Psychology: The 1993 Mumbai Bomb Blast - Sanjay Dutt Case

Write to explain about an Indian Actor Sanjay Dutt. He was accused for having an illegal weapon, it was Ak56 rifle. He was also accused for Mumbai Bomb blasts. 

Explanation of Relevant Theories

Sanjay Dutt is an Indian film actor and producer born in July 29^th, 1959 known for his work in Hindi cinema. Sanjay made his acting debut in Rocky (1981) and since then, he has appeared in over 187 Hindi Films. Sanjay Dutt is among the most controversial India’s celebrities in history. His addiction to alcohol and drug abuse, accusations of having illegal weapons and other alleged illegal affairs, and most damningly his conviction in the Mumbai Bomb blasts and other terror cases have all been avidly documented (Kamal, 2013). The 1993 Mumbai Bomb blasts involved a series of twelve bomb explosives that occurred in Mumbai, India. The 1993 Bombay Blasts were coordinated, and were done as an act of revenge for prior Bombay riots where many people were killed. Prior to the 1993 Bombay Blasts, Sanjay Dutt illegally possessed multiple weapons such as 3 AK 56s and a few hand grenades. Other weaponries illegally possessed by Sanjay were 3.5 tons of RDX and an AK-47 rifle. These harmful weapons were found in Dutt’s house after the 1993 blasts. Sanjay had stored arms smuggled into India in his house, this possession was not licensed. His failure to inform the police about the illegal weaponry led to the 1993 Mumbai Bomb blasts (Menon, 2012). The selection of Sanjay Dutt’s case perfectly suits in this paper. Coordination of the attacks and Sanjay’s failure to inform the police about these harmful weapons makes the instances too controversial. This paper discusses Sanjay Dutt’s case in the context of psychology. Explanation of relevant theories applicable to this case will also be undertaken.

Sanjay was arrested of illegally possessing AK- 56 and got charged under the TADA Act, subsequent to a legal fight for several years. The TADA court gave Sanjay a clean chit by stating that he kept the armed weapons for purposes of self-defense; nevertheless, Dutt got jailed for 5 years under the Arms Act. Sanjay’s case fits in psychology and his behavior is closely associated with psychological issues. Theories of emotion, social psychological influences, conditioning and learning, and personality disorders perfectly fit in this case. These theories are hereby explained:

In his movies, Sanjay Dutt was a psychological thriller. But, what exactly was his role in the 1993 Mumbai Blasts that claimed 257 lives and left 713 people with injuries? In social psychological influence theory, the study of how various ways of attitudes, behaviors, and beliefs of people get influence by other people is done (Shuchi, 2018). People’s behaviors, attitudes, and beliefs get influence by three social levels. These social influences include individual socialization, social institutions, and interactions with other people. This theory is relevant to the case of Sanjay since his behavior was greatly influenced by the people whom he interacted with. The degree at which people remain open to social influence depends on how they are socialized. The ideas people hold, the means by which we behave, and the language we use to speak are products of socialization. People’s negative behaviors, attitudes, and believes are a product of habit.

Social psychological influences theory

Emotional theory of psychology is complex and features subjective experiences accompanied by behavioral and biological transformations. Emotion involves thinking, feeling, behavioral changes, psychological transformations, and nervous system activation. People either have positive or negative emotions that relate to an event or an object. In this case, emotions are related to the Mumbai 1993 blasts. The motivation, mood, and temperament behind an event differ from one individual to another (Bhattacharya, 2012). When emotions occur, they impose powerful force on human behavior and moods. Strong emotions to an event’s aftermath cause people to take actions that may not lead to avoidance of such situations. In this case of Sanjay, the main theories of motivation manifest are neurological, physiological, and cognitive models. Cognitive theory postulates that mental thoughts cultivate greatly in forming emotions. Physiological models argue that body responses are responsible for emotions. Finally, neurological theory suggests that activities within human brain contribute to emotional responses.

Many people struggle with mental disorders. As per this theory, personality disorders refer to the long-lived behavioral patterns that create problems with an individual’s relationships or work. The theory suitably fits in Sanjay’s case since his decision to illegally keep AK- 56 weapon caused him problems after the Mumbai 1993 blasts. Personality explains the blend of attributes that bring uniqueness to an individual (Vicziany, 2013). In this theory, every person has a unique psychological characteristic unpossessed by the other people. Personality disorder has a huge link with stress, for both bring about mental problems to an individual. People who suffer from personality disorders have lower tolerance to stress, elevated stress reactions, and prolonged recovery times from any stressful instance. As a result, personality disorder people drink alcohol and abuse drugs as well as other negative behavioral patterns while in the society.

The other theory relevant to Sanjay Dutt’s case is conditioning and learning. Basic learning principles always operate to influence human behavior. Conditioning and learning are a behavioral theory, whose impact in psychology cannot go unnoticed. Conditioning theory of psychology helps in predicting human behavior for people trained to behave in a certain manner. Through operant conditioning, people create an association between their certain behavior and its consequence. In general terms, conditioning and learning are together linked in order to give a new learned response to an individual (Rabasa, Blackwill, & Chalk, 2009). Predicting people’s behavior requires a person to understand how learning occurs and how people learn to understand. As per the theory, learning is any relative change that permanently transforms human behavior that happen as a fruit of experience.

Emotional theory of psychology is complex and features subjective experiences accompanied by behavioral and biological transformations. Emotion involves thinking, feeling, behavioral changes, psychological transformations, and nervous system activation. People either have positive or negative emotions that relate to an event or an object. In this case, emotions are related to the Mumbai 1993 blasts (Gupta & Kumaraguru, 2012). The motivation, mood, and temperament behind an event differ from one individual to another. When emotions occur, they impose powerful force on human behavior and moods. Strong emotions to an event’s aftermath cause people to taje actions that may not lead to avoidance of such situations. In this case of Sanjay, the main theories of motivation manifest are neurological, physiological, and cognitive models (Vivek, 2013). Cognitive theory postulates that mental thoughts cultivate greatly in forming emotions. Physiological models argue that body responses are responsible for emotions. Finally, neurological theory suggests that activities within human brain contribute to emotional responses.

