“ INEQUALITY, PREJUDICE, DISCRIMINATION AND INJUSTICE”

2.5 - English II

Submitted by:-

Himanshu Solanki

UID: UG2018-35

B.A. LL.B.(Hons.) I Year-IInd Semester

Submitted to :-

Mr. Sopan Shinde

(Assistant Prof. of English)

MAHARASHTRA NATIONAL LAW UNIVERSITY, NAGPUR

 ABSTRACT

Classic since time immemorial has always upped the crown of literature. Till now they have
held it high through the values these category of books dispense. One such book on which the
researcher has focused is “To kill a mockingbird”. Though set in 1930s, problems that
haunted at that time still persists in contemporary world in one form or the another. It is the
morality and ethics that focuses on that gut instinct of right and wrong, and distinguishes it
from just following the law. However the law directs your action not your conscience. In a
society, what if someone considers another inequal to him/her. Then that person would start
discriminating people who are associated with the person of such inability. He will be
prejudiced against that person and thus would become a pawn to deliver injustice if it ever
comes to that. So, discrimination in the administration of justice whether in policing, criminal
prosecutions, trials, sentencing, or imprisonment can cause extraordinary harm to individuals
and society alike, and have lasting consequences for future generations. Discrimination in the
real world is not only of racial discrimination as was in 1930s america but it has taken shape
of gender, creed, race and caste discrimination. As the title reads, it is this cycle that
contibutes to the injustice against the aggrieved community. Injustice not only means denial
of justice by the institution that administers justice but mistreatment, inequal opportunities,
looking down upon someone as lowborn, refusing someone to take the job and post of a
highborn etc is also a form of injustice. So the research paper will talk about the caste
discrimination that has been prevailing in contemporay India.

Keywords: Racism, social inequality, Prejudice, Discrmination, Moral consciousness.

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INTRODUCTION:

“Shoot all the blue jays you want,

if you can hit ‘em,
but remember it’s a sin to kill a mockingbird”1
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee is a modern-day morality tale of how prejudice must be
met, fought and overcome—no matter where it is present or how difficult that task is. 2 Harper
Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird is a portrayal of race and prejudice told through the eyes of a
little girl. Filled with atmospheric imagination of life at the height of the Great Depression of
the 1930s3, and underpinned by a moral and caring sensibility. The plot of To Kill a
Mockingbird was inspired in part by his unsuccessful youthful defense of two African
American men convicted of murder.

Scout’s( a main character in the novel) moral education is twofold: to resist abusing others
with unfounded negativity but also to persevere when these values are inevitably, and
sometimes violently, subverted. The injustice of racism and inequality in the American
South, is what the book is about. This novel has dealt with social problems that affected the
United States in the time the book is set (in the 1930s). For example, the trial of Tom
Robinson and the clearly false accusation that he raped Mayella Ewell relates to many of the
issues in the question, including inequality, discrimination, prejudice and injustice. Tom, a
black man, is a target because of his race in the segregated South, and the guilty verdict he
receives (in spite of evidence that should free him of his crime) is a testament to the racial
discrimination that makes the criminal justice system unfair. Today, not only defendants of
color receives stiffer sentences for the same crimes that white or upper caste people commit
but also people of lower caste has to suffer, and the criminal justice system is not always fair
to people who are of color and of lower caste. Things are not so different in India as that of
America at that time because the dalits and low caste people are suffering what the black
suffered in America. As is seen with the lower caste in contemporary India. Even for a petty
crime they are lynched and killed. It is often seen that they don’t get to live till the case
reaches the court of law. Prejudiced and vigilant people take the matter in their hand and thus

1
Harper Lee, TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD, chap. 10, para. 7, p. 99.
2
https://www.thoughtco.com/to-kill-a-mockingbird-review-741686 (visited on 26/03/2019)
3
https://prezi.com/sij3sfplzwsn/the-great-depression-and-to-kill-a-mockingbird-by-harper-lee/ (visited on
26/03/2019)

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deny the justice to them. When we analyse the situation we find the issues to which such an
unfortuante events give birth.

