What is the meaning of a republic? Is it a selectively amnesiac entity where bull dozers run over and flatten the lives and dignity and pets and homes and belongings of the poor while builders advertise gated communities protected from the “noise and the pollution” of the big metros for the benefit of those they shamelessly call “the privileged few?” Whose republic do we live in? Who is the public in this republic? Who are the people our nationhood and its identity was supposed to be made by, of, for?
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What endangers the idea of our democracy? A 65-year-old genial writer touring the country with a film that celebrates his country of birth and who has been turned away shamelessly from an event in Kolkata or politicians who throw abuses and blows at each other in the Parliament, tot guns in public, slap public servants, encourage genocide and religious demarcation thinking THAT is their big ticket to success in national politics? Who are the custodians of the so called culture that we are so afraid to lose? Uneducated politicians who think women deserve to be raped if they acquire too much independence, malfunctioning law enforcers who swoop upon demolition victims to shoo them off footpaths, beat women in police stations and occasionally rape them, refuse to file FIRs or an actor and a film maker whose film hangs by a thread because he seems to have offended a few religious sentiments?
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A few days ago, a forgotten chunk of land at Bangalore was reclaimed by the real estate juggernaut and hundreds of people evicted forcibly. This was done in the unblinking gaze of the law. The media in the city has more or less distanced itself from the extent of the human tragedy unfolding on the footpaths where families are stuck because they have nowhere else to go. Occasional press photographers come and ask volunteers or victims to pose and the story would have died a quiet death like a million others if a few volunteers had not decided to intervene and help those who have been abandoned by their state, law and order and the idea of a just and fair republic.
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A Facebook page was started by some volunteers (Relief for Ejipura Demolition Victims) and the updates offer a keyhole glimpse into the hopelessness and misery of people who are like you and me but were born poor and have no say in what happens to them. An old woman with an injured leg that is getting worse by the day, another who died in the cold, beloved pets crushed to death and some surviving the trauma being fostered or fed by animal lovers, people who need food, water, kids and babies who need milk, pregnant women who need medical attention, the need for paper plates, woollens, enough money to move on or find a new home.
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One administrator of the page wrote for those tuned in, “Some things we would like to clarify: we are not an NGO, we are not full-time activists, we are not a disaster relief team, we are not R&R specialists, we are students, IT professionals, writers, teachers, lawyers and scientists between their teens and early 40s, we are only human and we are few. We have been spread thin over the last 10 days, just trying to ensure the basic necessities. We need backup on the ground and people to take responsibility, not just likes and shares on Facebook and financial contributions (though all of the above are also much appreciated. We need coverage and support to get the administration to do its duty. Most importantly, we need those responsible for their present condition to provide shelter for these people and help them get back to their jobs, their schools, their lives.”
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Is anyone reading these updates, especially those who can step in, intervene and ensure that the the evicted families find a place to go to, a life to call their own? Today, a volunteer reported that a few cops had arrived at the site and could try to remove the victims from the footpaths as well! Where do we want the poor in India to go as we build gated communities, sky scrappers, malls and IT villages? Where do we want them to disappear while we live in this bubble of illusion that cannot be touched by street children, homeless people because we are not them?
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Ejipura and its people are not important and their story is not interesting enough to write about in the media. How many stories will the media write about the poor and the disenfranchised? There are so many of them. But yes, the moment a celebrity says something contentious, the media will milk it, trend it, wring it dry till no one remembers what was said in the first place! A website carried an ill-informed article on what Shah Rukh Khan said in a recent article using words like, ‘King of Victimhood: Shah Rukh Khan bites the hand that fed him!’ The story was followed by an avalanche of hate steeped comments that ironically authenticate what Khan said in the first place. That his religion is often cited by politicians and certain sections as an excuse to test his patriotism . What is so wrong in this statement? And should an innocuous remark have caused a Sagarika Ghosh to hold a meaningless debate about, “Is Shah Rukh Khan justified in being victimised?” She even went as far as to ask an incensed and appalled Farooque Sheikh something to the effect of, “Do all Muslims feel they would feel safer in Pakistan?”
