Images of drowned
Syrian child, Aylan, brought unusually closer home to many of us, the vast
magnitude of displaced people and the completely contingent manner in which
they try to make new lives, seek shelter and care for family. And of course,
the fact that governments were keen to keep displaced people out. Aylan, 3
years old, was trying to reach the Greek island of Koch, having already been
displaced from three different places- when the 15 foot long, ramshackle boat
he was travelling in, capsized. Alongside Aylan, his 5 year old brother and
mother were also killed, leaving the father as the sole surviving member of the
family. Media interest in the image and he family revealed all too familiar
stories of a people, torn by strife trying to eke out peaceful living without
any assistance whatsoever from governments or states.
Interesting was the
response of The Times of India, which
desisted from pusblishing Aylan’s photo on its front page for the first couple of
days, and did so only after the image was circulated innumerable times on
social media. The image on the front page carried with it the rejoinder that
the TOI had been reluctant to publish the image, apprehensive of the shock and
discomfort it must cause its readers. Of course, the complete arbitrariness of
the displacement of the group of people left at lurch by Syria and European
nations alike, represented by this drowned child, barely found mention. But
TOI’s publication of the image pointed to the potential of the image to
mobilise public sentiment across the globe and perhaps to also prompt state
action.