Suspicion

Prafulla Kumar Mohanty

In Shakespeare’s Othello when Iago seeing Desdemona come out of Cassio’s tent casually commented – Ha’ I like not that - Othello’s face fell , seeds of suspicion were planted deep in his heart. Why? It was because he was always unsure of himself as the right person for Desdemona. His racial identity and his physical state (the young effects in my body are now defunct) often goaded him to a psychic self – loathing. This sub-conscious realisation of his own weaknesses and the unadmitted unacknowledged inadequacies were struck by the diabolical mind of Iago. The simmering uncertainties of his ego were enflamed into suspicion. Ordinarily suspicion is not accepted as a vice but it is. It corrodes a mind, takes the person away from his / her reality and makes the person so self- immersed that he starts at a shadow, doubts every move of people except the persons who skilfully play on the protagonist’s mind leading him to see what they show. Scepticism and cynicism always lead to suspicious activities. Iago’s scepticism made him suspect everything. A man who fails to achieve or to fulfil ambitions or to attain projected goals becomes suspicious of people and their words, actions. Suspicion makes a person a killer, for, his own honourable ego refuses to make any compromise once suspicion enters the being of a man. Othello kills, destroys his love and in so doing destroys innocence.

Suspicion, in the sphere of politics, is a royal virtue, for power games move along lines where suspicion is a precautionary measure. Both Machiavelli and Kautilya have made suspicion a weapon of self- preservation. In the modern days too, politics induces people to suspect each other. The divide and rule policy of the British government  followed universally is to create  suspicion between groups, castes, religions and even languages so that  perpetual strife between peoples and groups would give the ruler choices to manipulate for their own advantage .

Suspicion is not always born naturally. Inner discord, upbringing and circumstances of childhood and youth make a person suspicious of people and ideas. In today’s India, rumours and fake news enrage people and the nursed suspicions get released to certainty. The lynching mobs, the cow vigilante groups in India act on suspicion of cow killing or cow lifting. They kill the hapless person(s) on mere suspicion.  The Facebook and the WhatsApp rumours about child lifters also leads to murder. If you ask why don’t they report the matter to the police or hand over the suspected cow killer or the child lifter to the authorities, you may get the most unsavoury answers – maybe it is racial hatred that comes out and the annonymity of a mob gives the individual the vicious release of his hate in terms of gory violence.

Today suspicion is not a rare vice. Parents are suspicious of children. Spouses ruin marital life by mutual suspicion.  Chiefs in government or organizations always suspect another talented person for fear of losing control. Even teachers are suspicious of scholars, scholars of valuable research. Motive hunting goes on at every level. Speeches are analysed, sentences are contextualized and attacking points are sharpened. The man who suspects and spies has his own moral logic and even political justification. The ‘Vishkanya’ the poison woman’ used by the kings in the past had its own morals, the safety of the kingdom and the people had its own infalliable logic. The modern version of it is the honeytrap and extraction of secret information. In a terror- ridden world suspicion is a normal expedient value which people must pursue and practice for survival constraints.

But strangely suspicion is not included in the list of deadly sins; the Indian Shadaripus too do not include suspicion. The Arthashastra considers the inner enemies more dangerous. The senses are to be controlled hence one should give up desire (kama), anger, greed, arrogance, pride and excitement. Spies in the Arthashastra are advised to avoid liquor and women but the modern spies like James Bond(007) are romanticized by sexy dolls and liquor is a mere water substitute. But suspicion of people, places, governments, gadgets and words are shown in our undercover and overground activities. Krishna and Shakuni move the Mahabharata plot forward by strategies based on suspicion of nature man and motives. The present day society is almost vocalized by suspicion, measures therof and counter measures. Suspicion now should be added to the list of enemies of man as the worst and the most fatal.