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Is our media stone deaf and mindlessly oblivious to real, grass root issues to ask utterly insensitive questions like this? Like Farooque Sheikh said, “the victimhood question should be asked to every Indian..every one of us wants our space, a slice of the pie. Be it the poor, women or children and all the marginalised majorities and minorities!” And that really is the question we need to ask, isn’t it? Are we living in a country which treats everyone equally? Does everyone have the same rights and privileges? Are some people safer than the others? Is the country growing and progressing in all directions or only a few? And if there is inequality, financial, social, regional or any other kind..what are we going to do about it?
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Are we going to be living in a fascist state in the near future where religion based riots will be manufactured by the states not occasionally but routinely? Where fundamentalists of every religion will stop artists, film makers and authors from creating anything radical? Where women will be targetted not just by the rabid stray voices but lopsided law and cultural propaganda? But are we not living already in such a state? Am I being a pessimist? Rushdie is an outcast in his motherland, Husain too was hounded out, Kamal Hassan is threatening self-exile as well. And like someone I know commented, when it comes to cultural fascism, the state and the fundamentalists of all religions are on the same side.
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Rahul Bose, one of the most fearlessly articulate actors I once interviewed had said during the promotions of Mr And Mrs Iyer, a wrenching film about religious identity, “Religion is the club the impoverished go to join when they have nothing else to belong to.” I would add that the club is created and maintained by powers who do not want the poor to focus on the fact that the root of their problem is bad governance and unequal distribution of resources. Who started the controversy over Vishwaroopam? Who stopped Rushdie from entering Kolkata? Someone lit the fire to attract the mobs. The same thing happens when self-styled nationalists throw out people from other states from Mumbai or shout slogans outside at a Muslim superstar’s home or pull up another superstar’s wife for speaking in Hindi and not Marathi at a function. Gestures like these keep people polarised and a divided nation is easier to govern. God forbid if we all woke up and decided to rally against corruption in one voice and threw out communal, divisive, corrupt ministers out of politics!
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God forbid if the disenfranchised decided to take back what belongs to them some day. In a time where the idea of a fair, just, humane, culturally vibrant nationhood seems distant, it is heartening to hear voices like Rahul Bose, Farooque Sheikh, Aishwarya and Dhanush and yes, Rajinikanth in favour of a fearless, sane, unpoliticised, undivided India. Like Dhanush said touchingly, “Vishwaroopam is just a film. Why are such big words being used?” pointing out in not so many words that controversies like these are fanned by the media as well.
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It is heartening to hear a Rahul Bose say that just as terrorism should not stop people from living their lives, cultural terrorism should not make a Kamal Haasan leave his country.
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It is heartening to see that when the government abdicates its responsibility towards the poor as in the case of Ejipura ( To know how you can help Ejipura victims, log on to https://www.facebook.com/EWSEjipura), young people take time out from their jobs and lives to comfort them, rally support for them and stand up for them.
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There is hope. As long as we don’t give in and don’t give up to the gathering darkness. As long as we realise that the little good we can do, even if it is just a drop in the ocean can one day turn the tide.
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Picture at Ejipura: Courtesy Jayaparakash Satyamurthy
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Reema Moudgil has been writing on art, theatre, cinema, music, gender issues, architecture and more in leading newspapers and magazines since 1994. Her first novel Perfect Eight ((http://www.flipkart.com/perfect-eight-9380032870/p/itmdf87fpkhszfkb?pid=9789380032870&_l=A0vO9n9FWsBsMJKAKw47rw–&_r=dyRavyz2qKxOF7Yuc )won her an award from the Public Relations Council of India in association with Bangalore University. She also edited Chicken Soup for Indian Woman’s Soul and runs unboxedwriters.com. She has exhibited her paintings in Bangalore and New York, taught media studies to post graduates and hosts a daily ghazal show Andaz-e-Bayan on Radio Falak (WorldSpace).