29 June, 2913

Laws Written by Humans -

My friend Jim Ledbetter forwarded the story about a relatively recent ratification of an amendment on the “Abolition of Slavery “ which had remained unacted upon on the Law books of the State of Mississippi in United States. The inadvertent omission was pointed out to the Mississippi legislature by a relatively recent immigrant. The story touched a sensitive chord of my fiddle since I have started my life in the USA from Mississippi; as a consequence, Mississippi has emotionally become my home state in USA.  

Arriving from India in January 1958,  I joined the University of Mississippi (founded in 1848) fondly called Ole' Miss by its alumni. Gradually I got familiar with my fellow Mississippians on and off the campus. After living on the campus for a few months, out of sheer curiosity I asked Bill, one of my white American fellow graduate student “ Bill, if you dated a black girl today, how would your friends react to it? “. Bill paused, his eyes blinked and then answered unhesitatingly that the question of dating a black girl does not even arise. Our conversation ended there. I was not surprised at all.

On the very first day when I reached Oxford, the University township, by Greyhound Bus, I had noticed two benches on either side of the lounge Exit door bearing labels with black letters on  white background clearly specifying “ For Blacks Only” and “For Whites Only”. After checking in  my luggage in the storage area offered at the bus depot, I walked straight to the residence of Dr. Frank Anderson, who had informed me earlier that his residence was merely a block away from the Greyhound bus station. It was the evening of 19 January, 1958 and the daylight was just fading away. Dr. Anderson’s teenage daughter opened the front door and for a moment seemed startled at the sight of an unexpected brown man standing at the door. I could sense why. Softly, I asked her “Is this Dr. Anderson’s residence?”. Within moments Dr. Anderson appeared behind her and flashed a broad smile of welcome.

At that time, there was not a single black American student in the entire University with a student population of 5000; this number is my wild guess. No black American was allowed under the unwritten social laws. Yet 18 foreign students with different skin colors were enrolled at Ole’ Miss and interacted comfortably on the campus.  By now I had realized the words of Dr. Frank Anderson who was Chairman of my Chemical Engineering school at Ole’ Miss. On the very second day after  I had arrived at the Ole’ Miss campus, Dr. Anderson gave me a tour of the entire campus in his car. While driving, Dr. Anderson casually commented “You will meet mostly good people on the campus and a few, not so good”. Gradually, I had realized why he had cautioned me on my very second day on the campus. Fortunately, during my entire stay of two years at Ole’ Miss, I had encountered all very friendly and warm Mississippians irrespective of their skin color. During those years at Ole’ Miss, I drank only chocolate milk because I loved its taste. In fact, a white waitress at our favorite restaurant in the university town of Oxford always kidded me while taking my order saying...and for your drink, you will have chocolate milk, right!  I chuckled and nodded my head affirmatively.

During those years I could not miss but note that the Blacks attended church services only in churches meant for blacks and whites attended white churches. The only thing common between the two churches was the key board on their piano had black and white keys.  

Two years after I had graduated from Ole’ Miss, a black American student named James Meredith had to win a legal judgement in his favor for admission to Ole’ Miss in 1962. In spite of that, as he tried to attend his classes on the first day of school, his entrance to the campus was blocked by the State Troopers under the orders of the Governor of Mississippi. Meredith's entry into the classes was blocked on grounds of possible social unrest.

Subsequently, to break the standoff and protect the civil rights of a black American student to attend a school of higher learning of his choice,  Federal Troops were ordered by Robert Kennedy, Attorney General of United States. For a few weeks, Federal Troops accompanied Meredith to and from his classes. It was a high profile drama for America as well as human consciousness. The rest of the story is well documented history; just Google it.

I had witnessed the blacks and whites coexist in Mississippi back then and it was no different for me as an Indian having experienced the society and the socially branded untouchables co-exist in India under similar social discords......through a sheer burden of the ugly past and the promiscuous ongoing present. On this count, the attitudes of humanity appeared identical to me on either side of the globe. This general pattern of human attitudes, irrespective of the socio-economic conditions was further confirmed in 1962-63 during my travel through 16-18 countries as an independent observer of humanity. During my travel around the world, I was constantly accompanied by my friend called Curiosity. I was a bachelor roaming around the globe out of sheer curiosity about the world I lived in. This curiosity bug was planted in me by my Geography teacher, Mr. M. R. Bhide, in Hadas High School, Nagpur, India during 1944-48.

Over the past 50+ years, I have observed and experienced several pleasant and positive social changes in America's traditionally segregated Southern States including Mississippi as well as in overall American society nationwide. Those claiming to be righteous and not racist are indeed racist is the irony of life. Through such life experiences, I have learnt the meaning of the word “hypocrisy. Over the same period, I have noticed that social changes on similar counts in India,have been far too slow. The difference between the democracies of  the United States and India that I sense is that  the United States is a progressively maturing Democracy of 220+ years, whereas India is a Democracy of 65+ years which is still operating under Feudalistic social attitudes. In my personal opinion, counting all + and - attributes, United States may rank today as the best social experiment to date.

Although the attitudes of segregation between “Me and You”  or “Us and Them” are cultivated and harvested by humans,  Humanity as a whole seems to be in continuous transition for becoming more human without. However, the transition rate is so slow that it seems almost static during the short lifespan of a human.

As I am writing this composition in June 2013 at the age of 80, I am no more shocked by any
Breaking News of the day that I hear almost daily at 5:30 evening news on TV. It is simply because I seem to be much more aware of the realities of existence and how humanity traditionally reacts to situations and inter relationships.  A snail is well known for its slow speed of movements; so do attitudes of humanity globally.

In the kingdom of Nature, the streams of two rivers originating from entirely different sources meet, merge and mingle effortlessly and then flow as a common stream to meet the ocean of consciousness. Under deep blue clear skies  we come across deep lakes with waters so clear that we can see the bottom. In those waters, we see large schools of fish swimming together in a formation in one direction and then suddenly change course in another direction equally effortlessly; without bumping into other objects. In the sky, we see large flock of migrating birds in an orderly and harmonious formation. The flock of birds also changes its flight direction as needed effortlessly. Sometimes during the migrating flight, the whole flock decides instinctively to land on the ground to drink water and pause for rest. The schools of fish and the flock of birds seem to do it all so effortlessly simply based on their Instincts. Written laws on books do not guide their attitudes. It is the same Instinct that humans seem to have, which often lays dormant. Humans write Rules of Law to guide the dormant Instinct.

Rules of Law don't seem to dramatically alter social attitudes because humanity seems to resist change out of hidden fears of the unknown. Humanity, blessed with a creative brain does not seem to apply it proactively for its own inner growth.  On the other hand, Mother Nature seems to adjust readily to change because of the  nascent texture of its character.

It seems obvious that there are laws written by humans  for guiding social behavior. However, ultimately the unwritten laws of Nature not only guide but also govern humanity. The laws of Nature assure constant change; whereas humanity stubbornly resists it under the weight of sheer habits.