A screen grab of India’s Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar (back facing) being slapped (Pic: Star News)
Watching an “irate” Sikh man slap India’s Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar on camera has revived an old question in my mind. Why is it that, unlike most physical assaults, a slap on the face carries so much humiliation with it?
Having been slapped once as a 10-year-old by a school teacher I have some experience of what it feels like. My working hypothesis on a slap and humiliation is that because it involves one’s face one feels particularly assaulted.
The main problem with a slap on the face is that one feels as if the imprint of the slapper’s hand is lingering on for days. Since the face is the most visible and expressive part (mostly, of course) of the human body we put considerable premium on it. Other than genitalia we consider our face to be a highly personal space. Nothing violates that personal space more effectively than a slap that lands right on it.
There is something very distilled and succinct and yet very articulate about a slap on the face as a device of public protest.
In the case of Pawar, the humiliation is multiplied several times because of who he is. He is one of India’s most powerful politicians who has for the better part of his adulthood wielded a great deal of influence. Until a few years ago he was frequently mentioned as one of the politicians likeliest to become India’s prime minister. Add to that the fact that these politicians operate in the rarefied air of high level security. They may expect to get shot but being slapped is not something that they cannot process easily. Of course, the fact that it was captured on camera (Isn’t everything captured on some camera these days?) ensures that it will live forever on the internet.
What a slap says is that the slapper could have done much more harm but consciously chose to deliver a resounding thud across the face. There is something very discriminating about a slap. It is both very refined and very crude at once.
Watching the video of the assailant named Harvinder Singh, who had attacked another former politician the other day, I felt he was trying too hard to look irate. As my friend, fellow journalist and fellow Facebook quick gun Kajal Basu says, “That was a very peaceful pissed-off Sikh, man, very peaceful Sikh.” Kajal makes a good point because you get the sense that assailant’s rage is fake or not as deep as he would like us to believe.
I also noticed that when he whips out what looks like a small kitchen knife (Some say it is supposed to be a kirpan of the kind Sikhs are required to ceremonially carry) and slashes his own wrist. I did not quite understand the purpose of slashing his own wrist. Was it to demonstrate that he is so angry at the state of affairs that he could have done that Pawar or that he is so disillusioned that he would rather take his life?
As for Pawar, I am sure he will remember this for the rest of his life. I do not know if this is his first slap ever (It is his first public slap, for sure) but that would leave an enduring impact.
P.S.: I can say with almost complete certainty that only in these columns would you find such utterly unnecessary deconstruction of life.
