Sitting by the window sill of her one-story house in a remote village in Srinagar district, Begum Jaan recalls that fateful morning when saw her husband Mania Tancha for the last time. She says with a sigh, “We were having nun-chai when army officers of 28 Rashtriya Rifles knocked heavily on the door and dragged Mania out of the house. That was the last I saw him. It has been more than a decade now; I have no clue about his whereabouts or whether he is dead or alive.”

Dilshada Sheikh used to live in a small dilapidated single-storey house in Sheikh Hamza colony on the outskirts of Srinagar. It was June 16, 1992, the fourth day of Eid-ul-Adha. Like any other day, her husband Bashir Ahmad Sheikh, a painter by profession, left to buy some paint from Maisuma and disappeared. On that same day, there had been an incident of firing in Lal Chowk and eye-witnesses claimed that her husband was picked up by the Border Security Force (BSF). Almost 24 years after her husband went missing, she breathed her last on March 31, 2016.

Zoona Begum lives in a village of Anantnag district. Her husband Mohammad Abdullah Dar was allegedly picked by the Indian forces on April 12, 1992, and she has been waiting for his return since then. Her voice breaks and tears roll down her cheeks when she says, “I have become old now, I am not sure if I can recognise him now. Every time I hear a knock, I ask my sons to see if it’s their father at the door.”

The story of these three women is very similar to the story of at least 2000-2500 women in the conflict-zone of Kashmir. They are known as ‘half-widows’, a term used for referring to women whose husbands are believed to have been either abducted by the Indian security forces or killed but there is no confirmation of what may have happened to them. Though the number of ‘disappeared’ as estimated by the state authorities is not more than 4000, other estimates put the number to be much higher, anywhere between 8000 and 10,000.

Kashmir is the world’s most militarised zone. Women have been the worst sufferers of the septuagenarian conflict. Be it as direct victims in the Kunan Poshpora rape case, Shopian rape case, in the recent case of 2016 wherein a school-going girl of Handwara was allegedly sexually assaulted by an army man or as indirect victims as in the case of half-widows who are subjected to a life of ambiguity and misery.

The pattern and the consequences of the disappearances are similar in most of the cases. It begins with a man’s alleged arrest, denial of acknowledgement of the arrest, unending searches in jails and army camps and a life of abject penury for the family members. ‘Denied’, a report published by Amnesty International has mentioned how in the 1990s the General Administration Department (GAD) sent an official notification to police stations directing them not to file any FIR against the army, thereby protecting the armed forces from judicial scrutiny and accountability. Even if an FIR is registered, it gets registered as a ‘missing’ or an ‘abduction’ case, thereby totally negating the possibility of state involvement.

This denial is the beginning of the life-long predicament of these half-widows. Begum Jaan says “Army men would often come to our house in a drunken state; I had to flee to my brother’s house in order to save my honour. They would often threaten me with dire consequences if I continued with the search of my husband. They even burnt all the documents I had.” Zoona’s son Pinto (name changed) adds, “Initially they acknowledged that our father was with them, and would say they would release him, but after a year, they were in complete denial. A few years back, I along with other members of Association of Parents of Disappeared Persons (APDP) went to a university in Delhi and when I came back, army men barged into our house and refused to have arrested Abba. They even tried to bribe me.”

Forced Into A Life Of Penury

After the disappearance, the responsibility of earning bread for the family is transferred to the women. They are pushed into public spaces which are dominated by men. Most of them are illiterate and hence need to resort to menial low-paying jobs like stitching and working as domestic workers. The families are pushed into a life of poverty, due to the disappearance of the breadwinner.

Begum Jaan says “When my husband was alive, we lived an ideal life. My children went to school. He would buy them sweets but after he disappeared, there were days when we didn’t even have a proper meal. I started working as a domestic help and earned hardly 150 rupees a day. My son too dropped out and works as a daily wager now. His father wanted to educate him but luck had something else in store for us.”

Pinto who is a shopkeeper now, says with a gloomy expression, “Our father had promised us he will buy us white fleet shoes. He wanted us to become doctors and engineers and would have enrolled us but before he could do that, they took him away. We wouldn’t be living in debt, had he been alive.”

Amongst the half-widows, 98% have a monthly income of less than ₹4000 and 65% of the half-widows live in houses with minimum amenities. The provision of relief by the state authorities is contingent on the proof of death obtained from district authorities and if provided, the family of the victim gets an ex-gratia relief of ₹1 lakh and employment is provided to one family member as compensation to the kin. The government scheme hasn’t been able to help the half-widows as much because to apply for the benefits, they have to wait for five years.

Unlike the widows who get 1/4th or 1/8th (if they have children) of their husband’s property under the Islamic law, a half-widow gets nothing till her husband is declared dead. All the assets are either sold to fund the search for the husband or to sustain the family. Zoona says “My elder brother would sell the land I’d inherited from my father, so as to feed our mouths. What other option did he have? Today all these Yateem Trusts collect money, but when my kids were orphaned, nobody was there but Allah.” Nasreen, a half-widow from Srinagar district, is still fighting with her in-laws for property rights for her children.

Psychological Impact

The desolate living conditions and emotional trauma of half-widows manifest into severe psychological and health issues. Most of the half-widows are suffering from depression, phobia, post-traumatic stress disorder, and emotional instability. Sadaqat Rehman, assistant professor in clinical psychology at Srinagar’s psychiatric hospital, says: “Many half-widows coming these days are hypersensitive and show signs of depression. We treat them with cognitive behavioural therapy.”

The disappearance of Dilshada’s husband not only took a heavy toll on her mental health but her youngest son Reyaz also developed severe mental health issues as he struggled to cope with the sudden disappearance of his father. Dilshada too developed diabetes, hypertension, and thyroid post her husband’s disappearance. Her monthly medical bills would often amount up to ₹3000 which at times became difficult for her sons to arrange. “Had I not found APDP, I would have died because of high sugar levels. It’s because of the medicines they (APDP) provide, I am alive.”

Issue Of Remarriage

Though the Islamic law encourages remarriages, there wasn’t a consensus between various sects on the issue of remarriage of half-widows. In 2013, Islamic scholars ruled that the half-widows can remarry after four years of waiting from the day of the disappearance.

Not many half-widows remarry though. Some fear the societal stigma while others are concerned about the fate of their children. When Dilshada had started considering remarriage as an option, she was worried about her children’s fate. Many people around her told her that she will understand the dire consequences of a remarriage when tries to get her kids married. Nasreen, a half-widow from Srinagar district, didn’t remarry because she had a girl child. She says, “My in-laws were willing to take the responsibility of my son Abid, but not Shahnaz. They had already lost their father, had I remarried Allah knows what all my daughter would’ve faced.”

The issue of remarriage has another aspect of ‘guilt’ attached to it as many half-widows feel guilty if they move on with their lives. The women also fear the exclusion from the social networks that they are a part of as the society is unwilling to accept their choice of remarriage. Many half-widows would change their attires when they would go for searching their husbands. Most of them donned ‘burkhas’ as they feared harassment from the army men and also because they wanted to retain their image of a ‘good’ woman. Nasreen says, “When you don’t have a man in your house, you need to be extra careful about how you dress or who you talk to, as you become more vulnerable to character assassinations.”

