Imagining a World, Where Just Like Dogs, Empathy is Extended to Everyone Persecuted For Their Identity

As somebody who absolutely adores dogs (with a mammoth-sized bias in favour of indies), the visuals that have been consistently appearing on my social media feed since the past few days, are heartening, to say the least.

The sights vary from (rightly) outraged members of the public marching towards the India gate, braving FIRs, chanting slogans, to the protesters being heckled and detained by the police.

The fact that all this struggle is to ensure that the furry friends don't lose their natural habitat and are not shipped to (mostly) non-existent and dubious shelter homes, shows that there is no dearth of empathetic people who are willing to hit the streets to protect the rights of our fellow living creatures.

The protesters definitely deserve respect, given the fact that the order that is being opposed by dog lovers came from within the hallowed walls of the Supreme Court of India. This is even more telling of the gumption of the public, who has not shied away to disagree (at times with unsparingly sarcastic takes) with the judiciary – another sign of their courage.

Of course, the anti-dog lobby has also been hyper active – welcoming the order, ridiculing the protests and suddenly turning into authorities on rabies – eager to circulate their knowledge on the subject through unverified WhatsApp forwards.

In between scrolling through Instagram reels highlighting the plight of friendly neighbourhood strays and seeing animal lovers fight people for whom the sight of a wagging tail is equivalent to a red herring, I couldn’t help but feel happy about this outpouring of righteous anger and genuine concern about the fate of the canine population.

Everyone was passionate about their beliefs, willing to argue, engage and organise to do what they felt was the need of the hour.

Even those who didn’t march on the streets, expressed their outrage through social media posts or stories, extending their solidarity to the ones who did.

Celebrities from Bollywood and the sporting world too didn’t shy away from speaking against the prospect of mass displacement of dogs. The stars used the full might of their enviable reach, spanning millions of followers to support the cause.

What struck me as a very welcome change from the general status quo was that there was no side that maintained their distance on account of being ‘apolitical’ or said that they were ‘neutral’.

There was no division among dog lovers, who didn’t resort to whataboutery (probably because unlike humans, there’s no way of knowing the caste, religion or political beliefs of dogs) or act as apologists for those who called for their extermination, or justified the calls.

People from different ideologies, ethnicities and states seemed all united in their resolve for speaking against the sufferings of strays, ready to question the system or even court arrest in the process.

I couldn’t help but wonder what the outcome would be if this wave of empathy and understanding is extended to the plight of not just dogs, but all living creatures who are persecuted because of their identity.

The resulting picture that formed in my mind was that of a world that is definitely not unrealistic. And yet, it could easily pass off as a Utopia in the present times.

In this imagined world, just as animal rights activists confront resident welfare association (RWA) office bearers who object to them feeding strays, concerned citizens also remind the same people about the law when they deny accommodation to someone because the person is a Muslim.

Instead of expressing their surprise on Reddit about why their house help has gone missing, residents in Gurugram hit the streets in this new world and stop the harassment of migrants who have been shifted to a detention centre after being branded as Bangladeshi.

Instagram can get flooded with reels that tell the story of a Muslim migrant from Murshidabad working in Mumbai, who is pushed back into Bangladesh after being suspected of being an undocumented immigrant. He is brought back later, with three others who met a similar fate, and their ordeal results in a protest march against arbitrary deportations.

Much like the massive protests against the shifting of dogs from their natural habitat, the public in this new world braves the authorities and marches with placards, relentlessly speaking against wanton demolitions of homes, their calls for justice drowning down the deep rumble of the bulldozer.

Young Instagram influencers who create educational videos about animal cruelty laws to spread awareness about the mistreatment of dogs, also talk about the misuse of legislations that allow authorities to keep a person in jail indefinitely without conviction or bail.

Instead of flaunting the fact that they are “apolitical”, Gen Z youngsters, all set to vote for the first time, demand more accountability after reading about the allegations of disenfranchisement of voters from the electoral process.

They also prefer to research more about the long history of caste-based oppression, before forming an opinion on the subject or talking about “merit”, with their sources not being limited to the prejudiced narrative created by the privileged.

Inter-religious union is celebrated, and outrage is expressed when false cases are slapped on couples under the bogey of 'love jihad', just like the clamour we see on social media when counter cases are lodged against activists for reporting incidents of animal cruelty.

In this new world, Bollywood celebrities, who are now being vocal in expressing disappointment about the Supreme Court's decision to pack off dogs to shelter homes, don't shy away from standing in support of their woman colleague from the film industry who is hounded by a misogynist, sensational mainstream media and blamed for the suicide of her partner.

And Virat Kohli will no longer be the lone voice to condemn the trolling of Mohammed Shami by bigoted trolls after one bad performance, solely because he is a Muslim. All his colleagues from the Indian cricket team would stand steadfastly with the pacer.

As the last few days have demonstrated, it is possible for such a world to exist, provided we look at all the sufferings around us with the same conscientious lens which we are using when fighting for the habitats of dogs.

PS. With my implicit trust towards dogs, who have a very straightforward and clear sense of right and wrong, I think the furry friends would be very much in favour of being a part of this imagined world.

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