Whether you like it not, we are living in a right-handed world. Although our hands are strikingly similar, it is strange that some people choose one hand over the other as the instrument of their will.
The other hand remains as an assistant or an understudy. In schools, universities and work places right-handed people outnumber the lefties. This has been happening over the millennia. The strangest phenomenon is that lefties who belong to a small minority of humankind insist that they should use their left hands.
In the good old days a left-handed child was admitted to a school with much trepidation. The right-handed students were rather curious to know how a lefty could write or draw. Sometimes such a child had to be provided with a special desk and chair. However, a lefty soon learned the art of throwing a ball with his left hand and adjusting himself to a right-handed world by doing various activities backward.
During the first half of the 20th century there was much prejudice against left handers, especially in North America, Latin America and Europe. During penmanship classes they usually received a ruler across their knuckles. As there were no religious obstacles to overcome, anti-lefty sentiments declined over the years.
Percentage
With the dramatic increase in left-handers, people began to understand that lefties are quite normal. According to a British study, the number of left-handers increased four-fold during the past 100 years. As a result, about 13 percent men and 11 percent women are left-handers today. About one hundred years ago the number of left-handers remained just three percent.
With the rapid increase of left-handers right-handers began to adopt a softer attitude towards them. However, it did not happen in Asian countries as in the West. It was mainly due to long-standing social taboos and prejudices against left-handers. One redeeming factor was that the number of left-handed people in Asian countries was less than those in North America, Latin America and Europe. So far there is no scientific reason why it happened so.
In certain countries people thought that left-handed people were suffering from a mental illness. Some parents tried to prevent their children being left-handers by tying a wooden rod to their left arms and forced them to use their right hands. Most children, however, did not like the treatment they received from their parents. In fact, they hated being alienated from others in the family.
Right-minded world
With all the advancement in science and education, lefthanders still face difficulties when they begin to live in a right-minded world. They soon find that most of the ordinary devices such as desks, band instruments, lockers, microscopes and pencil sharpeners are made for right-handed people. I remember a teacher warning a left-handed child that he would never succeed in life if he did not use his right hand. However, after completing his studies successfully, the child became a medical specialist. Many left-handed boys and girls have tried to use their right hands but they never succeeded.
The plight of left-handers in some parts of India is deplorable. My visits to rural homes confirmed that there was much resistance to left-handedness. Even beggars were not willing to accept donations offered with someone’s left hand. Women who are about to get married are warned against the use of their left hands. They were forced to use their right hands for cooking and serving food. Those who did not heed such warnings were punished severely. Even in Korea it was considered rude to offer money with your left hand. The situation in Sri Lanka is not much different. One day a bhikkhu refused to accept food offered by a woman with her left hand.
There was discrimination against lefties even in the English language. In American English a left-handed compliment is a statement that seems to express admiration or praise but at the same time insulting. For many centuries the English word ‘left’ connoted craziness or dubiousness. The original meaning of ‘left’ in Old English is ‘weak.’ The left-handed side was regarded as the weaker side of the body. The French word for the left is ‘gauche’ which means clumsy or inappropriate. Even in Japan a business demotion is ‘sasen’ which literally means ‘moved to the left.’ The Korean word ‘jawcheon’ carries the same dual meaning. In India, brides who are considered bad looking are called ‘daavi’ meaning second rate or left. They may appear to be trifling but language can betray man’s deepest superstitions and prejudices despite religious teachings.
Anti-left bias
Some religions are full of anti-left bias. You are supposed to use your left hand for cleaning yourself after using the toilet. Meals should be taken or handed over using your right hand. The left hand is there to assist you when necessary. Buddhist and Hindu pilgrims should walk round shrines clockwise so that their right hands are closest to the sacred object. In certain religions the right hand symbolises salvation and the left hand equates with damnation. In Judaism the evil serpent in the Garden of Eden is named ‘Sammael’ meaning ‘left.’ The Bible says when God returns to earth “He shall separate them one from another as a shepherd divideth his sheep from his goats. He shall set the sheep on his right hand but the goats on the left.”
Today the old taboos and ideas are fast disappearing. In modern Japan left-handedness is no longer a cause for social ostracism. South Korea has provided left-handed desks to classrooms. In most developed countries parents and teachers accept left-handedness as normal. Even industrialists are producing left-handed scissors, corkscrews and pencil-sharpeners. This is welcome news to lefties all over the world.
Although science has not found the real cause of left-handedness, scientists view it as another natural phenomenon. They advise parents and teachers not to force children to use their right hands. Today it is a welcome sight to see lefties rendering their services as normal people. Still they have to use door knobs, cameras, fishing reels and guns produced for right-handed people.