Moral Consciousness
The most important theme of To Kill a Mockingbird is the book’s exploration of the moral
nature of human beings—that is, whether people are essentially good or essentially evil. As a
result of this portrayal of the transition from innocence to experience, one of the book’s
important subthemes involves the threat that hatred, prejudice, and ignorance pose to the
innocent. Like the lowborns and backward People are the victim of such treatment by the
society. It’s is not like they’ve done something heinous to deserve that treatment rather it is
simply the caste system that has prevented them to get the status of equality in the society.
According to varna system, which still has its shade in the society, brahmins and kshtriyas
were somewhat taken as a high born, vaishyas and shudras on the otherhand were ruled by
the orders of the upper class. Like that dalits are the people of lower class and thus suffered
because of the class society. Such as Tom Robinson and Boo Radley are not prepared for the
evil thsat they encounter, and, as a result, they are destroyed. Tom robinson is punished
because of racism and Boo Radley because of evil notions held by the society and Dalits in
contemporary India because they are considered as the people of lowest class.

Racism
Obviously, racism is a major theme of the novel. During the Depression era, blacks were still
highly subjugated members of society. Blacks were not permitted to blend with whites in
public settings, as exemplified in the courthouse physical separation of races and in the
clearly distinct black and white areas of town. Like the black people sat on bench above the
white people in the trial of Tom Robinson. Likewise in India , it is not on the basis of colour
that discrimination occurs but rather it is on the basis of caste and class (Dalits/SCs/STs).
Tom Robinson is convicted purely because he is a black man and his accuser is white. The
evidence is so powerfully in his favor, that race is clearly the single defining factor in the
jury’s decision.

The Existence of Social Inequality

Differences in social status are explored largely through the overcomplicated social hierarchy
of Maycomb, the ins and outs of which constantly baffled the children. The relatively well-
off Finches stand near the top of Maycomb’s social hierarchy, with most of the townspeople

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beneath them. Though no such instance has happened where finches have taken the undue
advantage of their position instead they’ve always helped the needy. But such is not the case
in India, people who’ve tkaen birth in poor and lower household has to follow the customs
and rule made by those in the power. But who gave the upper caste people to make rules and
give orders ?.
The higher caste and class people made the law in such a way as to benefit their lifestyle.
They made the law to govern on the poor people. They made them look unequal because of
the duties and work assigned to them. Who were these people ? people who were farmers,
sweepers, peasants, artisans, people who cleans the sewages. It was unfair for them because
these people did the unpleasant and difficult work for them and in return they are treated
unequal to them. This practice went for so long that even now it can be seen in the headings
of newspaper about the atrocities committed on them. Hence, These rigid social divisions that
make up so much of the adult world are revealed in the book to be both irrational and
destructive.

Prejudice

Discussions about prejudice and racism in general are at the heart of To Kill a Mockingbird.
Racial conflict causes the two dramatic deaths that occur in the story. On one level, To Kill a
Mockingbird represents a simplistic and moralistic view of racial prejudice. White people
who are racist are bad, and white people who are not racist are good. Atticus risks his
reputation, his position in the community, and ultimately the safety of his children because he
is not racist, and therefore good. Bob Ewell falsely accuses a black man of rape, spits on
Atticus publicly, and attempts to murder a child and therefore bad. Prejudice plays a big role
in thwarting ones’ ability to discharge their duty.

Derided, despised and shunned for centuries, Dalits are increasingly willing to make their
voices heard. And making up close to a sixth of the country’s population, they do want to
partake in the administration and working of the day to day affairs but the prejudiced
approach of people have denied them of this opportunity. Dalits, untouchables, are as skilled
as those of upper caste but the only difference is that they are denied opportunity and justice.

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Perspective
A famous quote that atticus said “You never really understand a person until you consider
things from his point of view, until you climb in his skin and walk around in it.” 4 Throug this
quote atticus urges his children to try to step into other people’s shoes to understand how they
see the world. Whenever Scout doesn’t understand Jem, Atticus encourages her to try to
understand how he might be feeling. However it was expected out of juries to walk in the
Tom robinson’s shoes and understand his plight but they refused to do so because of the
stigma that coloured people have of being degenerate. Such is the treatment directed towards
what they call as untouchables in India too. Today we might not be using the term
Untouchables and practice it but beating them on entering the temple shows symptoms of the
class based discrimination. So the time has come to get into shoes and walk around in them to
know their plight.

