When a Society Fails Its People

"In the happiness of the people lies the king's happiness; in their welfare, his welfare. What pleases himself is not beneficial, but what pleases the people is beneficial to the king." — Chanakya Niti

- DEEPAM CHATTERJEE

"Prajasukhe sukham rājñāḥ prajānāṃ ca hitaṃ, nātmapriyaṃ hitaṃ rājñāḥ prajānāṃ tu priyaṃ hitaṃ." On August 28, in Kasaragod, Kerala, a family drank death together. Gopi (60), his wife Indira (57), and their son Ranjesh consumed rubber processing acid, ending lives that had been suffocated by debt, humiliation, and despair. Another son barely survived, clinging to life in a hospital bed. Their small business had collapsed, loans had spiraled, and the family's world had shrunk into a single unbearable truth: that living in today's world can sometimes be more brutal than dying.

And so, they died. A husband, a wife, a son—an entire family reduced to silence by a state that cannot guarantee them dignity, food, or the chance to survive without suffocation. This is not an aberration. Across Madhya Pradesh, Haryana, Karnataka, Gujarat, the same grim pattern repeats—families entering the night together because daylight has become unbearable. In Haryana, seven members of one family ended their lives under the crushing weight of a ₹20 crore debt. In Karnataka, gold business losses drove another family to poison. In Madhya Pradesh, even children were pulled into this final despair, swallowed up with their parents.