Changing Ideas of Justice

Irecently read an interesting article about “restorative justice,” which was practised in South Africa to ensure justice for victims of apartheid. The article highlighted how instrumental restorative justice was in healing and giving peace to a largely racially segregated and thereby aggrieved population. This piece brought back memories of my classmate Rachel (name changed).

Rachel was the first person I was introduced to on the first day of my Spanish class. A high school student, she was born and brought up in Minnesota in the United States (US). She was spending a year in India with her maternal grandparents and wanted to continue her Spanish lessons while in India. She was very friendly and would greet everybody with a warm “hallo,” but her eyes were always sombre. Unable to guess the reasons for her yearning, I came to believe that maybe she longed to return to her life in the US.