Bennet Paes wrote: Augusto:
In my opinion, fasting unto death is the beginning of an act of suicide in slow motion. And in my opinion, suicide, or attempted suicide, or for that matter "fast-unto-death", is cowardly,immoral and illegal. It is also so under the present Indian law. But it so happens that, at the time Gandhi went into those 'fasts unto death" India was still under the British rule, and Indian laws were either non-existent or could not have been in force.. ........................................................................................................................................................ Dear Bennet When Gandhi went on his fasts unto death, the law of the land was more or less the same as exists today. The Indian Penal Code of 1860 which is still in force is an exceptionally well written law. [Check Section 309. Attempt to commit suicide.] So whatever the action that could be taken today could have been taken then by the British. And yet the British government were not ready to act in an overly high handed manner against his fasts. Why? Well, the reason could be that what is legal is not always what is moral; and therefore using the law to act against someone who is behaving in an illegal but morally exemplary manner may cause moral outrage among the common people, the consequences of which could be highly inexpedient to deal with politically. As far as your contention that a "fast-unto-death" is cowardly I think you are talking off the top of your head. The vast majority of people (like ... ahem ... me ) would find it a bellyache to remain hungry for even a day, even if it is good for their own health, forget about remaining hungry till one dies. Incidentally I believe it takes a great deal of courage to commit any kind of suicide. And when someone chooses to starve to death for a social cause, not just for personal reasons, then it is an expression of supreme courage. It is a kind of courage that far surpasses the courage needed to end one's life because one does not want to live for whatsoever private reason howsoever pressing, although even this takes some doing, whether by flinging oneself in front of a train; or jumping into a well when one does not know to swim; or hanging from a rope; or consuming poison or whatever other manner. In all such cases one knows one's life is ended painlessly in a few seconds. Incidentally I think that those who do suicide bombings for some cause may be despicable, but they are certainly not devoid of courage, although the process might be equally 'easy'. Serious fasts unto death where not only has one to bear physical agony but also one has to resist the pressure of many who will be appealing to you to give it all up, cannot possibly be as 'easy'. Having said that, I would agree that the "fast-unto-death" method of social protest has been given a bad name by politicians who are not genuinely fasting-unto-death. They do it as a publicity stunt, and if they haven't been cheating in the first place, they abandon the fast at the first available opportunity. Rather than curb fast-unto-death actions by legal means - which will always result in moral victories for the hunger strikers - I feel that the Government should be ready to call the bluff of political jokers in cases where the "fast-unto-death" is done for what can be seen to be unjust or unsound reasons, by allowing the hunger strikers to die. They should publicly state the reasons why succumbing to the threat of the hunger striker is unacceptable in the most reasonable manner and then face the consequences if the hunger striker is adamant about dying. BTW the most celebrated case of a "fast-unto-death" in Goa was the one where Prashanti Talpankar now Mrs Sandesh Prabhudesai and (I think) a gentleman named Padiyar had gone on a hunger strike in 1989. This was in protest against Dayanand Narvekar who was alleged to have molested one Sunita Haldankar in the premises of the Goa Assembly when he was the Speaker. My hurried googles were not so informative about this cause celebre. I wonder if someone can recall the incident better. Cheers Augusto
