Three Ways in which world experienced social distancing. No, It doesn’t include Pandemics!

Before Covid-19 made us intimately familiar (and uncomfortably comfortable) with it; Before it got concretized in our social interactions; Before we started initially hating and then accepting, adopting and assimilating it in the ways we meet, greet and eat, The concept of ‘social distancing’ has been quietly and quite (un)knowingly existing in our societies.

 An idea deeply embedded in our current understanding of concept of ‘social distancing’ is that it is followed with purpose to reduce vulnerabilities and heightened risk to health in times of contagious disease outbreak.

 However history (and even contemporary time) presents us with some sporadic and ‘not-so -sporadic’ instances when ‘social distancing’ has been consciously and ‘subconsciously’ followed by masses and classes in ways and for reasons that go beyond any pandemic or health related concerns.

 Three different ways and reasons for social distancing that have been previously existent and are in stark contrast to the reason we currently know are:

 1. Reinstating class , etiquettes and ensuring women safety through clothing and fashion: It’s hard to link social distancing to clothing. Elinav Rabinovitch Fox of Case Western Reserve University in a recent article mentions that maintaining distance between genders and classes has been an important aspect of public life across several cultures. For instance, A highly sophisticated attire of Victorian Era has been ‘ Crimoline’ skirt: a large, voluminous, balooning skirt worn by women of privileged household to maintain distance from men. The skirt subtly has been a way for women to maintain safety from strangers. (Literally and fashionably keeping men at arm’s distance!)

 2.  Maintaining Caste Hierarchy : For long before current pandemic took over our lives, social distancing has been explicitly practiced to enforce caste hierarchy. At a deeper level, social distancing concept includes notions of nearness and farness. In a society like ours where caste identity has been deep rooted, the practice of ‘social distancing’ has been a signifiant element of treatment meted out to un-touchables and hence, has been used by people of higher caste (touchables) to maintain distance from Un-touchables.

 3. Social Media: In current times, the idea of personal space has gathered much support and has been ‘preciously guarded’ by most of us. This accompanied by our active engagement with social media has allowed us to maintain our relationships without physical proximity to relatives and friends. Having said that, it does not take away the need for physical and emotional proximity . It just implies that social media has allowed us to maintain distance at our own discretion and hence has made us slightly comfortable with the idea of being with ourselves and maybe enjoy solitude too!