Role Of The Society

The societal role in the case of half-widows is limited to that of empathetic spectators. Only in a case of few half-widows, the society has come forward to help them financially but in most of the cases, the society’s role in helping the victims is minimal. Begum Jaan says “After the disappearance of my husband, the attitude of my neighbours towards me changed. None of them helped us financially. It was only some people from a nomadic community nearby who would guard my house and also provide my family with ration and clothes.”

The fear instilled by the disappearance also disallows many people from coming forward to help victims as they think they might become the next targets of the forces. Zoona says, “Nobody helped me. Even now, when someone like you comes to meet me, they think I get money or something. Little do they know that I am in a huge debt.”

Role Of Association Of Parents Of Disappeared Persons

The living conditions of these women are deplorable. Their faith in the Indian state apparatuses has totally disappeared. Dilshada said to me, “I’ll get insaaf for sure, if not here than in Allah’s court but I don’t know if I’ll be able to witness that.” APDP for them is no less than a messiah as the state has totally failed in addressing their grievances. APDP not only provides them with legal, financial, and material support but also helps them overcome the fear of the state. Pinto says, “Since the day, we joined APDP, I feel secure for now I know there are people who will raise their voices for us if army does anything to us.”

On the 10th of every month, they gather at the Pratap Park with placards that read, ‘Where are our beloved?’ to commemorate their struggle, and seek answers and justice from the State. Deep inside they know they will never see their husbands again but that ray of hope never dies. That last ray of hope keeps fuelling their strength to fight their daily battles. When I ask Nasreen, why is she still hopeful, she smiles and says, “Na-umeedi kufr hai.”(Hopelessness is a greater sin).

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Featured image source: Waseem Andrabi/Hindustan Times via Getty Images

Thumbnail image source: Muda Tariq

The post The Silent March Of The Half-Widows In Kashmir appeared first and originally on Youth Ki Awaaz and is a copyright of the same. Please do not republish.

When a group of illiterate working women in Ahmedabad failed to get loans from banks in the 1970s, they decided to open a bank of their own.

In 1972, battling many odds, these women had registered themselves into a trade union called SEWA (Self-Employed Women’s Association) with help from Ela Bhatt, an activist-lawyer. With Bhatt’s help again, they approached the RBI for getting their bank recognised, only to be rebuffed. “You must be joking,” they were told the story goes, “We can’t have a bunch of women who have never been to school running a bank.”

The women stayed up all night and learned how to sign with Bhatt’s help. The next day they had their license for a cooperative bank. What started with Rs. 40,000 share capital and 4,000 women has today 6 lakh depositors, 12 branches and a collective working capital of more than Rs. 300 crores. SEWA too has grown into a larger organisation for  self-employed women, providing services ranging from the bank to healthcare and childcare.

However, the problems that the members of SEWA faced in the 1970s have not gone away. Problems related to employment, healthcare, and bank-loans still persist and still affect women more than men. How do we solve those issues? Youth Ki Awaaz sat down with Mirai Chatterjee, the Director of Social Security at SEWA and a social worker who has worn many hats, to tell us exactly that. Excerpts:

Chandan Sarma (CS): The government runs a number of insurance, healthcare, and childcare programmes for workers, including unorganised workers. Why do we then need an organisation like SEWA?

Mirai Chatterjee (MC): That’s a good question. First of all, 45 years ago, when the SEWA story and movement began, there was no recognition of the unorganised sector. When we went to the labour department and we spoke of women who were biddi rollers or agarbatti workers, we were told they are not workers, that they are doing this to pass their time.

Fortunately, the government now recognises the economic importance of the informal economy, which accounts for more than 50% of India’s GDP, and if you include unpaid work and care-work of women, I am sure it will be 75%.

There are a couple of issues and that’s where SEWA comes in. Firstly, because we ourselves have experimented with different programs, be it crèches or healthcare, we have some tried and tested models. So we can join hands with the government, especially the labour department, and show what is workable and what is not.

The second point is voice and representation, which comes in membership-based organisations like SEWA. What happens is that though well-meaning, programmes are designed by the people far from the day-to-day reality of the poor and women. So if we sit together, it will have the proper flavour and approach.

Let me give you a couple of examples. One is childcare. Without childcare or daycare, women can’t go out to work. So we have been telling the government for long that if you want to do one thing to improve women’s income and women’s development and if you want to increase women’s workforce participation, then please organise full day childcare. ICDS might be a good start, but it is inadequate. There is no point in having a childcare centre for 3 to 4 hours if women work minimum 8-10 hours a day.

The next example which is especially relevant these days is insurance schemes. We have been telling the government that if you want to roll out large-scale insurance programmes, which we should, then please also have an education and awareness component built into your insurance programmes. The concept of insurance is not immediately obvious to workers in the unorganised sector. It is not even obvious to the middle class educated people.

The third important point is helping in the delivery and making these programmes reach women’s doorsteps. One of the biggest problems that we all know in India is that of implementation. Because we have organised women into their own membership-based organisations, these organisations can act as local facilitators between the government authorities and programmes and the people, particularly the poorest and most vulnerable.

The fourth reason is community-based monitoring, to try to reduce the gaps and also graft. It also builds local ownership, accountability and transparency.

Finally, the fifth one is that, from these workable experiences on the ground, we can try to make policy changes and legislative changes in favour of unorganised sector workers. And for all these reasons, SEWA and SEWA-type organisations are required.

CS: Women’s participation in the workforce in India has come down by 8 percent in the past two decades. Why is that? And how can we fix it?

MC: There are many reasons and there are many people who have different theories. One theory is that more women are out of the workforce because they are pursuing their education. But another article by the World Bank says that the main reason is that in large areas of the economy which employ women, like farming and agriculture, there are shrinking opportunities.

And wherever there are shrinking opportunities, in general, for the workforce, the first to suffer are women because men take whatever little work there is, and there are simply not enough opportunities for women. They want to work but they are not finding work that is commensurate with their skills, and from which they can make a living.

So there are many reasons. We would like to add another reason. There is no enabling or supportive environment for women. And I already mentioned that without childcare, to expect women to be in the workforce is impossible.

CS: So if we were to fix this problem, one of the investments would be in the form of childcare programmes?

MC: Absolutely. I think a couple of things have to be done. One is that you have to take a holistic view and look at all aspects of women’s lives — both paid and unpaid work that they do. Among the unpaid work, there is what we call the unpaid care work like childcare, elderly-care which pulls women out of the workforce. So there has to be that kind of supportive service.

The second is investing in the sectors of the economy where women are predominant or where women are more likely to be, like agriculture, forestry, service sector, healthcare sector, the self-employed sector like street vendors, home-based work.

So we will have to increase opportunities in these sectors, plus create this enabling environment and invest in making women more skillful, especially the younger women, who would like to work in the new areas of the economy like IT or hospitality. It has to be this kind of a comprehensive approach.

CS: Since Aadhaar was linked to social welfare a schemes, a number of reports have shown the problems it has created for people in the unorganised sector availing those benefits. What was the experience of the workers associated with SEWA with respect to Aadhaar?

MC: I think our experience has been that our members are very keen to have some kind of documentation. It is like a passport for them. So many of them have embraced Aadhaar and it opens doors for them.

Having said that, there are some of our members who are having difficulty accessing welfare benefits because they don’t have an Aadhaar card, because their cards are in their villages and they are migrants. Particularly, there are still issues of portability of welfare schemes for migrants.

