Criminality in perspective and politics of legitimization: A study in paradox

Abstract

Indian society has traditionally conferred upon the "ascetic" a moral authority: to guide the believers toward redemption. The "ascetic" is stationed outside the ambit of law, for (a) being an avowed renouncer of the societal obligations and (b) embodying the lofty spiritual ideals that presumably yield larger societal good. This chapter probes into the politics of legitimization of this "concession" focusing on two distinct moments of rupture in the political history of North India, wherein the arbitrator for emancipation turns out the perpetrator of violence. How does the society rationalize the complicity of someone whom it has itself kept above its retributive justice? This chapter looks into the beneficiary's perspectival nuances of "criminality" touching upon the ideology of "masculinity" and ethos of "celibacy" in the Indian context. It critiques the social conditioning of an ontological category and unfolds the paradoxes, convergences, and overlaps in the inter-categorical crossroads that often render such categorizations ineffectual.