In May 2018 in an interview for In Plainspeak I had said, “These are murky times we live in where misogyny and casteism live cheek-by-jowl with communalism, homophobia and transphobia, where toxic capitalism tries to sell us unreal dreams in the name of development. Where the privileged feel victimised by the marginalised. I’m dumbfounded at the depth of anger and hatred being whipped up about the ‘other’.” Being asked, I reflect on some of the big shifts that have occurred between then and now. I feel that 2018 seems like a lifetime ago! In between, we had a microscopic virus upturn lives across the globe. Medical, physical, mental, pyscho-social, emotional, economic, political – the tiny creature brought the world down to its knees. In India, the lockdown resulted in reverse migration of the very people who move the engines of this country – migrants. As the pandemic raged on, they were forced to criss-cross the nation back to their villages in search of a “safe” haven. It was a damning indictment of vapid state policy.
As we limped our way out of the pandemic, humans turned to war as a strategy to grab and keep power. Ukraine, Palestine, to name a few places that are being targeted, their people made to starve, their lands devastated, with an untold number of deaths. Big powerful nations flex their muscles and their leaders, with the flick of a pen, cut back on critical work being done globally, and cut down lives of children, women and communities.
In the meanwhile, conflicts rock many states in India, while the media stays silent on the destruction that continues to go on there. How can we continue to move ahead without taking these struggles into consideration?
Rightful demands for citizenship were followed by clampdowns from the state. Students, teachers, professionals from various fields were locked away on charges that fall apart as the courts examine each case in slow motion. Lives have been put on hold, some lost, as the state’s machinery grinds on. In the meanwhile, marriage equality – we are told – is “right” only for cis-het people who follow the “norms” of marriage (based of course, on caste, class, religion, and other such essential considerations). No hope as yet from our courts for those who aim to create their own families based on equality, respect and love.
So here we are, seven years later, still standing up against misogyny, patriarchy, communalism, ableism, casteism, discrimination against queer and trans people … the list goes on. In the words of the French critic, Jean-Baptiste Alphonse Karr, “Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose” (the more things change, the more they remain the same).
As people from various movements hunker down and continue to challenge Brahminical patriarchy, more issues are being forced out into the open. People from anti-caste movements are raise their voices against violence and inequalities in all spaces, within homes, in movement spaces and at workplaces. When caste fuses with other forms of oppression, the reclaiming of rights becomes an imperative. Queer and trans rights activists file petitions in courts for marriage equality, while doing crucial work of support on the ground – socio-political, economic and medical. There are funding crunches, as global policies dictate who lives and who dies, and in what conditions. As a woman dalit feminist leader recently said, yes, there are clampdowns, and funding freezes, but that has not stopped people from resisting. In her words, “How can we stop, when our very lives depend on raising our voices?”
These voices speak in different languages, some that are “recognised”, and others not. In India, “Hindi is the new black”, so to speak, and all states across the country are being forced to speak, read and write in it. There is a deliberate de-recognition of the myriad other languages and dialects we flow with, in this country. We need to question the politics of language that is being played here. Why is one single tongue being promoted as the “national” language, when we have more than 20 scheduled languages under the Constitution of India? Is this a deliberate attempt to silence people from diverse communities, across this vast nation of ours? Language itself is being plugged as a resource, to be shared with those who share similar politics, or if not, at least to move them along in that direction. And people who speak, think, love and live differently are targeted as “the other”. There is no place for their cultures.
But activists are turning all this on its head. They are making podcasts; creating and singing songs; developing material (text, audio, video); doing theatre; taking over social media spaces; conducting research studies; challenging each other; speaking the language of the Constitution! While “activating”, they reach out to each other in solidarity, for support, aid, and also, to be creative and have fun together! And that is something that brutal political leaders across the world, just cannot fathom! Who can have fun in times like this?
These are the different tools that communities are working with. One the one hand, new tools are being created; on the other, one continues to use old ones. One hears expressions of resistance in online and offline spaces; both are critical to drive this beautiful nation that we all so fiercely love. Using the lens of democratic rights, human rights and Constitutional values, rights that we have inherited from our forebears who fought for them, decades, and sometimes, even centuries ago. So yes, some old, even ancient tools, and others, brand new, to go with the choppy times that we live in. But in the end, when have times not been turbulent? Toxic masculinity will always try to grab power, but there will always be communities that resist and challenge it.
I go back to my favourite space, of mountains, rivers, forests, oceans and birds. They change, they move, they morph and transform. Sometimes they rage, at other times, they are at peace. There is a lot to learn from them. Socio-political-cultural transformation will happen. If mountains can move and transform themselves, who says we can’t bring about peaceful transformation in our lives?
Cover image by Hendrik Cornelissen on Unsplash
