Madness and the Moon

“It is the very error of the moon.
She comes more near the earth
than she was wont. And makes

men mad.”
—William Shakespeare, Othello

Since time immemorial, man has struggled to comprehend deviant behaviour. This inability to make sense of the seemingly senseless individuals has driven man to conjure many explanations. One of them was so impressive, that lunacy derived its name from it.

The word ‘lunacy’ derives its name from ‘Luna’, the Roman Goddess of Moon. It was, and still is, popularly believed that there is an association between insane behaviour and changes in the moon. Full moon is considered to be particularly influential, so much so that unusual activities are often explained by the saying: ‘There must be a full moon out there somewhere.’  

In fact, even today, doctors and nurses believe that they see more patients for mental health issues on full moon than at any other time; even some police forces often beef up security around full moon, believing that it leads to aggressive behaviours and higher crime rate. And perhaps the most entertaining reflection of this belief would be the commenters blaming the full moon for George Bush’s election as President in 2000!

So how did this association, now known as the lunar lunacy effect, come about? Amongst the most popular explanations is the fact that human body is majorly composed of water, a component that the moon exerts considerable influence over. Given the moon’s effects on tidal waves, it doesn’t seem completely absurd that man considered himself to be equally affected by this gravitational pull.

 Research however, has proved that this pull was too weak to influence us, with George Abell famously noting that a mosquito exerts greater gravitational pull over human beings than the moon.

One possible explanation for the rise in cases of insanity during the full moon period was offered 1999 by Raison, Klein and Steckler, explained in terms of lighting. The moon was the primary source of nocturnal illumination, which influenced the sleep-wake cycle. However, the full moon interfered with this cycle by offering greater light and thus leading to sleep deprivation, enough to induce mania/hypomania in those susceptible to it.

With the scientific progress within psychology, these commonly held myths about mental disorders needed to be dispelled in order to ensure proper treatment. Several studies were conducted, most of which pointed towards this association being nothing more than desperate attempts to comprehend the incomprehensible.

To begin with, there was found to be no association whatsoever between the full moon and the number of psychiatric admissions or emergency evaluations. Related to this, no rise was observed in suicide rates during the full-moon period. Contrary to security forces expectations, no relationship was found between violent crimes and moon changes. As far as American Presidential elections go, however, keeping this faith in full-moon lunacy and hoping Election Day to be a full-moon night may be someone’s only ‘trump’ card!

It is important to acknowledge the lunar lunacy effect as nothing more than a myth, because without this acceptance, recognising and dealing with mental disorders will be significantly hindered. While the moon is a convenient explanation, it is not a solution. Popular beliefs such as these only stigmatise those with disorders and make mental disorders a foreign, isolated subject.

There is a need to break the association between the two. The moon and madness may be popular but it is now time to let go of this myth. Perhaps, this is what the quirky Luna Lovegood, from Harry Potter, meant when she said, ‘Don’t worry. You are just as sane as I am.’                             

Chinmayee Kantak

India’s Forensic Challenge

“We can all see, but can you observe?”
― A. D. Garrett, Everyone Lies

The last couple of years saw two big cases making the headlines of the Indian tabloids frequently: the Sheena Bora murder case, and Sunanda Pushkar’s (Indian National Congress leader Shashi Tharoor’s wife) alleged suicide. The sudden upheaval caused by these cases was nothing short of a daily soap, with every household closely following their developments.

The progress of these cases also brought various shades of the Indian investigative system into the limelight. The case of Bora’s murder, which happened in April 2012, resurfaced only in August 2015. The three year gap between the discovery of Bora’s remains, and the investigation to gain some result, led to serious discrepancies in the forensic aspect of the case. BYL Nair Hospital, Mumbai conducted a forensic analysis on Bora’s remains, and confirmed a profile of a woman within Sheena’s age range and body frame. Additionally, another private institute matched the skull remains to Sheena Bora’s facial structure.  

New troubles arose for the seemingly smooth investigation, when the remains submitted by the police to JJ Hospital, Mumbai in 2012, and the remains returned by JJ to BYL Nair Hospital, Mumbai in 2015, for further investigation, did not match. The contradicting forensic reports with respect to causes for Indrani Mukherjea’s (the accused for Sheena Bora’s murder) collapse in her prison cell, further questions their reliability. For an investigation tying up threads for a heinous crime such as murder, unadulterated forensic evidence is of utmost importance. Inconclusive findings like these are a result of caused by neglect by police and disoriented methodology. 

Back in 2008, the Aarushi Talwar case took the nation by storm. The handling of forensics in this double murder investigation underwent considerable amount of criticism. The crime scene was heavily contaminated due to the carelessness of the police officials in charge evidence (for instance, the crime scene was contaminated with fingerprints of the people present, which made it difficult to acquire any information of a possible suspect). This kind of negligence has terrible repercussions on tying up loose ends of an investigation, consequently leading to unsatisfying evidence.

Unavailability of proper lab instruments led to several investigative delays in Sunanda Pushkar’s alleged suicide case (later revealed to be a murder). Since the equipment essential to detect a certain kind of poison was not available in India, the task had to be outsourced to a lab in the USA. The investigation faced a severe setback when the AIIMS forensic chief claimed that he was forced to produce a fake report for the case, and came under tremendous pressure when he refused to do so.

