In Plato's famous ‘Allegory of the Cave’, Socrates describes prisoners chained in a cave, watching shadows on the wall, mistaking them for reality. When one escapes and sees the sun, the truth blinds him at first and then it is revealed.
Socrates warns that when this liberated prisoner returns to tell others, he or she would be mocked. Worse still, the cave-dwellers would become so enraged at the suggestion of a world beyond shadows that they would kill anyone who tried to free them. The truth-teller would be deemed as the one blinded by the sun.
This is as much a story about the tragedy of ignorance as it is instructional about the behaviour of the cave-keepers. Here’s a real-life contemporary story that may help us understand Plato’s allegory better.
The last few months, we’ve witnessed a controversy over the Medical College admissions at the Shri Mata Vaishno Devi Shrine University – a seat of learning that receives funding and support from both the religious shrine and the government. The bone of contention is the demographic component of the list of students selected for the first batch.
Anchored in their hatred for Muslims, rallying cries from Hindu right-wing groups have been geared towards demanding that the selection list, comprising more Muslims than Hindus, be scrapped. Some have suggested that the University should exclusively admit only Hindu students.
For the government to pander to their demands would be to open the proverbial Pandora’s box as it would cast a shadow on the future of other universities partly or fully funded by religious boards within Jammu and Kashmir and in the rest of India.
So, was it just a coincidence that amidst this simmering row, the Medical Assessment and Rating Board (MARB) of the National Medical Commission (NMC) withdrew the Letter of Permission (LoP) granted to Shri Mata Vaishno Devi Institute of Medical Excellence (SMVDIME) for “serious deficiencies and non-compliance with minimum standards”? Were the reasons purely technical or mixed with politics?
Whatever the reason, the reality is that medical college at Vaishno Devi University stands shelved. The loss, however, instead of triggering disquiet, has led to celebration. Those who couldn’t get to expel the students of a particular identity are happy that the college has been demolished lock, stock and barrel.
This is a perfection of the rules of Plato’s cave management, where efforts must be made not only to keep people ignorant but also to defend ignorance as virtue.
Plato’s cave-dwellers don't simply prefer darkness to light because they're comfortable. They prefer it because the light threatens their entire understanding of reality. Similarly, when one’s identity, righteousness, and the whole moral universe are built on shadow-watching, someone suggesting there's a sun outside isn't enlightening you. They're attacking you.
The prisoners in Plato's cave would kill the person who returned with news of the sun and the truth about shadows. Our modern cave-keepers have found something much more efficient. Inspired by their notion of ‘security’, they have killed the possibility of both exit and return itself by collapsing the ceiling.
After all, any shared place where different shadows might reveal themselves as mere projections must be blocked. Facts and evidence need not be engaged or debated. All spaces where such illusions can be dangerously challenged, must be torn down. The rubble must be celebrated as a victory in an ultimate test of nationalism.
So, bring on the fireworks. After all, if the medical college remained standing, the ‘othered’ students may learn to become doctors. Worse still, they would learn with ‘our own’. Together, they may have discovered that shadows are just shadows, that those casting them are not so different from themselves. They might start asking why they're chained up in the first place.
Better to demolish the whole structure. Better to celebrate the rubble. And if anyone suggests this might be wrong, they're clearly blinded by too much sun.
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