The concept of ‘motiveless malignity’ was coined by Samuel Taylor Coleridge as a description of Iago’s hatred for Othello in Shakespeare’s play Othello. It refers to acts of evil or malevolence carried out without apparent reason or justification. Attempts have been made by serious scholars to find coherent motives as to why Iago betrayed Othello’s trust but the consensus among them is that no explanation fully clears up the mystery. One of the reasons why Shakespeare above any other writer fascinates those who read his plays or watch them on the stage is that he probes the depths of the human mind often beyond others.

The fact is, as Shakespeare knew, that malignity need not have any ostensible cause. You take a dislike to someone on the basis of a canard or hearsay and proceed to run him down without ever trying to find out whether there is a grain of truth in what you have heard. You may never have set eyes on the man but that will make no difference to the intensity of your malignity.

Instances of this kind come to notice more frequently in poorer countries than in the busy West, but no country can claim immunity from what we can call the malignity syndrome. As social conditions deteriorate, the frequency of these cases also rises.

In Europe, ill feelings towards the Jews existed for centuries. In Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice, we see that Shylock is repeatedly subjected to mistreatment for no convincing reason. Shylock remembers the many times he had to put up with Antonio’s insults: “You call me misbeliever, cut-throat dog, and spit upon my Jewish gabardine.”

What seemed like plain malignity in the Elizabethan period turned into virulent animosity towards the Jews during the Second World War. Hitler, a fanatical racist, made it a specific, publicly stated goal to kill every Jew in the world. The Nazis constructed large extermination camps equipped with massive gas chambers for this purpose. In every territory that came under his control innocent men, women and children were rounded up and shipped off in cattle carts to be killed in those cambers.

Rudyard Kipling, the most remarkable Anglo-Indian writer of the colonial period, had unconcealed contempt for everything Indian. Particularly, the Bengalees were an ignoble crowd, a pest or a nuisance whom he seemed to detest wholeheartedly. He believed in the superiority of the white race and considered all non-white people as “the white man’s burden”. However, we know it full well that contempt is the last thing in the world calculated to lead to understanding.

Malignity can be at work in international relations. Most of us, who care for the image of the country, bitterly resent the infamous statement made by the former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger in 1972 describing the infant state of Bangladesh as ‘international basket case’ insinuating that the country was flat broke. But history has proven his view blatantly wrong. Today Bangladesh is one of the fastest-growing economies of the world.

Malignity again surfaced when James F. Moriarty, the former U.S. envoy to Bangladesh, referred to the then Communications Minister Syed Abul Hossain as a ‘less than honest’ man in a secret message to Washington which was later revealed by the WikiLeaks. The World Bank took the hint and withdrew itself from the Padma Bridge project on suspicion of possible corruption. However, Bangladesh has given a fitting reply by accomplishing the mammoth task all by herself.

There are times when unprovoked acts of violence and cruelty defy rational explanation. One such example is Roshu Kha, a serial killer from Chandpur district, who devoid of any clear motive, killed as many as eleven female garment workers in three years. How can you account for such cool-headed acts of murder? A hardened criminal, he had been able to hide all signs of his crime and dodge the police until he laid his hand on his last victim. Now he is waiting in prison to be sent to the gallows.

Indeed man is so various, so full of surprises that it is necessary for the sake of social harmony to be prepared for shocks. If you react too strongly to them life may well become impossible for you.

Not to speak of strangers, friends, colleagues and relatives including those you meet almost daily can exhibit turns of behavior that are meant to leave you breathless. You receive an award, acquire academic excellence, become a successful entrepreneur or rise to a higher position yet some people will find reasons to undermine your achievement. The world seems to be peopled by numberless Iagos with smooth exteriors which are a mask for unmitigated hatred. They cannot be won over as friends or converted to amity. There is something deep down in their nature that will not respond to goodness or gestures of kindness.   

Motiveless malignity is a sort of hydra-headed monster. If you cut some of the heads off, others will grow in their place and continue to trouble you as before. It is one of those afflictions that one must learn to live with.

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The writer is a teacher, Department of English, Shahjalal University of Science and Technology, Sylhet