The Indian Supreme Court passed a judgement in 2011 that no test shall be conducted on a suspect without his/her permission. Further, any evidence collected through such a test cannot be used in the court. This poses as a huge hurdle in the public prosecutor’s case, unless some other influential evidence is acquired based on the test results. In more recent times, the double murder case of Hema Upadhay and her lawyer has suffered from this judgement as the court refused permission to the police to conduct a narco analysis on the victim’s husband (a potential suspect).

Digital forensics in India also seems to be lagging as compared to the rest of the world, with respect to available technology. Furthermore, there is a lack of qualified personnel in the forensic labs in our country, which poses as a serious challenge. There is no proper training in forensic methodology provided to the police officials, and the psychological aspect of the field is largely overlooked. Experience of working with cases forms a large part of their forensic know-how. Further, it has been observed that there are several clashes between the staff at forensic labs and police officials, due to the lack of knowledge of terminologies of the latter, thereby leading to further delay and negligence as mentioned in the cases above.

India needs a more established structure for handling forensic cases. The government needs to direct more funds towards improving forensic lab facilities and the technology used. Moreover, proper training needs to be provided to investigation officers with respect to handling of evidence, dealing with the crime scene, focusing on more relevant aspects of investigation, and the like. The police could also directly recruit personnel qualified in forensics under them, so that ethical handling of evidence takes place, and a person is readily available to interpret the final reports accurately. The investigative agencies need to streamline their procedures, create a basic forensic know-how within their personnel, and identify and fill the procedural gaps in handling of cases.  If this isn’t achieved soon, the system surely poses a risk to become dangerously similar to the TV serial CID!

Sampada Karandikar

Why We Need Net Neutrality

The internet is a vast, unfathomable source of information. There exist over 1 billion websites today, with approximately 1, 40,000 new websites created every day. This gives us access to more information than our ancestors would have ever imagined. The internet connects you to the most important as well as the most quirky things on this planet – don’t know how to describe your emotion? Here is the Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows.  Wonder how your income compares to Warren Buffet’s? Penny Stocks will tell you.

The beauty of the internet lies in this: our ability to access the most inconsequential information to the most vital pieces of information with equal ease. We don’t have to wait longer for certain websites to load as compared to others. We don’t have to pay more to be able to view certain websites. The internet is an egalitarian forum, giving its users access to content previously unparalleled, in terms of quality and quantity. This is the basic concept of net neutrality.

Now imagine a world where only a small, selected number of websites from this vast universe are available to us, albeit free. For every website falling outside the listed ones, we will have to pay. The speed will vary; the non-listed websites will load slowly. The internet will no longer be equal-for-all: it will be a hierarchy of free to the most expensive websites. This is what Airtel-zero, Reliance, other Internet Service Providers and most recently Facebook, through its Free Basics campaign, are working towards.

The internet, since its creation, has been a platform for innovation. It has seen companies grow and create millionaires, simply by its ability to reach out to billions. One such example would be Facebook. Facebook started as a small network to emerge as the largest social network in the world today. Why? Because the internet let it. It did not require extra payment to load a new website called Facebook. It did not load Facebook slower because it was not ‘basic.’ And therein lies the irony of the current situation: Facebook’s attempt at regulating the very platform whose competitive and democratic nature let it grow.

Net neutrality allows this level-playing field where websites compete with one another solely on the basis of content. Competitive environments have been linked to growth, innovation, and greater consumer satisfaction. Free Basics and other campaigns against net neutrality will create a restrictive market of sorts, where some websites are easily available to the public as compared to others, and will consequently draw higher traffic. After all, who wants to pay for something when there exists a free alternative?  Imagine the adverse impact it will have on an economy that prides itself for boosting the growth of start-ups. 

On a more individualistic note, net neutrality gives us the freedom to be who we are. The content we consume on the internet is an expression of our virtual identity, a phenomenon that has been rising in importance in today’s digital age. If the internet is truly a basic democratic right, should it not allow individuals the freedom to exercise choice without making them pay more for it?

And most importantly, Free Basics and other campaigns give an external agency the authority to decide what is and what is not basic. Facebook will have the right to decide the websites we can view for free and those we must pay for, making Facebook the power hub of the internet. The internet, which has been a compelling force against authoritarianism through free and immediate access, will no longer possess the alacrity it previously did. Websites will have to go through the procedure of becoming ‘partners’ with Facebook for their website to gain free access.

The case put forth by Facebook in support of Free Basics is this: it will provide internet access to those who have none, in synch with Modi’s Digital India programme. But it will simultaneously give Facebook the opportunity to increase its user base by millions, potentially protecting it from competition from any quarter. Interestingly, majority of our population already considers Facebook the entire entity of the internet experience, with an overwhelming 58% responding to the statement, ‘Facebook is the internet’ in affirmative.

The issue of net neutrality is unlikely to reach a complete resolution soon, given the complexities that underlie it. But it is important to consider the effect a restrained, throttled internet will have, even if it is available to everyone. Surely there are ways of making the Internet available to everyone without compromising on its fundamental virtues. USA found a way through it, successfully enforcing net neutrality. It is now time for India step up and stay true to its virtue of being the world’s largest democracy: giving its people the same equality in the virtual world as it promises in reality.   

 Chinmayee Kantak