Friday, March 29, 2024

News Destination For The Global Indian Community

News Destination For The Global Indian Community

INDIA
LifeMag
Listen without prejudice

Listen without prejudice

Non-violent movements are more successful than violent ones. But for that we need to discipline ourselves as Gandhi did during his satyagraha

There is always a way to get your point of view across. And students in this country have shown how that can be done, the art of democratic persuasion in a non-violent manner at a time of State suppression. Students of IIM Bengaluru resorted to a unique way of protesting against the exclusionary implications of the new citizenship law despite the Section 144 restrictions and the not so veiled threats that their placements and academic records could be tarnished if they participated in agitations. So very peacefully, each student came out of the institution’s gates one by one, laid down a blank placard and placed a pair of shoes next to it. The police didn’t have to call in reinforcements except look over the rows and rows of unwritten message boards and shoes. In another part of the city, protesters sat in twos at a time in a relay race format, honouring the restrictions that not more than four persons could assemble at a given place at a given time.

In Delhi, protesters handed over roses to the cops and kept it peaceful, reading the Constitution, performing skits and songs and symbolising their angst at the rabid identity politics in the country by choosing fluidity in “what they wore”, Hindu girls covering their heads with the abaya and young boys going shirtless to show off their janeus. Not out of a need to shed the majoritarian guilt of persecution by the powers that be but to show that a Hindu-only narrative didn’t need to be advertised, wasn’t insecure but was lived as the real spirit of India. Perhaps in a long, long time in the nation’s history, are we seeing a spontaneous outpouring of what everyday people think the idea of India should be and not one that is being force-fed for political expediency. One where identity should be about holding your own in a post-globalised world and not about macho wish-fulfilment at home. That benign majoritarianism has been our civilisational pride, a rule of reason, and not about bullying and chomping at minorities. That we don’t need to be reminded how blessed we are as Hindus or that existence by birth means nothing if our actions are judged and recorded wrongly. That we have never been unitary, binary even, but multi-disciplinary. That’s a heritage stronger than timelines.

The blank posters spoke a thousand words at a time of India’s worst clampdown on democratic rights in decades, possibly after the Emergency. One where simple dissent is being projected as a nihilistic conspiracy and brutal detentions are being used to discourage it. But history is not about competitive whataboutery, something that our political parties forget depending on which side of power they are on. What was unsaid in the posters — at a time when anyone, even the media, can be booked for incendiary propagation of ideas — is that an unheard voice can still hang in the air to countervail the brute force of the establishment. It is a ghost on our conscience. The shoes were about registering presence by being absent. Silence couldn’t have been louder and “non-protest” couldn’t be more felt. It was also a telling picture of the reductionist idea of citizenship that we are being forced to subscribe to. What many are not getting is that nobody is being anti-Hindu or not feeling for persecuted Hindus anywhere in the world. But the younger generation, whom we have imparted legacy lessons well, are showing us that you don’t need to demonise others to make you feel good. Can anybody deny that the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) implies a religion-based code of acceptance in this country, no matter how many Hindus we save worldwide? Can anybody guarantee that the compilation of the National Register of Citizens (NRC) will be free of bias at a time when profiling is being ingrained in our daily lives viscerally, that the need to prove ourselves again means our existing antecedents are not worthy enough, that Muslims who don’t make it past NRC on grounds of refugee ancestry cannot fall back on CAA as Hindus can? Or that Hindu inlanders left out erroneously (no logistical human mapping is zero error) will not resent the easier norms for later immigrants?  Can anybody deny the need for civil debate, discussion and resolution of these issues rather than treating every question as evil that shouldn’t be heard, spoken or seen? Finally, can anybody disagree that the NRC is the proverbial last straw on the camel’s back, that the countrywide civil protests are but an outpouring of deep emotions of distrust in and disgust at resetting the nation’s proven architecture? That anger can be volcanic and secular?

Perhaps, as Indians we forget that the world’s most successful protest movements were born of Mahatma Gandhi’s philosophy of non-violence or Ahimsa, one that continues to inspire generations of young people everywhere, even rock bands like U2. One that lies at the core of civil movements in Egypt and Tunisia. One that gave us our freedom and will continue to guide us whenever that is threatened. That civil disobedience, manifested by Gandhi’s salt march against a colonial tax and boycotting British goods, generated a swell of unrest that got our precious midnight hour a little closer. In their book, Why Civil Resistance Works, Erica Chenoweth and Maria J. Stephan analysed over 300 violent and non-violent major political campaigns in the last decade and found that non-violent campaigns had been twice as effective than the violent ones: They succeeded 53 per cent compared to 25 per cent for an armed resistance. They assessed that a democracy initiated by a non-violent movement was less likely to fall back into civil war. In the 2011 Arab Spring, several countries had anti-Government protests. Yet non-violent street demonstrations in Tunisia, that led to the overthrow of the President and eventually democratisation, had a more lasting effect. They also found out that only 3.5 per cent of the population was enough to effect a leadership change.