Maybe Aadhaar can help, but right now there are still issues. But in general, we do feel that, as the Supreme Court says, we can go slowly to full connectivity, but no one should be excluded because of lack of documentation, because typically the poorest, the most vulnerable, like widows, single women, and migrants are the ones who suffer.

CS: The government is finally planning an insurance scheme for universal health coverage. What is your opinion on the proposed scheme?

MC: In general we welcome the move to cover a larger and larger section of the working population. We don’t know what this scheme is going to look like. There have not been many public consultations so far. We hope there will be some.

In fact, we had a national workshop for micro-insurance practitioners and we have made recommendations: what works and what does not work, what to look out for, what to absolutely do and what to avoid. We have made that report available to the government. So we are trying to be helpful.

The concern is that it should not lead to the fragmentation of the public health sector. What it means is that there should be a continuum between primary healthcare, secondary and tertiary care. Secondary and tertiary care will be taken care of by the new NHPS. But the kind of architecture should be that first people should go to the primary health centre, the enhanced primary health centre or wellness clinics as they are being called, and there is some amount of gatekeeping and screening there. Only then they go for secondary and tertiary care. Otherwise for every small problem people will run to the hospital.

Luckily, the government is also thinking seriously and has shown intent to invest in primary healthcare. We understand that while they are crafting this new NHPS, they are also thinking on how to deepen investment in comprehensive primary healthcare through these wellness clinics. So I think we would like to see the architecture. How will all these fit together — the different pieces of the puzzle? And I have heard from some people who are working on NHPS that it is still under discussion.

CS: Your inspiration for choosing an off-beat career track?

MC: I was always interested in the women’s movement. I was growing up in the late seventies and early eighties when women’s movement and various people’s movements were active.

I remember at the age of 16 joining a rally in my native Mumbai, when there was the issue of the Mathura rape case that actually galvanised the whole nation, much like Nirbhaya and the child victim in Kathua have galvanised the nation and saddened the nation right now.

Anyway, it brought a large number of women to the streets. I was young at that time, and inspired by that collective action, I was also interested in the labour movement. I heard about SEWA. I visited SEWA and Ela Behen inspired me by saying, “We need educated young women like you who are trained but who are ready to work shoulder to shoulder with their sisters.” That’s why I joined and stayed.

CS: Youth is Awaaz is a platform for social issues that reaches out to a lot of young Indians. What advice do you want to give to the young people of the country? How can they engage in issues to make a difference?

MC: Follow your heart. There is a lot young people can do. It is not necessary for everyone to become a social worker. Find your own area of interest and talent and see how you can contribute to society, because only if it is something you are passionate about will you be really able to contribute in any way to society and other people’s well-being.

I think I would also say that it is important in this day and age to have a strong education base and some relevant skills, so that we are useful to others, we can serve others better.

But overall I would say each of us has talent. Find what your hidden talent is. Then you can develop yourself in the service of others, as Gandhi ji told us to do long ago.

The author is a part of the Youth Ki Awaaz Writers’ Training Program.

Featured image credit: Pixabay

The post ‘Without Childcare, Women Can’t Be Expected To Join The Workforce’ appeared first and originally on Youth Ki Awaaz and is a copyright of the same. Please do not republish.

In last four years, Bihar has gone through a period of confusion and unstable political churning. After 2005, when Nitish Kumar first assumed power in state by allying with the BJP, Bihar was facing a period of backwardness.

But the same cannot be said now. His hunger for power has led to Bihar undergoing a social shift – from communal harmony and religious unity to the emergence of caste-based violence and communal riots. The image of “Susashan Babu” is under threat, as his compromising ability has seen a new low with his popularity dipping significantly ever since he broke away from the Grand Alliance with the RJD and the Congress. The overwhelming mandate against the BJP in the 2015 assembly election was crystal clear. But the backhanded manner in which Nitish has struck a deal with the BJP again is imposing a heavy price on people of Bihar.

Nitish’s past record of political dealings clearly indicates that he has often taken a soft stand against BJP’s communal facet, often in the name of a conditional alliance. Perhaps, this was why the BJP and Nitish stitched an alliance for more than nine odd years. The reason why he quit the NDA alliance in 2014 before the Lok Sabha election was because he found BJP under Modi to be significantly different from how the party was, during Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s time. In fact, Nitish’s stand on Modi is on record where he confesses to veteran journalist Sankarshan Thakur – “Is aadmi se compromise nahi ho sakta (There’s no possibility of reaching a compromise with such a person).”

Despite allegedly having deep personal differences with Modi, Nitish compromised incredibly – forgetting his love for socialist stalwarts like Jay Prakash Narayan and Ram Manohar Lohia. He buckled under BJP’s pressure. Consequently, he quit the Mahagathbandhan and re-aligned with an uncomfortable and dangerous political partner.

Subsequently, a few decisions and events in the state have led to an increase in the activities of anti-social, communal elements who want to polarise the electorate before the upcoming 2019 Lok Sabha election. Firstly, Nitish appointed the former SP of Bhagalpur, Krishna Swaroop Dwivedi, as the state’s DGP. Now, Dwivedi had previously been indicted for his partisan role in the infamous 1989 Bhagalpur riots, which saw more than 1,000 people (most of them Muslims) killed and numerous properties destroyed. In this context, it can be reasonably argued that Nitish acted on his bosses’ orders to appoint an allegedly religiously-biased, communal-minded officer.

Religious Unrest

Appointing an officer supposedly with a communal agenda was an undeclared soft stand on communal forces. Its impact was seen in the coming days when Arijit Shashwat, son of Ashwini Choubey (Union Minister of State for Health and Family Welfare and a senior leader of the BJP) was arrested, after being found guilty for communal clashes in Nathnagar, Bhagalpur district. He was not arrested despite a court warrant being issued against him. The ‘Dwivedi Effect’ was clearly visible in the reluctance and delay of the Bihar police in arresting Arijit.

Secondly, there seems to be a ‘do not act tough’ instruction to the administration against riot- instigators. One only needs to have a brief look at the timeline of communal clashes which took place in Bihar in March 2018 to understand this:

March 17 – Bhagalpur

March 24 – Siwan

March 25 – Aurangabad

March 27 – Samastipur and Munger

March 28 – Silao (Nalanda) and Sheikhpura

I don’t think these clashes were small, isolated incidents. Instead, I fear that something bigger was planned. A 7-member fact-finding team of journalists and social activists – comprised of Nadeem Khan (social activist), Prashant Tandon (journalist), Hasnul Banna (journalist), Tarique Anwar  (journalist), Sagrika Kissu (journalist), Mahtab Alam (social activist) and Farrah Shakeb (social activist) – have found that the violence had been planned on an ‘industrial’ scale. Around 2 lakh swords were reportedly purchased from an online portal. CDs and pen drives with abusive and highly objectionable songs were circulated also. The pattern of violence in all these riot-affected areas was quite similar. Based on the evidence, the team thought that it was clear that the violence had been well-planned and orchestrated by BJP leaders and Bajrang Dal activists.

The team met Amir Subhani, Principal Secretary (Home), Govt. of Bihar, who said that they were aware of the presence of a huge number of swords in the Ram Navami procession. He also said that brandishing weapons was a new phenomenon that had never been witnessed before.

