What is Social Murder and How to Ensure Accountability in Patrimonial state?

Synopsis: The lack of political attention to social determinants and inequities that exacerbate the pandemic in India is a classic case of ‘Social Murder’.

What is Social Murder?

• Friedrich Engels, used this phrase to describe the death of the worker population in England during the Industrial revolution era.
• Lack of access to basic necessities of life along with poor working and living conditions for the workers resulted in ill health and early deaths. Engels calls this social murder.
• It is the same as murder by an individual. The only difference is that death appears to be a “natural one”.
• Similarly, according to the author, the inability to make the state accountable for the loss of lives in the Pandemic is social murder.
• A classic case of social murder is the reverse migration of millions of inter-State migrant labor walking thousands of kilometers.

What fosters the conditions for social murder?

The state’s neglect of its responsibility towards its citizens will perpetuate conditions for social murder. For instance,

• Holding elections in Bengal by the Election Commission of India,
• The Uttarakhand Chief Minister justifying the Kumbh mela.
• The inability of the State to Provide oxygen supply for Covid-19 Patients.
• Prohibition on media to telecast Cremation grounds.

What is the relation between Patrimonial state, accountability, Social murder?

1. A patrimonial state according to Max Weber, is a state in which the ruler exercises a traditional form of authority in contrast to a rule-based authority.
2. Here, the centralised rule is based on an ideology of religious majoritarianism as well as nationalism. It further gets legitimization by the election wins.
3. The patrimonial State is benevolent towards its subjects. The author views India currently as a Patrimonial state.
4. But, the fundamental problem in patrimonialism is ensuring accountability of the government.
   1. For instance, recently, the Swedish Prime Minister was subjected to questioning by a constitutional committee on COVID-19 handling.
   2. Whereas, in India, there is no mechanism for ensuring critical scrutiny on the government decisions that led to the current crisis.
5. Also, there is no accountability mechanism when the state moves away from its benevolence posture. For instance, shifting the responsibility of procuring oxygen cylinders or arranging ambulances on citizens. Also, The Uttar Pradesh government charging people with First Information Reports (FIRs) for requesting oxygen.
6. All these acts of the state that are undemocratic cannot be made accountable in a Patrimonial state as the Citizens are seen as a subject of the state.
7. Further, the prejudice, preconceived opinions cultivated by the ruling class to hold power is sanctioning social murder by turning the citizen blind to social realities.

Unless people become citizens and not subjects under patrimonial rule, the pandemic will pose a threat to Indian democracy as well.

Source: The Hindu