Terminologies of Servant and Slave

Terminologies of Servant and Slave

 Bon Ami Laishram

Servant and slave are the professions that are nearly similar in job descriptions and job specifications. These can be differentiated clearly with the terminologies but there are some platforms where the common terminology meant both professions.

Both the professions are meant to serve a person who is referred as master or the masses. The lineage of serving master or one another has been carried out since the primitive age and its still continuing. Service is noble cause and servant is a noble profession and servant is the symbol of loyally and trustworthy which are the primary traits that every individual needs. Service is always incomplete without the composition of loyalty and trustworthy. These two traits are the traits which every employer is expecting from their employees who are providing services to them.

Servants are respected in the society and compensated with remuneration for their services by their employers. They are also paid additional amount as bonus and incentives as per their qualities of their work done. They are free, they are bestowed with the same fundamental rights by the constitution in India and other democratic nations. There is no difference between them and their employers other than the wealth, social status and so on. They have to work under the supervision of their employers in the working hours under the specific job description and they are free to do whatever after the working hours lawfully. They brought up their family with the remuneration they receive in exchange with the services they rendered.

Slaves also render services but they aren’t paid remuneration . They are paid with foods , water, clothes and shelters. Slaves don’t have any identity or social status in the society. Their existence is negligible to the core society. They are owned by their employers and their employers have right to use them in the way they wish without any restriction and this is quite inhuman in nature. Slaves can’t take a step without the wish of the master. Their lives are controlled by their master. They can’t take vacation, they can’t eat things of their choices, they can’t effort to wear clothes of their choices, they can’t work their own progress other than working for the benefits of their masters. These are terrible and hostile pictures openly in the United States of America until President Abraham Lincoln abolished the slavery system in the USA. Slavery system was practiced in other nations as well. However , the nations had abolished the dreaded system one after another.

Now , trade and commerce have grown till the extent. These sectors require manpower to operate. Employees are hired to look after the operation at different levels. One of the primary purpose of trade and commerce is to interchange the resources between two economies for money. For instance, India imports petroleum products from the Middle East because India don’t have sufficient petroleum resource and India exports precious stones, gems etc to other nations which lack these resources. And this is the how the economy of the nation works. If export is more than import in a nation , then it creates trade surplus and if import surpasses export , then its trade deficit. If import and export are at the same level , then its balance of trade in the economy. People are the consumers and they are dependent on each other for the needs in exchange for a legal tender. They fulfill their needs with trade and business at different levels. This requires implementations and these are implemented by the employees and labour who are paid remuneration for their services. Hence, economy is a cycle and none has interdependent existence in a participative economy.

At the local market, the retail sellers and buyers meet. And in perfect competition or monopolistic competition , the customers are treated as king.The customer can be richer or poorer than the seller but while selling the product or service , the seller has to pay all the honors and hospitalities to the buyer.

Dependence on an economy for the resources which we can’t produce abundantly doesn’t come under the slab of slavery because we are paying for the products or services to the party. We have the status of king to them. Other party uses the money they received for paying another party for the resources which they lack. Its cyclical like water cycle. Interdependence was possible in primitive age or pre historic period.

I started up with the descriptions of servant and slave respectively and went down to linkage of manpower with the operation of trade between the economies. And finally ended up mixing trade, service, slavery , economy. Its because I want to convey specifically that dependence in economy is not the act of slavery. This claim of terming dependence in economy or falling in trade deficit within the economy as the state of slavery was made by a former lady civil servant at Imphal who was said to be an officer in the Manipur Police Service  in a very barbaric, unconscionable, disrespectful, impolite manner from a public gathering. These mindsets are those who speak more and think less. They preached the cause which they don’t practice. This is not courage , this is barbaric act. There is nothing to be highlighted and applaud for such false barbaric dialogue.