Caste-Based Violence

In response to the nationwide bandh by Dalit organisations on April 2, 2018, representatives of different upper castes tried to retaliate by calling bandhs of their own. As a result, Bihar mostly witnessed hooliganism, vandalism and rampant violence by these fringe groups in Patna, Bhojpur, Muzaffarpur, Begusarai, Gaya, Chhapra, Nawada, Jehanabad, Sasaram, Sheikhpura, Vaishali, Purnea and other districts. Even a Union minister, Upendra Kushwaha, was assaulted. It’s as though the miscreants were given a free reign, only days before Modi’s visit to Champaran.

The Arithmetic Of Violence

The state seems to have turned into a battleground for confrontations – either between the Hindus and the Muslims, or between the upper and lower caste people and their organisations. The violence seems to have an underlying, 2-dimensional agenda. One of the agendas is to mindlessly attack and fan anti-reservation sentiments against the reservation policy of our nation. The second is to cash on the anger of upper-caste people against the people from the lower castes.

For example, during the 2015 Bihar assembly election campaign, RSS Chief Mohan Bhagwat questioned the existing reservation policy and called for its review. This, in my opinion, was an electoral stunt – mainly to instigate hate and fear in minds of the majority community against the minorities. Such a strategy may pave the way for communal forces to polarise the electorate on lines of caste and religion before the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.

A couple of years ago, in a conversation with The Quint, Sankarshan Thakur shared his views on how a political party like the BJP wins in a Muslim-majority area? He simply stated that they do so by consolidating the anti-Muslim vote.

The same template is being used to widen the gap between upper-caste and lower-caste people in Bihar, particularly by the BJP. The creation an anti-reservation environment is already underway. Provoking people through violent gestures is only a second means to further polarise the situation in the state.

Bihar has rarely witnessed such a horrifying series of events in recent times. Though the state is known for caste discrimination and violence, the successive occurrence of incidents of communal violence probably show that Nitish Kumar’s compromising ability with fascistic elements is increasing unimaginably. The previous ‘small incidents’ in different pockets of state have flared up and turned into riot-like situations. These are concerted efforts to create a communal divide in the state.

Yet, the government is doing nothing to prevent the situation from worsening even further. On the other hand, these incidents merely seem to be vigorous ‘red-carpet preparations’ by communal elements for the upcoming Lok Sabha election.

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Featured image source: AP Dube/Hindustan Times via Getty Images

The post The Polarisation Of Bihar Is A Well-Thought-Out Plan For The 2019 Election appeared first and originally on Youth Ki Awaaz and is a copyright of the same. Please do not republish.

More than 1.2 billion people in the world have little or no access to electricity and India is home to more than 300 million people who live in the dark and most of them are from rural areas. Electricity not just lights up homes but also brings many dreams with it and this is the reason why satisfying the minimum energy needs contributes the most to the Human Development Index (HDI).

What we did was very simple, but it has the potential to transform the lives of 60 people.

I, Hitesh Mahawar will take you on the journey of electrifying a village called Chalak situated in Markha valley of Ladakh at 13,500 feet surrounded by the Himalayas.

How It Started And The Role Of Social Media!

It all started in November 2017 when I was scrolling through Facebook and saw an article on “The Logical Indian” page. The article’s title was “This Team Treks Hundreds Of Km In Himalayas To Electrify Villages That Are Not Even On Google Maps”.  The headline itself captured my imagination. The article was very well articulated and explained the work which Global Himalayan Expedition (GHE: a social enterprise) was doing for the past four years.

GHE is on a mission to electrify all remote villages in Ladakh. As the name suggests, it organizes expeditions and invites applicants from all across the globe to participate and install solar grids on their own. It collects funds from the participants for the initial cost of the solar grid and future maintenance. After reading the article, the first thing I did was to browse the GHE website and register myself for the next expedition. I was selected after two rounds of screening and an interview. Then I saw some documentaries made by NDTV and Nat Geo on two different village electrification expeditions and got to know that most of the team members for those expeditions came from all parts of the world, belonged to a diverse age group and followed very different professions. Some were students, doctors, researchers, entrepreneurs and some employees of MNCs.

Crowdfunding For ₹1.4 Lakh

I was selected for the Chalak village electrification expedition on January 20, 2018, and the expedition was from March 17 to 26. I had to arrange around ₹1.4 lakh (expedition cost: ₹75,000 (with taxes), travel to and from Leh: ₹18,000 – 20,000, trekking gear: ₹20,000 – 25,000 and other accessories), and I had only one-and-a-half month to make it happen. I am a student and also not from a wealthy family, so I initially assumed that I would not able to make it, but then I got to know about crowdfunding. Thanks to GHE who shared examples of how people successfully managed to raise money for their expedition, I took the plunge and started off with my online crowdfunding campaign.

I started sharing my posts on social media. I used every possible medium to share this funding campaign, Facebook, Twitter, WhatsApp, Google+, and what not. I approached friends who I hadn’t spoken to in the last four years, I contacted professors, NGOs, and published posters and blogs on online forums. It was time-consuming, but fun at the same time. I contacted the department and hostel representatives at my Institute and requested to send a bulk mail to all the students at IIT Bombay.

My campaign started getting traction and my friends started donating and sharing the campaign further. I started receiving donations from many anonymous people and friends. The amount ranged from ₹100 to ₹20,000. I was amazed when one day an unknown person called me and asked about the campaign. They assured me a donation and after a couple of days, I got a mail that my campaign had received an amount of ₹20,000. It was unimaginable for me and moved me from within. In the whole fundraising process, people amazed me with their generosity and their belief in doing something good for the society. This incidence reinstated my faith in humanity and encouraged me to continue my quest with double the vigour because now I had the responsibility to fulfil the aspirations of the donors as well. My department, CTARA IIT Bombay, helped me in a very big way financially and encouraged me to complete the expedition successfully. The day before my journey to Leh, I was able to achieve 95% of my fundraising target. A thank you would not be enough for all the donors and supporters of this campaign and I salute all of them for the time and money they invested.

Starting The Journey To Leh-Ladakh

Booking tickets to Leh was a special experience since this was to be my first air travel. I reached on the morning of March 17 to a bright, sunny day and close to 0ºC.

As soon as I landed in Leh, I was advised by the team leader from GHE to not to exert too much, take full rest and drink a lot of water to acclimatize to the climate. I was now 11,000 feet above sea level and the per breath oxygen level was 40% less than normal. At the hotel, I met all my team members who came from various parts of the country and some from foreign countries. We were a team of 10, consisting six participants and four supporting members (team leader, guide, cameraperson, and electrician) from GHE.

Experiencing The Ladakhi Culture In Its Villages

On the second day, before reaching to our first destination village, we visited Pathar Sahib Gurudwara (a Sikh temple) run by the Indian Army. We prayed to Gurunanak Sahib Ji for successful electrification of the village, relished the Prasad and began the long but exciting journey. We reached a village called Tsogsty after a 2-hour road journey and had a Ladakhi lunch followed by some archery. We also visited the local copper artisans and stayed the night at the homestays in the village. Next day, in the morning I had my first experience with a dry toilet which was a challenge, especially in sub-zero temperature.

A breakfast of Khambhir (Ladakhi bread made of wheat) later, we then moved to reach our next destination – Skyu.

After a few hours’ drive from Tsogsty village, we reached the end of the road and crossed the Zanskar River by a cable trolley to start our trekking to the village Skyu, and reached in about three hours. While trekking, I was lost in the captivating and breath-taking views of nature and our rock-solid Himalayas.

