Camus’ ‘The Plague’, a podcast and some thoughts about religion

For last 100 days, I am living in the shadow of epidemic. What exactly is this shadow? Part of this shadow, a small part, is death. For my age, the threat of death is not large. The great part of the shadow is possible agony of being helpless if I or my dear ones must access the health facilities. From what neighborhood WhatsApp and Social media gossip is, the hospital bed is new elite consumption. It is only one’s access to influence that can fetch a Covid-19 patient in my town a hospital bed in my town. Patients are being admitted to hospitals in other towns, sometimes 60 or more km away. Relatives often have to frantically call hospital after hospital, seek any outlet for help, all the while worrying about prospect of the patient. Possibility of this experience is the great part of the shadow. The remaining part is the boredom induced by being stuck at home.

            Plague is not really a great metaphor for Covid-19. Covid-19 is far too less lethal than what Plague was. But we are far more fragile now than what we were during the time of plague. Our agony during Covid-19 pandemic is more mental than physical. And Camus is a master who captures this mental agony.

            Camus’ ‘The Fall’ was a book which shook me by neck. Then I read, re-read ‘The Outsider’, but I never found its venom. ‘The Plague’ did that for me, maybe it also a function of situation in which I read the book.

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            I keep following Covid-19 cases obsessively, at least till few days back. Then when I will go to bed, I will read ‘The Plague’. My town is a peripheral town in Mumbai Metropolitan Region. Covid-19 cases were very few till end of May 2020. We were stuck at home, but Covid-19 was a problem for those living in Mumbai.

            Then slowly daily numbers kept rising. One started hearing about case in building in next lane, someone’s mother, some know person. And then deaths, unexpected, first, of those whose sorrows are our meal-time discussions, and then of those, who are closer to us, whose sorrows are not be chuk-chuked. The shadow is hovering now, every evening, as test results get distributed, one comes to know, who are the next pickings, and whose condition has worsened.

            But town is not closed to the world as the town in ‘The Plague’ is. For death and agony that slowly fill up the town, there is distraction of reporting to work. And distraction works. ‘The Plague’ becomes the philosophical work it is because of the town in which events happen is closed and that allows a movement-less space to focus on death, focus on agony, focus on how to make a sense of it. Open the gates and we can distract ourselves.

            The eerie similarity with ‘The Plague’ is about disposal of dead bodies. There is a description in ‘The Plague’ of bodies being vertically put in a pit for mass burial and the pit being filled with lime. I saw the video where bodies were pushed into lime laced pit by PPE wearing staff and my first reaction is, I have read this.

            Then I listened to this podcast, about the novel – on ‘Partially Examined Life’ and there was a part of role of religion which stuck me. There is a character is the novel which says if one believes that the plague is part of God’s plan then one must make peace with it and then one cannot seek a doctor’s help to get cured and if we do not believe then we must not believe at all. Believe or leave. I find this perspective of religion quite matching to what I had in mind.

            I never understood why so-called believers allowed the places of worshipped to be barred from access during the lockdown. Many will say that god is not exactly confined to place of worship and one cannot risk others’ lives to practice one’s belief. For me, these are just arguments of quasi-atheists. If one can apply individual judgement about what god wants, where god is, then one is atheist for all practical purposes. The belief must be blind, total or it is not there. There is no partial, fractional belief. Fractional is cowardice, fractional is being an animal. Belief is 0 or 1.

            The whole idea of Bhakti Hindus have, and may be other religions in their variants, is atheism in disguise. It is a rebel against the previous idea of religion, as a total system that explains everything. In modern world, this rebellion of disguised atheism makes religion an alternative medicine, like Ayurveda or Homeopathy. We live as per the norms of market, but we try to hold on to alternative remedy, which if turned true, can boost our chances. It is entirely utilitarian version of religion, which most believers have. The true believer is one which never lets one’s judgement get into the way of one’s belief, however painful holding onto those beliefs are. There are very few, like the priest in ‘The Plague’.  

            And that is why I don’t think there will be lot more atheists post-Covid-19 pandemic, because there are already too many, but disguised. The disguised form is convenient, and it won’t be thrown away. The religion for most of its users today is no longer list of must do things, it is an insurance plan, a safety clutch, and there is no reason to abandon it, as it costs nothing more than being ourselves, coward and self-serving.