Of course, the researchers also noted how these campaigns succeeded because the protests were not just one-off but sustained over time with discipline and dedication through a choreographed sequence of events. This then is the next challenge of the civil society movement that has come out on the streets, continuity and a community to sustain it. How long, how much, how many? Crucially, how latent, how overt? Critics usually do not have much faith in such movements, especially those led by students, saying they fizzle out because at some point ennui is bound to step in, be it as career pursuits for students, the seeming pointlessness of fighting the stubbornness of status quo, and the individualistic human desire to get on with life as usual. The problem is disruption may be a clutter-breaker but routine has a way of sedimenting itself after an upheaval. So measured and workable action plans with regularity matter more than one news-breaking moment.

The researchers have shown how countries with sustained non-violent campaigns were about 10 times likelier to transition to democracies within a five-year period. And though they may appear to “fail” in the short-term, the non-violent civil movements basically sow the seed and nudge moderate elements even within a rigid structure to move in from the edges.

We need a critical mass and have just begun. As the latest round of protests has shown, the commitment of a younger generation did succeed to pull out a passive majority, even the elderly, on cold winter evenings. That is dawn of a new sensibility that one needs to get real than make a social media post.

While the establishment may be the direct enemy, little do we realise that elitism is the bigger one. This is dominated by business and economic interests, who fear any kind of disruption, and the media. The last is particularly to blame because it has stunted itself to a lapdog than being a pillar of democracy, has become a propagandist than a purveyor of justice. Then there are challenges of sustaining the movement with different innovation strategies than just mass assemblage. The students had enough ammunition to dramatise their message but repetitive patterns and ideas can get boring, so non-compliance will require newer gestures of inclusivity in the social space. It would be worthwhile, in our case, to turn this unrest into a larger coalescence of crusades against all issues that bother us most, most notably the economic slide.

But the biggest challenge of all is not to fall into the trap of counter-violence, chaos, especially those orchestrated by the establishment itself as a diversionary tactic. This means we are stupidly signing up for what the order of the day wants us to do, living up to its stereotypes. Nobody understood this better than Gandhi who insisted on disciplined action as the only way of intensifying outrage against injustice and awakening moral conscience. This, he felt, had a bigger appeal among critics, opponents and civil society, who would ultimately be the counter-balance. Gandhi’s salt satyagraha was the biggest example of how this stung and thoroughly confused the imperial Government. The history of non-violent protests began here not without reason. Only if we value it enough as relevant today. As Joan Baez once said, non-violence is nothing but “organised love.” Of the humanist kind.

(Writer: Rinku Ghosh; Courtesy: The Pioneer)

Listen without prejudice

Listen without prejudice

Non-violent movements are more successful than violent ones. But for that we need to discipline ourselves as Gandhi did during his satyagraha

There is always a way to get your point of view across. And students in this country have shown how that can be done, the art of democratic persuasion in a non-violent manner at a time of State suppression. Students of IIM Bengaluru resorted to a unique way of protesting against the exclusionary implications of the new citizenship law despite the Section 144 restrictions and the not so veiled threats that their placements and academic records could be tarnished if they participated in agitations. So very peacefully, each student came out of the institution’s gates one by one, laid down a blank placard and placed a pair of shoes next to it. The police didn’t have to call in reinforcements except look over the rows and rows of unwritten message boards and shoes. In another part of the city, protesters sat in twos at a time in a relay race format, honouring the restrictions that not more than four persons could assemble at a given place at a given time.

In Delhi, protesters handed over roses to the cops and kept it peaceful, reading the Constitution, performing skits and songs and symbolising their angst at the rabid identity politics in the country by choosing fluidity in “what they wore”, Hindu girls covering their heads with the abaya and young boys going shirtless to show off their janeus. Not out of a need to shed the majoritarian guilt of persecution by the powers that be but to show that a Hindu-only narrative didn’t need to be advertised, wasn’t insecure but was lived as the real spirit of India. Perhaps in a long, long time in the nation’s history, are we seeing a spontaneous outpouring of what everyday people think the idea of India should be and not one that is being force-fed for political expediency. One where identity should be about holding your own in a post-globalised world and not about macho wish-fulfilment at home. That benign majoritarianism has been our civilisational pride, a rule of reason, and not about bullying and chomping at minorities. That we don’t need to be reminded how blessed we are as Hindus or that existence by birth means nothing if our actions are judged and recorded wrongly. That we have never been unitary, binary even, but multi-disciplinary. That’s a heritage stronger than timelines.