The Incredible Team Members

On the third day, we were just one step away from our destination village, Chalak. By now, we’d listened to each other’s life stories and become like a small family. Avinash, Romi, Yash, Edward, Bella, Stanzin (GHE member and camera person), Gaganpreet (GHE member and team leader), Shakeer (GHE member and electrician). Each of them is unique in their own sense. We had an astronomer with a PhD, an entrepreneur, a consultant, a fashion designer, an engineer and a robot-enthusiast in our team.

I learned that one could be fit even at the age of 50 and trek for hours and beat the notion of getting old. I learned that your zeal to explore the world can bring you an opportunity to change the status quo and bring a positive change in the life of others. I learned that astronomy can be taught in a playful manner. I learned that having an open mind can take us to amazing places and change our way of thinking. I learned that a person from a small village can chase their dream and establish their own media company. I learned that a person from a weak financial background could become an engineer at Microsoft. Last but not least, I learned that a person without a formal degree can know more than an ‘educated’ person and age is not a barrier to learn anything and everything.

The Village We Were Waiting For

We started early and began our journey to reach Chalak on the fourth day. A six-hour trek finally brought us to our destination. The villagers welcomed us with a traditional ceremonial white Ladakhi silk scarf “Khatak (Khata)”. Located 13,500 feet above sea level, Chalak is surrounded by mountains, and a spring passing through the village is its only source of water.

The village has 11 households spread in three clusters. All houses are made up of soil, sand and local brick. Each household rears animals like sheep, cows, donkeys, and horses. The population of the village is around 60 and people work as guides or manual labour at Leh to earn money, with homestays helping them earn some more. Wheat and barley are the main crops which are cultivated once a year along with some vegetables.

We started our work with a household survey. Our team was divided into two and we visited every household to ask about the number of bulbs they would need and where they wanted to install them.

We were amazed to see that there were no children in the village. After some inquiry, we got to know that they had been sent to other villages that had electricity. I was sad to see that small kids had to live away from their home and family because of no access to electricity but I was also happy to know that they’d be coming home soon to find their village with electricity.

The Day Of Electrification And Celebration

It was the fifth day of our expedition and this day was special for all of us. The team was briefed about the installation process of the standalone solar grid. We had to install a 40W solar panel connected to a charge controller, a battery for storage and four to five 3W LED bulb as per the household survey. We started the wire and bulb fitting and panel installation. GHE electrician Shakker Acchu did all the connection from the panel to charge controller and battery. The bulb holder fitting process was a little difficult as the roofs of these households were old and made of wood. Dust accumulated from decades fell our face when we hammered a nail, but it was a fun experience and made us appreciate the village even more.

Now, the time had come to light up the village. The whole team gathered inside the first house of the village to be electrified after sunset. The owners of the house were old and this was the first time they would see a bulb electrifying their house. We started with the Ladakhi prayer and chanted a Lord Ganesha mantra for a successful and hassle-free electrification.

And then, the bulb was switched on and its light filled the whole room with joy and emotion. The woman owner of the house was in tears. Everybody present experienced a complex soup of emotions.

Sometimes, people like me, living in affluent regions of our country, take such things for granted and do not value the facilities provided to us. But when you interact with people who have been deprived of basic facilities and when you help facilitate them in expanding their ambition, you realise the potential of a single light bulb.

We electrified each household of the village one after another after which, the local residents organized a feast with some song and dance. We thanked them for their support and hospitality for the last couple of days. It had never felt like we were living in one of the harshest climatic conditions as we were always kept warm and given full care (more than required) by the residents whether it is providing good food or warm water in the chilly morning.

After all the celebration and dinner, we went back to our homestays. This was the most relaxing sleep I had during the expedition.

On the sixth day, we set out for the centuries-old Umlung Monastery, the highest point of our trek. It had been electrified a few years ago by the GHE. The final trek to reach the monastery was long and very steep, but after reaching the summit point, the view was enthralling and splendid. After spending some time at the monastery, we started our final journey home.

Learnings For Life

Now, when I look back and try to contemplate what I learned from this event in my life, I have many amazing answers. The most important learning for me was to challenge my assumptions and keep a strong willpower. It was my willpower that drove me to participate in this expedition and during the course of this whole episode, it broke many assumptions and notions which could have been a roadblock to my goal. I learned that if you have a strong belief in what you are doing and it is for the greater good for the society, no matter what, you will achieve your goal and surprise yourself with the abilities you have inside yourself.

The village got electricity and I got unforgettable experiences and learnings for a lifetime!

Acknowledgement: Thanks to all GHE members, Mr Paras Loomba, Mr Gaganpreet Singh, Mr Stanzin Gurmet, Mr Shakeer Husain, Mr Thenlis for organizing this expedition. Thanks to Mr Mrigank Gupta, CTARA IIT Bombay for editing the story.

A version of this post was first published on Medium. 

The post My Story Of Electrifying A Village In The Himalayas At 13,500 Feet appeared first and originally on Youth Ki Awaaz and is a copyright of the same. Please do not republish.

By Dr Abhay Bang:

Looking back at some 30 years of working in the social sector, I believe that the most important milestone in my journey was the point when I started recognising the importance of research in development.

As a freshly minted doctor in the late 1970s, I was so socially oriented that I did not take research seriously. When Rani (Dr Rani Bang) and I started working in the villages of Wardha district, in 1977, we had a lot of beautiful, innocent ideas: we thought we would help people in the villages, that people would change, and villages would change, too.

But we soon realised — after sincere attempts at bringing about change through medical care as well as through farmer and labour movements — that we could only achieve limited results through these approaches.  For example, although our work with landless agricultural labourers was aimed at organising them to demand a fair deal from the Employment Guarantee Scheme, we were unable to negotiate a substantial increase in their wages. That’s when I decided to investigate further into why this was so.

The Importance Of Research

When I inquired with the relevant government department, I found that the Minimum Wage Act had fixed the daily minimum wage for agricultural labourers at ₹4, a figure usually determined by the money required to meet a person’s daily calorific needs.  I was curious to know how the committee deciding the minimum wage had arrived at this figure.

Further investigation revealed that the committee had worked out this figure by assuming the average adult’s calorie requirement at 1800 calories. When I asked the committee chairman, VS Page, how he had calculated the 1800 calorie requirement, he replied that his diabetologist had advised him to restrict his diet to 1800 calories. In other words, the committee had committed a gross scientific blunder by applying a diabetic’s calorie requirement to that of a landless labourer who does hard physical labour for eight hours daily!

So, I looked at the Indian Council of Medical Research calorie recommendation, which was 3,900 and 3,000 calories, respectively, for men and women who do hard labour. I collected all this data, identified around 20 errors—some on the economics side, others on the social side — in the committee’s report, and then calculated the minimum wage required. It worked out to ₹12.

Within a year of the research getting published, and publicised by media and labour unions, the Maharashtra government raised the minimum wage to ₹12. This benefited 6 million labourers in the state — many, many times more than what we could have hoped to achieve if we had not adopted a research-based approach to the problem.

That’s when I realised that the power of research is greater than the power of seva and sangharsh. The results are always several times more than the effort. Knowledge-based, evidence-based arguments have a greater impact. That is why I would encourage more and more people in the social sector to adopt ‘thinking action’ rather than just action.

