The front page headline story in Times of India (Ahmedabad edition of 9th Oct'11), “Singhams unite, back Bhatt” reminded me of the famous Stanley Milgram’s Obedience Experiments of which 50th Anniversary passed only two months ago. Sanjiv Bhatt, a senior IPS officer is currently in judicial custody (as the magistrate, for over a week now, keeps on giving dates before passing judgment on his bail plea) being prosecuted by State Government and reference to Singham is a film's take on a similar situation (probably, as i have not seen the movie).
The IPS cadre comprises of educated and well trained officers then why, during the riots of 2002, could they not behave in a more responsible way? Why did they allow themselves to be led to acts of commission or omission which they felt to be bad or even unjust? Their behaviour can be understood by recalling what the “Obedience to Authority” experiment of Stanley Milgram showed.
Following four paragraphs are taken from http://www.psychologicalscience.org/index.php/news/releases/50th-anniversary-of-stanley-milgrams-obedience-experiments.html
Stories of torture, corporate greed, fraud, and misconduct are regular features of daily news coverage. For years, psychological scientists have tried to understand why ordinary and decent people are driven to commit such atrocious acts. Much of what we know on this topic can be traced to the work of one man: Stanley Milgram. Fifty years ago, Milgram, an assistant professor of psychology at Yale University, began a famous and controversial series of experiments to test the boundaries of people’s obedience to authority and determine how far normal people would go in inflicting pain on others just because they were told to.The experiment involved forty males who each took on the role of a “teacher” who delivered electric shocks to a “learner” when they answered a question incorrectly. Though the “teacher” believed that he was delivering real shocks, the “learner” was actually part of Milgram’s research team and only pretended to be in pain. The “learner” would implore the “teacher” to stop the shocks and the “teacher” would be encouraged to continue despite the learner’s pleas.
These experiments laid the foundation for understanding why seemingly decent people could be encouraged to do bad things. Thomas Blass, Milgram biographer and a professor of psychology at the University of Maryland Baltimore County, says that Milgram’s obedience experiments provided a powerful affirmation of one of the main guiding principles of contemporary social psychology: “It is not the kind of person we are that determines how we act, but rather the kind of situation we find ourselves in.”
“What Milgram’s obedience studies revealed above all was the sheer power of social pressure. Suddenly it was conceivable that the sorts of psychological forces producing conformity that social scientists had been interested in for some time could not only explain fashions and stock market gyrations, but also some of the 20th century’s most egregious collective behaviors: genocide, the Holocaust, totalitarianism,” says Dominic Packer, Assistant Professor of Psychology at Lehigh University.
Today we are a little wiser and we also have ICT. So here is a simple solution for decent people who do wish to be vigilant or who do not want to become “situational victims”. SOLUTION: Form a special interest group, for e.g. On Yahoo - “IPS Concerned Officers Association”. Members may hold discussions and polls on issues of their interest. They can then take a united stand and thwart manipulative bosses without holding physical meetings and getting hounded by media. Association is virtual but the actions are real. Information and Communications Technology can support democracy in real solid ways. Fortunately the IPS folks are IT savvy.
