Which side are you?

Which side are you on boys?

Which side are you on?

-      Lines from Pete Seeger’s song ‘Which Side Are You On?’ written by Florence Reece as a response to being terrorised by the mining mafia

So often, there are two sides. There is sensitivity and there is insensitivity. Selflessness and selfishness as contrasting sides. Responsibility and irresponsibility are on opposite sides as are compassion and indifference. Justice and injustice are never on the same side.

We have to decide which side we are on. The song rightly says that ‘there are no neutrals here’. We are either part of the problem or part of the solution. We are either on the right side or we are in the wrong. Nobody needs to hold a mirror to us. We have to introspect and realise where we are.

The present pandemic is a situations of extreme constraint and also a test of our true character. We must reach out to the other side. We must think of ‘we’ instead of only ‘me’. All prejudice has to be shed as we walk towards the common good for the deprived ones.   

We must be on the side of the less privileged, the marginalised and the underserved. We must feel their pain and do what we can to ease the discomfort. Our world has survived because of the responsiveness of the ones who reached out to other human beings. Now again is the time!

Keep answering the query, ‘Which side are you?’

With the ones who truly need you or select few?

~ Pravin K Sabnis