Left or Right-which is right?

 

The 13^th of August which just passed is a special day for the left-handed people. Like many minority communities facing discrimination and prejudice, left-handers (who constitute about 10% of world population according to some estimates) have an international association and celebrate Left-handers’ day on 13^th August. There are different theories accounting for apparent human preference for being right-handed. One theory concerns evolution of neurological division of labour in the brain with left and right hemispheres controlling different activities. Some studies have reported that 90 % of babies in their mothers’ womb sucked their right thumb. Whatever may be the genesis, an overwhelming majority of humankind has been historically right-handed. Through tradition and convention, the right hand came to be regarded as more natural and important and left-handedness was looked upon as un-natural and therefore an object of prejudice and discrimination. Most religions, legends, superstitions have anti-left-hand prejudices. In practically all cultures left hand was considered impure and assigned lowly functions such as cleaning while the right hand is used for worship, giving blessings, eating etc. The Devil is supposed to be left-handed and itching of left palm is considered an ill omen while right palm itch signifies good luck. The bias extends to language also. Right is “correct” and the word “sinister” is derived from original Latin which meant “left-handed” or “left sided”. A “left-handed complement” is anything but a compliment and having “two-left feet” is synonymous with being clumsy. Left side also has a negative or inferior association. This prejudice against left handedness has certainly decreased over the ages  but still continues to exist even in these modern times, notwithstanding absence of any scientific basis in support of “un-natural” nature of left-handedness. A naturally left-handed child even today often faces derision in school from classmates and at home is discouraged to use left hand despite adverse psychological effect such forced conformance can have on the child’s development. Apart from prejudice, left-handed face many practical disadvantages. Many gadgets of common and general use like scissors, can openers, vegetable peelers, pencil sharpeners, door latches, furniture like chairs with writing pads, desks with drawers etc, sinks and water taps, are designed for ease of operation by the right-handed. The computer mouse too was initially designed for the right-handed but now made configurable for use by the left hand. In general awareness about difficulties faced by left-handers and appreciation of their special needs has increased at least partly due to sustained campaigns by International and many national left-handers organizations, (There  is an Indian organization of left-handers too, headquartered in Pune). For instance, scissors and vegetable peelers specially designed for the left handed are available for sale at on-line sources like Amazon. Left-handed people constitute world's largest minority and they will continue to pursue their efforts to live honourably and comfortably in a world of right-handers. 

Digressing a little from the topic of left-handers (but sticking to the left-right binary), have you ever wondered why some countries have “left of the road” traffic rule while others follow “right of the road” law? While in India, Britain, some former British colonial countries and a few others like Japan, left-side laws are prevalent, majority of the countries of the world have “right of the road”. This fact is apparently not directly related to the world population being predominantly right-handed. An explanation was offered by the famous Prof. Northcote Parkinson (of “Parkinson's Laws”).  In an article titled “Left is Right” the author asserts that the “Left of the road” traffic rule was once prevalent in almost all the countries in the world. There is clear evidence that in ancient periods, horsemen and horse-driven carts rode on the left side of the road. Parkinson explains why “Left of the road” traffic law evolved naturally. It is an interesting and quite logical theory. In those early periods of struggle for survival and constant strife, personal combat was the main mode of warfare and main focus of attack in personal combat was to injure the enemy in the most vital part of the body viz the heart, while the thrust of self-defence was to save one’s own heart from injury. Given the biological fact that the heart is on the left side of the body, it was most natural and convenient to implement self-defence with a shield held in the left hand and the attacking weapon- the sword (or wooden stick or a rod in earlier periods)- on the right hand. Wielding the weapon in the dominant right hand was equally natural. (Here preponderance of right-handed population has some bearing). A traveller on the road riding a horse found it safer and advantageous to keep to the left of the road, as the most vulnerable part of the body is away from any adversary coming from the opposite direction and the hand holding the sword is on the right side ready for defence. A natural corollary of this arrangement of sword in right hand was to locate the scabbard on the left flank of the body near the waist so that the sword can be quickly extracted with a free and easy arc of motion with the right hand. With the scabbard attached on the left flank, it was natural and convenient to mount the horse from the right side of the rider (and the left side of the horse), as to do so from the other side would be clumsy. Thus a rider mounted and dismounted his horse from its left side and it was appropriate that the horse is “parked’ on the left side of the road so that the rider is at the leftmost side of the road during mounting/dismounting and is not a hindrance to or face the hazard of the traffic on the road. Thus, from the time humans started employing animals for transportation, left-of-the-road was the natural rule of traffic, which was followed for ages by convention, and formalized and legalised only later. Later after civilisation progressed, the need to keep to the left of the road from combat point of view became irrelevant but the rule continued. The reason for majority of nations shifting from left side to right-side traffic rule is not very clear. Prof. Parkinson believes that it was the French, with their penchant for doing the exact opposite of what the English do, changed the rule during Napoleonic time and the right-side rule gradually came into force in most of Europe, one important reason being to avoid confusion during border crossings. The same rule was established in Canada, a French colony then and later United States too adopted the same rule as that of their neighbour. Most of the colonies of the European powers followed their rulers and that is why both left (in erstwhile British colonies) and right-side rules are in existence in the world today. Another major factor that emerged in modern times because of the road rule was the position of the driver in four-wheeler automobiles. In the initial automobile models the steering wheel was centrally located. However soon the models came with off-centre steering position due to certain advantages that off-centring afforded. For left-side traffic rule, the right-hand drive is more appropriate since this affords the driver a better view and judgement of the traffic in the opposite direction. We thus have both left-hand drive and right-hand-drive vehicles, predominant respectively in right side and left side ruled regions. It would be logical to have a common rule (which would be “right-of-the road” if one goes by majority criteria) particularly in view of ever-increasing international travel. While it was relatively easy to switch over at a time when there was very limited number of vehicles on the road, it would be rather chaotic and immensely expensive to do so today.