There are two images related to terrorism that haunt me. One is the eyes of a twelve year old girl. The other is the face of a mother who lost her six year old son.
The twelve year old girl wants to know why she survived while her brother did not in the terrorist attack when they were standing next to each other during the blast. The mother wants to know why someone could not protect her son as he fell to terrorist bullets on that fateful day.
The twelve year old girl is one who went through trauma counseling after the terrorist attacks in Delhi. She has come to the realization that her brother will not come back to her and says that she was destined to survive and maybe her brother was not. The mother has not reached that stage and still looks through the door thinking that her son is playing outside.
Both show grief reaction normal to survivors and cope with their daily lives. But both of them continue to ask that why is our society unable to warn and protect its children?
I may add that I am a psychologist and I confess that I have no answers. I doubt if anyone has or found any. But I do believe that if we don’t find some answers soon enough many more mothers and sisters will be asking this of us after each terrorist attack that takes place across our country.
As I try to grasp the nature of evil within a psychological framework, I find myself helplessly groping for answers that do not seem to come easily. What come are images that can not be put into words from those who survived and whom I counsel.
Today when every citizen of India wonders if his loved one is safe when they go out, the question seems to have an ominous reality and terror that is inescapable to the heart of every parent.
After every crisis we need to look inwards. Failure to do so differentiates between a resilient society and a society that panics. As a psychologist who regularly encounters panic and terror filled faces, I feel it is time to understand from the testimonies of survivors and their perpetrators about terror and its roots.
Psychology today is attempting to understand terror, evil and the questions it raises in the minds of the average citizen and parent. Are we prepared as a nation to deal with it?
To me the preparedness of our country does not lie in the preparation of our law enforcement and military alone but in the preparedness of every man, every woman and every child who calls himself an Indian.
Terror wants to strike at the heart of the average citizen not the establishments in the country. Terrorism is not a war that will be fought by soldiers and our policemen alone but teachers and parents of all children in every corner of our country.
Today a question that is crossing the minds of many parents, ‘Is my child safe?’ ‘Is there a risk of a terrorist attack on my child’s school?’
The answer to that is ‘to pray everyday that it never happens but to also know that it can happen and prepare with all our strength to prevent it from taking place’.
Today we know that we are dealing with a problem that is unconventional, with people who are unconventional and are the vilest human beings, whose thinking and strategy we must understand and match if we have to win this war on terror.
Why have terrorists attacked so many schools in other countries? Simply because in those countries the schools meet a number of terrorist criteria in selecting targets. When they have attacked a school, they have attacked a number of targets, symbolic, psychological and emotional.
There has been no more cruel way than to strike terror in the hearts and minds of every child, every family and the heart of the emerging identity as a nation.
Let’s face this no terrorist has walked sobbing in the arms of a police officer regretting what he has done or ever expressed guilt over killing any child.
We are beginning to understand the different nature of the personality that is the terrorist. Their ideology focuses on where there will be maximum devastation of the innocents without respect to age and gender.
Imagine a Principal ever saying there will be never any fire here so we should not build fire extinguishers. Imagine a parent saying there will never be a paedophile approaching my child so I will never teach her protective strategies about her body. The same things were said not so long ago.
To say you are ‘Creating panic and planting ideas’ is the mark of society that can not defend itself. ‘Creating awareness and facing up to reality and risks’ is the mark of resilience.
What we need to do is just raise our alertness level just a little more to make our teachers, our parents more alert to protect our children from terrorism, school shootings and incidents of all kinds of violence. They are the best institution in our war against violence and terror.
As someone once said ‘the most costly, negligent and unprofessional words ever uttered were it will not happen here’.
Let’s begin by understanding the difference between an unprepared society that panics every time to one that responds with knowledge, evidence and courage of its citizens.
Dr Rajat Mitra