Trial by ordeal

Torture has been used by the state to silence its political opponents. It is also used against criminals in order to maintain peace and security in the society. Here, the object of torture is to extract confessions and to punish in the name of the law, while actually disobeying the law. It is also used by religious sects and political parties against heretics, dissidents and enemies to either absorb them within the fold of their sects or parties or to crush their spirit in order to prevent them from creating further opposition and confrontation. In the case of individuals, torture is also used for revenge.

Interestingly, torturers usually aren’t some kind of easily identifiable monsters; they tend to be exactly like ordinary people in their daily lives. They have families and children who they love and feel affectionate towards, so it is difficult to understand how they become so brutal and unkind while inflicting pain on people, feeling no emotion when their victims cry out and express their suffering and helplessness. Those who torture others do not let their feelings and emotions interfere with their work. The reason perhaps is that those who are authorised by the state to torture its victims are duty bound to consider them enemies, anti-state elements and a threat to state security and existence. These arguments dehumanise the victims, making it easy for the agents of the state to eliminate them. There are many examples of state authorities torturing political opponents in violation of the law. In some of these cases, the opponents are either killed or imprisoned for an indefinite period.

In Nazi Germany, officials who tortured or executed the Jews, Gypsies and the Communists in concentration camps were tried for crimes against humanity after the Nazi regime came to an end. The argument of these officials was that they simply obeyed the orders of higher authorities. In case of refusal, they would have been condemned and punished by the government. Therefore, whether state officials should obey or refuse orders against human rights remains an unanswered question.

Hannah Arendt in her book Eichmann in Jerusalem discusses how Adolph Eichmann was tried on charges of killing the Jews and his response was that he did so according to the law of the state therefore he could not be held responsible for the massacre of the Jews.

In the medieval period, it was believed that criminals, dissidents and heretics can be reformed by severe punishment. Therefore, it was customary to torture such people in public not only as a warning to others but to create terror and fear in the society as well. It was customary that the man who was tortured was carried all the way through the main streets of the city to show people his fate as a warning. On a raised platform, the executioner either sliced his hands, feet and other parts of his body or broke his bones after binding him to a wheel. Another way of torture was known as the pillory, which consisted of hinged wooden boards with holes through which the head and / or his limbs were inserted and the boards were locked together to secure the captive. Pillories were set up to hold and humiliate petty criminals in public places like marketplaces and crossroads.

During the Roman period, the common criminals were crucified as a means of execution as well as humiliation. After crushing the slave rebellion of Spartacus, 20,000 slaves were crucified by the Romans.

The culture of torture was continued by the Church when it instituted the Inquisition to try heretics and enemies. Torture was used to elicit confessions from the victims. The institution used various instruments to torture those who were condemned. When Galileo was tried by the Inquisition, he was shown some of these instruments to force him to confess his sin. In order to escape from the horrible punishment, he accepted his mistake and recognised the religious views of the Church. It was the practice of the Inquisition that after confession, the condemned man was handed over to secular authorities to burn him at stake.

In case of Pakistan, torture is used not only by the state, but also by non-state actors. Torture has become so widespread in our society that it is accepted as a daily routine of life and there is no resistance against it.

Sadly, torture continues despite the progress of human civilisation. The question is: how long it would continue to crush, subdue and eliminate people because their ideas, views and way of life are different?

Published in Dawn, Sunday Magazine, May 10th, 2015
http://www.dawn.com/news/1180746/pas...rial-by-ordeal