The blank posters spoke a thousand words at a time of India’s worst clampdown on democratic rights in decades, possibly after the Emergency. One where simple dissent is being projected as a nihilistic conspiracy and brutal detentions are being used to discourage it. But history is not about competitive whataboutery, something that our political parties forget depending on which side of power they are on. What was unsaid in the posters — at a time when anyone, even the media, can be booked for incendiary propagation of ideas — is that an unheard voice can still hang in the air to countervail the brute force of the establishment. It is a ghost on our conscience. The shoes were about registering presence by being absent. Silence couldn’t have been louder and “non-protest” couldn’t be more felt. It was also a telling picture of the reductionist idea of citizenship that we are being forced to subscribe to. What many are not getting is that nobody is being anti-Hindu or not feeling for persecuted Hindus anywhere in the world. But the younger generation, whom we have imparted legacy lessons well, are showing us that you don’t need to demonise others to make you feel good. Can anybody deny that the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) implies a religion-based code of acceptance in this country, no matter how many Hindus we save worldwide? Can anybody guarantee that the compilation of the National Register of Citizens (NRC) will be free of bias at a time when profiling is being ingrained in our daily lives viscerally, that the need to prove ourselves again means our existing antecedents are not worthy enough, that Muslims who don’t make it past NRC on grounds of refugee ancestry cannot fall back on CAA as Hindus can? Or that Hindu inlanders left out erroneously (no logistical human mapping is zero error) will not resent the easier norms for later immigrants?  Can anybody deny the need for civil debate, discussion and resolution of these issues rather than treating every question as evil that shouldn’t be heard, spoken or seen? Finally, can anybody disagree that the NRC is the proverbial last straw on the camel’s back, that the countrywide civil protests are but an outpouring of deep emotions of distrust in and disgust at resetting the nation’s proven architecture? That anger can be volcanic and secular?

Perhaps, as Indians we forget that the world’s most successful protest movements were born of Mahatma Gandhi’s philosophy of non-violence or Ahimsa, one that continues to inspire generations of young people everywhere, even rock bands like U2. One that lies at the core of civil movements in Egypt and Tunisia. One that gave us our freedom and will continue to guide us whenever that is threatened. That civil disobedience, manifested by Gandhi’s salt march against a colonial tax and boycotting British goods, generated a swell of unrest that got our precious midnight hour a little closer. In their book, Why Civil Resistance Works, Erica Chenoweth and Maria J. Stephan analysed over 300 violent and non-violent major political campaigns in the last decade and found that non-violent campaigns had been twice as effective than the violent ones: They succeeded 53 per cent compared to 25 per cent for an armed resistance. They assessed that a democracy initiated by a non-violent movement was less likely to fall back into civil war. In the 2011 Arab Spring, several countries had anti-Government protests. Yet non-violent street demonstrations in Tunisia, that led to the overthrow of the President and eventually democratisation, had a more lasting effect. They also found out that only 3.5 per cent of the population was enough to effect a leadership change.

Of course, the researchers also noted how these campaigns succeeded because the protests were not just one-off but sustained over time with discipline and dedication through a choreographed sequence of events. This then is the next challenge of the civil society movement that has come out on the streets, continuity and a community to sustain it. How long, how much, how many? Crucially, how latent, how overt? Critics usually do not have much faith in such movements, especially those led by students, saying they fizzle out because at some point ennui is bound to step in, be it as career pursuits for students, the seeming pointlessness of fighting the stubbornness of status quo, and the individualistic human desire to get on with life as usual. The problem is disruption may be a clutter-breaker but routine has a way of sedimenting itself after an upheaval. So measured and workable action plans with regularity matter more than one news-breaking moment.

The researchers have shown how countries with sustained non-violent campaigns were about 10 times likelier to transition to democracies within a five-year period. And though they may appear to “fail” in the short-term, the non-violent civil movements basically sow the seed and nudge moderate elements even within a rigid structure to move in from the edges.

We need a critical mass and have just begun. As the latest round of protests has shown, the commitment of a younger generation did succeed to pull out a passive majority, even the elderly, on cold winter evenings. That is dawn of a new sensibility that one needs to get real than make a social media post.

While the establishment may be the direct enemy, little do we realise that elitism is the bigger one. This is dominated by business and economic interests, who fear any kind of disruption, and the media. The last is particularly to blame because it has stunted itself to a lapdog than being a pillar of democracy, has become a propagandist than a purveyor of justice. Then there are challenges of sustaining the movement with different innovation strategies than just mass assemblage. The students had enough ammunition to dramatise their message but repetitive patterns and ideas can get boring, so non-compliance will require newer gestures of inclusivity in the social space. It would be worthwhile, in our case, to turn this unrest into a larger coalescence of crusades against all issues that bother us most, most notably the economic slide.

But the biggest challenge of all is not to fall into the trap of counter-violence, chaos, especially those orchestrated by the establishment itself as a diversionary tactic. This means we are stupidly signing up for what the order of the day wants us to do, living up to its stereotypes. Nobody understood this better than Gandhi who insisted on disciplined action as the only way of intensifying outrage against injustice and awakening moral conscience. This, he felt, had a bigger appeal among critics, opponents and civil society, who would ultimately be the counter-balance. Gandhi’s salt satyagraha was the biggest example of how this stung and thoroughly confused the imperial Government. The history of non-violent protests began here not without reason. Only if we value it enough as relevant today. As Joan Baez once said, non-violence is nothing but “organised love.” Of the humanist kind.

(Writer: Rinku Ghosh; Courtesy: The Pioneer)

Leave a comment

Comments (0)

Opinion Express TV

Shapoorji Pallonji

SUNGROW

GOVNEXT INDIA FOUNDATION

CAMBIUM NETWORKS TECHNOLOGY

Opinion Express Magazine