Research, For Whom?

In 1986, soon after we moved to Gadchiroli, Rani and I learnt another important aspect of using research and data to address social problems. Back then we used to give some time to the district hospital, where we once came across a 10-year-old girl whose symptoms led the medical officer to believe that she had heart disease. I suspected that she had sickle cell disease, a disease that had not been reported from that district until then. Tests established that she did indeed suffer from sickle cell disease.

We at SEARCH then organised a district sample survey — people came forward to give us a drop of blood for the survey — which revealed that there were nearly 6,000 sickle cell patients in the district, and nearly 100,000 had the sickle cell gene. We presented this finding to the health minister, who praised our work and announced that the government would set up a tribal medical research centre in Gadchiroli. Eventually, though, the centre was set up in Pune (where there are no tribals) because researchers and doctors did not want to come to Gadchiroli.

Disappointed, we approached the tribal leaders in the villages and requested them to put some pressure on the government to bring the centre to Gadchiroli. Their response took us unawares: “Doctor, this is your disease, not ours,” they said. “Did we ever tell you that we need help for this?” they gave us a drop of blood for the survey out of respect for us, but they would do no more; they were neither worried about the sickle-cell disease nor did they want to do anything about it.

We were faced with a crisis following that experience: we had done so much work, earned recognition, but solved nobody’s problem. It made me ask myself: if people did not need the research, why did I do it? And I realised that I was actually gratifying my own intellectual curiosity. In hindsight, I have the courage to say that we practically used people as guinea pigs.

That’s when I realised that, unfortunately, researchers often do research not for the community, but for their own peers. If you are an educated person working in places like this, even as you work with the people, your target audience — knowingly or unknowingly — is still your peers. Subconsciously, you are thinking, “What will I publish? What will I present at the conference? What would other nonprofits or doctors like to hear?”

Therefore, your stay here and your interaction with people merely become means to collect data as you try to write something or do something that your peers will appreciate. This attitude often misleads us.

Following the sickle cell disease experience, Rani and I took a formal decision in 1988 that we would not do any research that did not address the needs of the people. Ever since this approach has become almost a religion at SEARCH — it is a fundamental value choice for us that what we are doing here must address the people’s need and not our need.

Putting People At The Heart Of Research

Just as the formal medical process is to ask a patient, “What is troubling you?” to understand their history, at SEARCH our process of trying to form a diagnosis on a community starts by asking the community, “What are your health problems and needs?” Partly because of our medical training and research background, we have unknowingly, but successfully, applied this approach in the social sector also.

Every time we set out to do something new, we always ask ourselves: “Do the people of Gadchiroli need this?” Then we organise formal processes to get to know what people need. For example, we hold an annual tribal health assembly for representatives from various tribal villages in Gadchiroli to hear from them what their health problems and needs are. This has helped us understand health priorities from the communities themselves rather than depend on the distant external sources. The next step is to verify what people said by way of hard research data.

The Importance Of Doing Research ‘With’ The People

There are essentially three ways in which to conduct research:

1) Research on the people: What we did with the sickle cell disease study is an example of this. Yes, you take informed consent from the people, but these are just precautionary measures; there is no power in the hands of the patients. You get data on the people, but the intellectual property, as well as the power to interpret and publish, is with you, for you.

2) Research for the people: This is better than the first approach. The research seeks to understand a genuine problem faced by the people and to solve it, but neither do they really understand what you are doing nor do they have a say or role in it.

3) Research with the people: This approach shares power with the people. When people provide you with questions, or questions emerge through your observations and dialogue with the people, you involve people in collecting the data, report your finding to them and then develop a solution that involves people. It enables them, it serves them.

Our home-based newborn care (HBNC) solution to address the issue of high newborn and infant mortality in Gadchiroli is an example of this approach. Knowledge was simplified and given in the hands of the village worker. And they proved that we can reduce newborn and infant mortality without having a trained paediatrician in the community.

Twenty years since we completed the HBNC trial in 1998, the programme still continues because the people had a need, and we empowered them to address that need. I would like to call it research with the people, in which people are our partners in the process. While our contribution is more intellectual in nature, their contribution is different, but no less important — they are offering their lives, their newborns and they are learning to provide the care. Their interest is that they want their newborns to receive care. They don’t care how much the IMR has decreased. When we put up a board in the village saying there have been no newborn deaths in a year, they know that their contribution to the partnership has paid off.

Most of the research at SEARCH is for the people and with the people. This culture of research for problem-solving can be powerful, but only if you follow certain ethics and ask the people. Ultimately you should ensure that the solution is transferred to the hands of the people.

My dream is to get to a point where we see research by the people. When people are able to think like researchers, they will ask questions and inquire more. People already ask why and how to solve it, but they don’t use advanced scientific methods to solve these problems. But I foresee a time when ordinary people will also think in terms of research – and that will lead to research by the people. And when research by people happens, imagine the power of problem-solving in India.

About the author: Dr Abhay Bang (MD, MPH, D. Sc (Hon), D. Lit (Hon.) is a physician, an internationally recognised public health expert, and the founder director of SEARCH. For the past 30 years, he and his wife, Dr Rani Bang, have lived and worked in the tribal district of Gadchiroli in Maharashtra.

This article was originally published in India Development Review. You can view it here.

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My father and I have a joint account with Bank of Baroda, Vishwas Nagar, Delhi. This joint account was opened solely with the purpose of funding my education and living expenses in London, as I’m a Masters student at the London School of Economics and Political Science. I use an international debit card from the same bank. The bank would put money in it based on my requirements, and I would withdraw it here in London using my international card.  On March 7th, I requested my accommodation fees and a semester’s tuition fees to be disbursed from the bank into my account, so that I could proceed to pay the same. Around March 15th, the said money was put into my account. However, due to a thoroughly busy week at university, I couldn’t submit my fees and decided to wait until I had the time.

I received a call from my parents on March 23rd, 2018 while on my way to University. They noticed that withdrawals had been happening very frequently and had no reasons to assume that it wasn’t me who was doing them, as I had a fee payment deadline coming up. On 23rd, they just called me to check if I was finally done submitting my fees, as they had gotten multiple texts regarding transactions (I use a UK sim card. Hence I cannot receive these messages). I told them that I had only withdrawn small amounts of money here and there, and the rest was in my account. They checked again and further, called the bank to double check. We got to know that starting 15th March to 23rd March, an amount of over 7 lakhs, fifty thousand had been withdrawn from my account. The card was in my custody all throughout, and I hadn’t made any transactions other than small transactions amounting to INR four to five thousand. Clearly, this was a case of fraudulent transactions. It is important to note that these transactions began immediately after the money was credited into my savings account by the bank. More importantly, the time difference between transactions was barely 3-4 seconds, which is humanly impossible as the ATM takes at least 2-3 minutes to get ready for the next transaction.

My parents reported the case to the bank and got my card blocked immediately. Naturally, we expected the bank to help us out in tracking these transactions and investigate thoroughly to ensure that the money is credited to my account immediately. Further, the aforementioned details prove that the transactions were fraudulent. But to our surprise, the bank’s first response to my parents was that “your daughter must’ve mistakenly given card details to someone” and “someone must’ve taken a photograph of her card” and “your daughter must’ve shared her pin with her friends.”

