The Body Politic

In the 1980s, at the height of Ziaul Haq's maniacal military regime, men were taken out to sports stadiums, tied in an upright position and flogged in public for their sins. I remember the pictures -- the men had parts of their clothing removed so that the force of the blows to their body was directly inflicted. You could not see their faces, only the faces of the brutally lathi-happy police or army officers meting out the punishment in a spectacularly humiliating and inhumane manner. Fast-forward twenty years to last week. About a hundred men, women, and children had gathered in Rawalpindi to protest the forced disappearances of their relatives. The protest was a peaceful one; they called it a 'freedom walk' and their intent was to deliver a letter of discontent to the vice chief of army staff. The hundred or so protesters carried signs and shouted slogans calling for the state to return loved ones who had been picked up by the authorities and hidden away from the eyes and ears of the law. The protestors never made it past Flashmans Hotel. They were stopped by a squad of policemen, led by SP Yasin Farooq, and beaten.

Seven policemen, their navy blue uniforms crisp and uncreased, standard issue Kalashnikovs hanging off their shoulders, cornered a young man named Mohammad bin Masood. Mohammad was protesting to demand the whereabouts and return of his father who has been missing since July 30, 2005. His shalwar was pulled down to his ankles, his kameez was ripped at the collar, and his glasses fell to the edge of his nose. The policemen stopped Mohammad from protecting himself and from pulling up his shalwar. He was severely beaten, punched, pushed, and kicked.

I saw the photograph of Mohammad, partially nude, being tormented by the policemen -- defenders of the law -- and felt sick to my stomach. Mohammad's photograph was not in scratchy black and white like Zia's victims were, it was in full colour and it was on the front page of every major newspaper. Was the photograph meant to illuminate readers on the ongoing cruelty of the state or was it a very public warning? What was the purpose of this completely orgiastic violence?

Michel Foucault, the French philosopher and theorist, believed that the body is neither a shell nor a vehicle for getting around, but rather is an active entity. In essence, the body operates in opposing extremes; while the individual seeks to maximise its independence and liberty, the repressive state imposes itself upon the body to restrict its freedoms, employ it in 'useful' economic production, and deprive it of its agency. Foucault insisted that "the body is directly involved in a political field; power relations have an immediate hold upon it" and that is why it is on the body that the state exercises the brute force of its power. It is the bodies of dissenters and radical activists that are tortured and marked with the punishment their politics earns them.

Why are bodies so potent? Think of a thousand people gathered in unison fighting for a common cause. Think of a thousand bodies that are the very location of resistance. Think of a suicide bomber who has nothing else but his or her body as weaponry.

Why is violence so often centred upon the body? Because the body carries very visible signs of punishment and pain. I don't remember where I learnt it, but I can't forget being taught as a young child that 'sticks and stones may break my bones, but words can never hurt me'. It is as universal a rhyme as 'I scream, you scream'. In the end, sticks and stones are far more useful to a state that is either unwilling or incapable (usually both) of engaging in dialogue with its citizenry than words could ever be. As a political tactic then, punishment according to Foucault has two goals. The first goal is to inflict pain and the full might of the state's power on the very body of the disobedient citizen and the second and larger aim of punishment, which has increasingly become a public spectacle since the 18th century, is to direct itself at all the masses that might otherwise also consider resistance. Public punishment is ultimately designed towards the 'potentially guilty'. In one fell swoop, the body of the resistant is broken and destroyed and the dreams of others to follow in his suite are obliterated. It is a warning. Mohammad bin Masood is a warning.

What makes states powerful enough to both punish and control the bodies of its citizenry is its 'panopticism' or total surveillance of its domain. The subject is always seen, but never sees; public gatherings or any amassing of crowds is instantly prohibited because of its difficulty to be controlled; areas are cordoned off and neighbourhoods are quarantined so that entry and exit are highly visible. Military states are entirely panoptic and notoriously brutal to those who dare to be seen, like Mohammad who braved a humiliating stripping and beating by the Pakistani police force, in order to raise his voice in the name of his father Masood Janjua. His body will be an example of bravery and suffering, not one of subservience and defeat.

God help us if this weeks newspaper headlines are still furiously revolving around two significantly disgraced former prime ministers. Are they meeting in London or in Dubai? Are they coming back or not? Is his hairdo more fascinating or hers? Let me be blunt, I usually am -- who cares?

Mohammad bin Masood's name is the only one that deserves to make headlines this week, last week, and in the coming weeks. It has been more than a week since that amazing display of state brutality, more than a week since I saw Mohammad's picture. But I cannot forget him.

My delay is intentional; it has been several days since we saw those photographs, but do we remember him and why he was so violently acted upon? After the protestors peacefully dispersed on December 27, 2006 it was noted that several men and women who had been arrested during the freedom march had not been released, as promised -- the protestors courageously refused to disband until they were assured that the detained men would be set free - from police custody. One of those kept was Mohammad. Has he since been released? Or has his name been added to the long list that already holds his father's name -- Pakistan's disappeared? Where is Mohammad bin Masood?

Source: A hundred beats