Apartheid
As the Article 46 of the Constitution of India reads “The State shall promote with special care
the educational and economic interests of the weaker section of the people, and in particular,
of the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes, and shall protect them from social
injustice and all forms of exploitation."5 India has systematically failed to uphold its
international legal obligations to ensure the fundamental human rights of Dalits, or so-called
untouchables, despite laws and policies against caste discrimination, the Center for Human
Rights and Global Justice and Human Rights Watch said in a new report that more than 165
million Dalits in India are condemned to a lifetime of abuse simply because of their caste.
Dalits endure segregation in housing, schools, and access to public services. They are denied
access to land, forced to work in degrading conditions, and routinely abused at the hands of
the police and upper-caste community members who enjoy the state’s protection. Entrenched
discrimination violates Dalits’ rights to education, health, housing, property, freedom of
religion, free choice of employment, and equal treatment before the law. Dalits also suffer
routine violations of their right to life and security of person through state-sponsored or
sanctioned acts of violence, including torture.

CONCLUSION:

4
Harper Lee, TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD, chap. 31 para. 3, p. 308.
5
Article 46 of the Constitution of India, 1950.

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To Kill a Mockingbird is both a young girl’s coming-of-age story and a darker drama about
the roots and consequences of racism and prejudice, probing how good and evil can coexist
within a single community or individual. In India its “Dalits” who are considered as the
unclean low born and thus faced the cruelty of the society. Dalit community faces difficulty
each day just like Tom robinson had to face difficulty in seeking justice for the crime he
didn’t commit. Dalits are being lynched for the alleged crimes which could also be settled
with the help of police and in court. Mobile footage of civilians beating, kicking, flogging
crime suspects, the weak and the vulnerable alike has now become a regular feature on
television rundowns. The recent case is from rajkot, Gujarat where for the alleged trading of
beef he was brutally killed. Such news has become a frequent affair in India where one day or
the other a weak and a low born is either beaten up brutally or killed mercilessly. So the
situation that was present in 1936, where the story revolves, is still prevelent in India. It
doesn not end here, the discrimination against children from Dalit, tribal, and Muslim
communities in government schools means millions of the poorest and most vulnerable are
getting left out. Lack of effective monitoring mechanisms to check prejudice by school staff
means, at worst, ill-treatment and, at best, neglect. This, despite India’s Right to Education
law banning discrimination in schools.

The words “it’s a sin to kill a mockingbird” echo throughout the novel. The songbird is
symbolic of innocence and joy allowed to live—or be threatened and destroyed. Robinson
and Boo Radley become its human equivalents in the novel. The editor of Maycomb’s
newspaper likens the killing of Robinson during his alleged escape attempt to “the senseless
slaughter of songbirds,” and Scout says that turning Boo Radley over to the police for killing
Bob Ewell would be “sort of like shootin’ a mockingbird.” So the time has come to break the
wheel and provide timely justice whenever possible and try to curb the meance that ardent
and proud people has posed in front of the system.

“Atticus---" ...said Jem bleakly. "How could they do it, how could they?"

"I don't know, but they did it. They've done it before & they did it tonight & they'll do it again
& when they do it, seems that only children weep.”6 This scene particularly talk about how
scout and jem understood about Tom Robinsons innocence but all the white folk in the court
room couldn’t. An underlying theme in this book is that we as humans are responsible for
acting according to our conscience. We should try to use the law when we can, but we also
have a higher imperative - we have to follow our conscience, be reasonable. And if a child
6
Harper Lee, TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD, chap. 22 para. 5, p. 235.

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such as Scout living in a 1930s society can learn to overcome such deeply held inequality,
prejudices and come to understand the individual worth of a person then surely people living
in today’s society can too.