Emotions theories

In the context of psychology, the theories of emotion, social psychological influences, conditioning and learning, and personality disorders perfectly suit in the case of Sanjay Dutt and his role in the 1993 blasts (Roy, 2016). In the judgement, Sanjay was convicted of illegally possessing Arms, and this is what exonerated him of any involvement in the conspiracy of the Bombay blasts. The applicability of these theories in the context of Sanjay Dutt’s case is explained below:

In reference to the social psychological influences theory, Sanjay Dutt’s illegal possession of AK-56 weapon was encouraged by his personal behavior, beliefs and attitudes. As a movie actor, Sanjay was used to using guns, hand grenades, and other bombing materials for this was normal in his profession. His close association with other colleagues’ actors always discussed about new movies and ideas to take his career to the next level. In the social psychological influence model, his possession of illegal weaponry was not abnormal. And this is according to his beliefs (Bhandarwar et al., 2012). Sanjay believes that AK-56 and other armed weapons are part of his profession. Also, Sanjay Dutt kept the weapons to support his family. However, keeping harmful weapons without a license caused him troubles when the Mumbai blast occurred. The police believed that Sanjay had a possible connection with the crime perpetrators given the time period when the blasts occurred. Dutt was believed to have played a key role to conspire the plot to bomb Mumbai. In this case, social psychological influences are evidenced given the linkage between Sanjay, the blast perpetrators, and his personal believes.

Emotionally, the Mumbai blast affected most families who lost their members – the Mumbai 1993 blast amassed to 257 deaths and left 713 people with major injuries. The emotional state at India in this period greatly left many people with fearful feelings, nervous system deactivation, and negative psychological issues. In reference to the theories of emotion and their applicability in psychology, Sanjay Dutt’s mental thoughts, body responses, and brain activities catapulted to his decision to illegally keep the weapons (Mishra, 2009). What motivated him to possess the weaponry illegally and confidently keep them in his house even after the Mumbai blasts was highly questioned. In cognitive theory of emotion, the metal thoughts of Sanjay contributed to this. On his arrest, Sanjay cried, showing how emotional the allegations caused him. As per the physiological model of emotion, Sanjay Dutt’s body response when he was accused of participating in the blasts forced the police to arrest him (Sassen, 2010). Lastly, neurological theory of emotion is also applicable in Sanjay Dutt and Mumbai blast’s case for these happenings suggests that the state of his brain contributed to his emotional responses on the arrest time.

The conditioning and learning theories of motivation perfectly fit in the Mumbai blast case together with Sanjay’s role in the blast. In reference to the conditioning and learning theory, Sanjay Dutt’s behavior can be highly predicted on the basis of his behavior (Jenkins, 2009). As an actor, Sanjay was highly trained to use weapons and cause massive crimes despite it being just a career of his life. In this essence, Sanjay can be said to have established an association between his acting behaviors when bombing with the consequences of the actual aftermaths of his behavior. Generally, Sanjay had learned how to use guns and hand grenades- and this potentially exposed him to other gangsters whom he could have possibly conspired with before the Bombay blasts took place. In psychology, it is very easy to predict Sanjay’s behavior in the film industry, a behavior that could easily be transferred to other crime perpetrators in the Indian society (Wolf et al., 2009). This reasoning is highly supported by the case when Abu Salem is proved to have transported the weapons to Dutt’s house from Gujarat, and the accounts of Abu Salem clearly complete the chain of events linking the weapons to the blast.

Personality disorders and/or stress theory

In psychology, personality disorders are caused by childhood experience and the environment in which people relate, associate, and socialize with others. Most people with personality disorders struggle with mental disorders and encounter a lot of stress. People with personality disorders show behaviors that expose them to long-life problems. Sanjay’s decision to illegally store AK-56 and other hand grenades is a behavior that is difficult to explain and understand, and this causes him jail problems after the 1993 Bombay blast (Gordon, 2008). Reportedly, Sanjay started abusing drugs and alcohol since his secondary education. Also, Sanjay enjoyed a hobnobbed relationship with India’s most-wanted criminals whose private lives was a constant headline and subject to question by the government and the media. In personality disorders theory, this means that Sanjay had personality disorder, thus lacked company in the society- as he only associated with criminals. Therefore, the realization that Sanjay was a drug trafficker for long, and that he associated with the most-wanted Indian criminals surprised many- creating stress on his side for his future in the film industry.

Conclusion

To summarize, the Mumbai Bomb blasts is the most-destructive bomb explosion in the Indian history. The Bombay blast claimed 257 lives and left 713 people highly injured. Emotionally, the whole country was in a mess- leaving politicians and Sanjay’s millions of fans surprised. The cause of the Bombay blast was revenge for past Bombay riots in which many Indians were killed. Psychologically, the Mumbai case and Sanjay’s behavior analysis helped explain his role in the 1993 blasts. Sanjay illegally kept weaponry; this exonerated him for involvement in the blasts conspiracy. The film actor maintained an excellent relationship with India’s most-wanted criminals and con-conspirators of the Bombay blast. Loved by many, Sanjay’s behavior is seen to be influenced by the social friends whom he interacted with- to a person who helps gangsters in perpetrating crime. In reference to psychoanalysis theory, the behavior of Sanjay was influenced by his childhood experiences, the environment in which he stayed and interacted with colleagues in the film sector.

References

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