Loudspeakers And The Right To Silence

Loudspeakers And The Right To Silence

- Afsan Chowdhury

The recent death of elderly person after being beaten up by neighbours who were taking revenge for his protests against loud noise parties is a good example of the state of our civic life. Everyday we face traffic jams and every night we have sound jams. Both are deadly affront to our rights. When we talk about Gooms, we are quick to blame the state offices and mechanisms. When there is a cross fire death we feel oppressed. Understandably, they are gruesome incidents and reflect the inability of the law enforcement regimes to manage outlaws using legal methods.

But such incidents actually are meta level ones and deeply ingrained into the nature of the state. Chances of this trend changing are low. But at the micro level the situation is also producing a series of social encounters which are quite violent and all seem to be sourced at the disregard for the rights in the name of something higher or plain bullying.

The sounds of death