Here’s what the bank kept forgetting, the daughter in question is a 21-year-old educated woman, pursuing her Master’s thousands of kilometres away from home. The daughter lives alone, manages her daily chores alone, and works part-time so as to contribute whatever little she can to lift the financial burden of international education off her parents’ chest. Most importantly, that the daughter is aware enough to know that card details aren’t meant to be shared with “friends”.

The bank was requested to track where these transactions have happened and it was found that they have happened in London. Here’s where the bank got an opportunity to shift the burden of responsibility on to the UK police. We were told that it was ENTIRELY the responsibility of UKP to investigate this issue and BOB can do nothing in this regard and that the bank could only do something once the police prove that it is, indeed, a fraudulent activity. Clearly, the “valuable” customers’ pleas and complaints weren’t proof enough.

I had already reported the activity to UK police on March 23rd itself, and the very first question asked to me was: Has your Indian bank initiated your refund procedure? They further warned me that since the international card belongs to an Indian bank, the burden of proof, refund and investigation lies with them. BOB refused to provide any help other than providing us with the insurance amount which is around 2 lakhs. This essentially means that we were supposed to forget the leftover amount of over 5 lakhs. Further, my parents were requested to “prove” that the transactions hadn’t been done by me.

At this point, I will take a minute here to shed light on some important RBI guidelines that pertain to clauses No.9 & 12, RBI Circular No.RBI/2017-18/15DBRNo.Leg.BC.78/09.07.005/2017-18 dated 06/07/17.

9. “On being notified by the customer, the bank shall credit (shadow reversal) the amount involved in the unauthorised electronic transaction to the customer’s account within 10 working days from the date of such notification by the customer (without waiting for settlement of insurance claim, if any). Banks may also at their discretion decide to waive off any customer liability in case of unauthorised electronic banking transactions even in cases of customer negligence. The credit shall be value dated to be as of the date of the unauthorised transaction.”

Burden of Proof

12. The burden of proving customer liability in case of unauthorised electronic banking transactions shall lie on the bank

During this entire event, my parents who reside in Gurgaon, have had to travel to Bank of Baroda, Vishwas Nagar multiple times. They have had to visit multiple police stations because the police too weren’t willing to take this case based on the location of the crime (London). After days of efforts, they were finally able to lodge a complaint with Farash Bazar police station, Delhi. The police sent a notice to the Bank demanding that the bank investigate the issue and arranges relevant evidence so as to take this case further. After not having received any response from Bank of Baroda even after reporting the incident to the police, my parents had to resort to legal procedures, and a legal notice is now being sent to the bank. I’ve received messages on Twitter from Bank of Baroda, requesting my patience in this case. But that’s all. I was asked for my contact details, but haven’t received any calls yet.

I’m not in a position to be “patient” anymore. To be honest, I would be patient if I KNEW that the bank is doing ALL it takes to ensure the welfare of its customers. My parents have had to go through days of mental and physical stress, and not to forget, had to further lose a lot of time and money due to regular travelling between cities (Gurgaon to North Delhi), visiting police stations and seeking legal help. Personally, for me, as a Masters student who has enough engagements, I have had to deal with the stress of the sad possibility of having to leave my Masters midway and the guilt of losing a humongous amount of money that my parents arranged after incessant efforts. All of this, just because I, unfortunately, fell prey to a fraudulent activity that I’m not even remotely responsible for? The amount that we’re being expected of let go of is a significant amount that was meant to fund a part of my education. Moreover, even if the amount of money lost was much smaller, why are we, as customers expected to accept this as our fate, when there are redressal procedures in place?

The post My Bank’s Lack Of Interest In Customer Welfare Cost Me ₹7.5 Lakh appeared first and originally on Youth Ki Awaaz and is a copyright of the same. Please do not republish.

Enekoiye Kenekoi Kotau

(How do I thrive, thus and thus)

Dedicated to the women who were raped by Indian Army at Ghumtigaon and Tegheria, by slain ULFA leader Kobironjon Phukon.

Oh my mother dear beloved!
On your bosom let me build
my poem’s edifice, my spry poem of war.
Have I, here, written your life’s struggle;
the soil and its toil – a poem.

Poems, I script here, only for you
at the break of noon, in the midnight dread,
my tortured youth of dismal days.
Shame is the name of a sun, give
me the dark, I need no light.

Enekoiye Kenekoiye Kotau Uretu Jibon? (Through my life, how do I thrive, thus and thus?)

Oh, my dear bosom friends!
On her chest let us keep our greens, our grains,
the enemies had what of my beloved’s defiled,
my land’s chastity.

The midday sun to my kernel’s core – poetry.

Translated from Assamese by Arunabh Debendranath Konwar

The recent killings of two ULFA (United Liberation Front of Assam) combatants and one Assam Police at Kujupathar, close to the Arunachal Pradesh border brings us back to the memory of insurgency and its post effects. During the popular chai addas as well as in Facebook posts, I try to figure out the reasons behind the romance towards ULFA even though there are some dominant comments which criticise ULFA and their activities that indirectly helps the state. The memory of insurgency is thus not a single memory of a person but it is inscribed in our past and present as a public metaphor.

I met Raabi during my college days who wrote poems against ULFA  and was very vocal against the insurgency of the ’90s in Assam. Raabi as a close junior of mine, later described the story of her father and uncle’s death when her mother was pregnant with her. The narratives her childhood carries always blamed ULFA as the killer of her father. She says, “I have never seen my father, but I can feel him as a bold person against the innocent killings in my locality because of which he lost his life.”

While preparing the narikol ladoo (coconut sweet) during the preparation for Bihu, her mother expressed that people used to write about the families who belong to the ULFA combatant. “But no one is there who can draw my sorrow and struggle during a time of insecurity as a single mother.” The narratives of Raabi and her mother justify how their personal life becomes a public interpretation after the death of her father. “The most difficult task for me is saying goodbye to maa while returning to Guwahati,” Raabi says. The 26 years of Raabi’s mother’s Nisangata (loneliness) show me another dimension of memory which linked to the demand of ‘Swadhin Axom’ (independent Assam) by ULFA.

“‘Swadhin Axom’ becomes a myth for my family,” Suranjana says. I met her during a conference when we shared a room in the girls’ hostel at Dibrugarh University. Suranjana carries the memory of her maternal uncle who was a ULFA combatant. “Mama, (uncle) never came back, he disappears just like wind, a wind of an untitled forest,” she says. “But not only Mama, I have also seen many of the young boys during my childhood whose dead bodies came back to the village. My village carries lots of unfinished love stories which are still a memory of many elder sisters.” Suranjana, who calls herself a leftist and frequently criticises Assamese nationalism in social media, blamed the ULFA movement as a source of utopia which gave birth to a frustrated younger generation in the state.

During my MPhil fieldwork, I accidentally visited a designated camp (though my MPhil work did not cover this area but my field sites include the camp geographically) of ex-ULFA combatants near Lakowa, Sivasagar where I encountered the widows, the single mothers, the pregnant wives of the combatants who sat together watching a serial on Star Plus in the dining hall. The guy who inspired me to visit the camp asked the women if they wanted to go back to their previous life. It was an obvious answer from the women when they talked about how they became depressed by staying there without any productive work. One of them replied,“Only reproduction is not the ultimate dream of a woman. When I declared my decision in front of my family that I wanted to join ULFA, my mother was so happy!” Her mother packed her bag with a gamusa and sadar mekhela (Traditional Assamese attire) and said, “Mur suali dekhar babe jujiboloi haju hoise’ (my daughter is ready to fight for her land).”

