Etymologically speaking jan sunwai
comprises of the terms jan and sunwai
which is itself significant to understand the meaning
of the concept. The jan is the public, which
exerts moral influence different from the political
authority of the state, on its members and on the state.
It provides victims the freedom to voice themselves
without the constraints imposed by what the writer calls
‘polite public discourse’ or the confines
of a judicial courtroom. The sunwai is a public
hearing but it is different from legal and procedural
hearings instituted by the state which by its official,
legal and almost pompous nature, place the victim at
an inherent disadvantage. The sunwai restores
to a person his place in the system by allowing him
to represent himself and make himself heard.
The case study proposes that one of
the reasons for the evolution of the jan sunwai
was the judicial system in the country which by
the processes and institutions it spawned rendered the
victim invisible. The judiciary presumes that when the
law intervenes, all injustice will be eradicated and
that truth will prevail. This is not how the dalit views
the law. The dalit have little access or incentive to
take recourse to the law, considering the collusion
between the police who are deemed to be protectors of
the law and the perpetrators of crimes against the marginalized.
Another reason that provided an impetus to the evolution
of the jan sunwai was the breakdown of the
village court as the system imparting justice and the
‘crumbling of paternalism’ which had prevented
the dalit from raising his voice against the higher
castes when they committed atrocities.
The implications of this innovative
method of hearing grievances and imparting justice has
evoked in the dalits, egalitarian aspirations and a
confidence of the self. Jan sunwai as the mediating
space between dalits and several institutions of oppression
generates a desirable moral impact on the erring elements
without deploying penal punishment.
Issues raised:
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Failure of institutions
that are entrusted with upholding the rule of
law in fulfilling their roles
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The judiciary has become inaccessible to the common
man, the language used is technical and the procedure
has become cumbersome;
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The police are either passive onlookers or actively
repressive towards victims |
| • |
Failure of the media to report
incidences of caste and communal discrimination
and atrocities objectively |
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The jan sunwai originates
from the ‘general public’ |
| • |
Jan has been defined negatively
i.e. what it is not: it is not the intimate private
space, not public authority, not the public as
understood in the terms of merely being universally
visible. The author calls it the ‘counter-public’ |
| • |
Jan sunwai is a liberating
and empowering event for the victim in that it
restores agency to the victim who has the opportunity
to bring his/her perpetrator to task by exposing
his/her deeds. This opportunity is absent in an
official sunwai – court hearing. |
| • |
The breakdown of the village
legal system in which the dalit had no voice has
led him to bring his case into the formal legal
system. |
| • |
The jan sunwai creates an
egalitarian mediating space where everyone has
a say and all hierarchies have been collapsed |
| • |
By virtue of being the medium
of communication between the oppressor and the
oppressed, the jan sunwai can exert moral influence
on the former |
| • |
The confidence that emanates
from the people who deposed at the jan sunwais
comes from the knowledge that they speak unmediated
truth |
| • |
Jan sunwai also aims at political
mobilization of all people who want to create
a decent society |
| • |
If the jan sunwai has to
continue to create radical politics, it should
be prevented from being regularized or standardized |
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