice born of divisions of religion, ethnic, regional, economic and every divide that sees one human being as lesser than oneself. Every time, we indulge in irrational choice for our ‘why and wherefore’ we are walking the talk of murderous hate mongers.

In the aftermath of the violent act, as time passes, we become complacent. And the vested interests, on all sides, start planting the seeds of hate again, under the garb of nationalism, religion, ethnic pride and the like. These messengers of hate talk about ‘teaching them a lesson’. But lessons are meant to be learnt by us by challenging the divisive ‘why and wherefore’

Why should a human being be killed out of season

When in the why and the wherefore is no reason?

- Pravin K. Sabnis

Goa, India.