The younger generation belonging to the remote areas in the state have many such memories which become contested in later political phases. The common element of these memories is revisiting and re-interpreting the discourse of gender as a source of multiple narratives. These narratives, however politically ignored, are personally audacious. The different documentation of the struggle for ‘Swadhin Axom’ by ULFA is thus not only about the combatants who belonged to the organisation. It is also about the other memories which are still alive through gendered spaces and realities. The discourse of the patriarchal definition of ‘Swadhin Axom’ is indeed consistently criticised by the younger generation from the perspective of gender.

Featured image: By Saibal Das/The India Today Group/Getty Images

The post From Personal To Political: Memories Of Insurgency Among The Youth In Assam appeared first and originally on Youth Ki Awaaz and is a copyright of the same. Please do not republish.

Earlier this month, Aligarh BJP MP Satish Gautam wrote a letter to the Vice Chancellor of Aligarh Muslim University questioning why a portrait of Muhammad Ali Jinnah hung on the walls of the university. Following his demand to remove the portrait, members of the Hindu Yuva Vahini stormed through the campus with weapons, branded the students as traitors and incited violence.

In the media outburst that followed, prime-time shows on news channels conducted heated debates on the issue. ‘Experts’ were invited to decide, once again, to play ‘Who’s the anti-national’. In this frenzy, the voices of the students were drowned completely.

So, a team from Youth Ki Awaaz decided to travel to Aligarh and talk to the students. This is what they had to say about Jinnah, his portrait on campus, and the Hindu Yuva Vahini’s hooliganism.

The post What The Media Didn’t Tell You About Protests At AMU Over Jinnah’s Portrait appeared first and originally on Youth Ki Awaaz and is a copyright of the same. Please do not republish.

बचपन से ही मुझे किताबें पढ़ने का शौक है। लेकिन मेरे भारी भरकम स्कूली बस्ते ने कभी मुझे कोर्स की किताबों के अलावा दूसरी किताबें पढ़ने की अनुमति नहीं दी। अव्वल आने की इस दौड़ में इन किताबों ने मुझे ऐसा जकड़ा कि मैं दूसरी किसी किताब को पढ़ने के खयाल को ही व्यर्थ समझने लगी। जो लोग दूसरी किताबें पढ़ते उन्हें देखकर लगता जैसे वे टाइम पास कर रहे हैं क्यूंकि उनके पास मेरी तरह अव्वल आने की इच्छा, हिम्मत और क्षमता नहीं है। इसी दौड़ में भागते-भागते मैं भी इस एकतरफा और संकुचित सोच वाले समाज की एक सिमटी हुई और तथाकथित “सभ्य” लड़की बनने लगी थी।

एक सीमित सोच और पूर्वाग्रह से ग्रसित इस समाज के हर नियम कायदे पर अमल करना मुझे अपना नैतिक कर्तव्य लगने लगा था। मुझे अपने आप पर गर्व होता था जब मैं अपने आप को इस समाज द्वारा लड़कियों के लिए बनाए गए नियम-कायदे-कानूनों वाले खांचे में ‘फिट’ पाती थी। खुलकर बराबरी से जीने और बड़े सपने देखने की इच्छा तो थी पर हिम्मत नहीं थी। अपने सपनों और अपनी क्षमताओं पर से विश्वास कम होने लगा और इसी के चलते मैं बहुत कम बोलने लगी थी।

अपने बचे-खुचे सपनों को लोगों द्वारा सभ्यता, संस्कृति और नैतिकता के नाम पर खारिज होते देख अपने आप को कम आंकने लगी थी। मैं देखती थी कि कैसे लड़कियां खुद अपने पैरों पर खड़े होकर आत्मनिर्भरता और आत्मविश्वास से अपनी ज़िंदगी जीती हैं और अपने सपनों को पूरा करती हैं। उन्हें देखकर मैं भी अपने सपने पालने लगती लेकिन जब अगले ही पल कोई मुझे अपनी तथाकथित सीमाओं और नैतिकता के लिए टोक देता तो मेरे सारे सपने बनने से पहले ही बिखर जाते।

हर परीक्षा में अव्वल आती, लोग मुझे बधाइयां देते, तारीफों के पुल बांधते, एक पल को खुशी भी होती लेकिन फिर भी भीतर एक खालीपन सा रहता। मैं शायद अपनी उम्र के बच्चों से अधिक प्रतिभाशाली मानी जाती थी- तथाकथित “सक्सेसफुल”। लेकिन मैं खुद कभी अपने सपनों की आग को अंको के ठंडे छींटों से नहीं बुझा पायी।

इसी तरह मैंने बारहवी कक्षा की बोर्ड परीक्षा दी। गर्मी की छुट्टियां चल रही थी। आगे के करियर का कुछ ठिकाना ना था। सब अपनी-अपनी राय देते और मैं भी एक कान से सुनकर दूसरे कान से निकाल देती। छुट्टियों का दिन निकालना बहुत मुश्किल सा हो रहा था तो सोचा कि कुछ किताबें पढ़ ली जाए। लेकिन इस बार कोर्स की किताबें ना थी, इस बार मैं महात्मा गांधी की ‘सत्य के साथ मेरे प्रयोग’ ले लायी थी।

किताबें पढ़ने का सिलसिला शुरू हुआ और मेरी इस रुचि ने मुझे चारों और से घेर लिया। इन किताबों से मैंने वो सीखा जो मैंने अपनी अभी तक की ज़िंदगी से नहीं सीखा था। मेरी सोच खुलने लगी और अब मैं अपने सपनों की उड़ान भरने की हिम्मत जुटाने लगी। साथ ही साथ, मन ही मन मैं उन सभी लोगों के प्रति अनुग्रहित होने लगी जिन्होंने ये किताबें लिखी थीं। मुझे लगने लगा जैसे इस समाज के नियम कानून मेरी क्षमताओं को बांधने के लिए हैं। मैं अब और “सभ्य लड़की” बनकर नहीं रहना चाहती थी। हर इंसान चाहता है कि समाज परिवर्तित हो, बेहतर हो। हर लड़की चाहती है कि उसे भी बराबरी से जीने की आज़ादी हो, अपने सपने पूरे करने के अवसर मिले। वह डरती है कि इस समाज के नैतिकता के ढकोसले कहीं उसकी जीने की आज़ादी ही ना छीन ले।

जब मैंने भगत सिंह के विचारों को पढ़ा तो समझ में आया कि बगावत करना और सवाल करना परिवर्तन के लिए कितना ज़रूरी है। जब मैंने बाबासाहेब अम्बेडकर को पढ़ा तो पता चला कि सामाजिक न्याय की नींव पर बनी व्यवस्था मानवता के लिए क्यूं, कैसे और कितनी ज़रूरी है। जब मैंने कार्ल मार्क्स को पढ़ा तो जाना कि आर्थिक और वर्गीय समानता क्यूं और कैसे लायी जा सकती है, जब मैंने जवाहरलाल नेहरु को पढ़ा तो देखा कि दो वैचारिक व्यवस्थाओं को जोड़कर एक ऐसी समाजवादी लोकतांत्रिक व्यवस्था कैसे स्थापित की जा सकती है जो दुनिया के सबसे मज़बूत, सफल और बड़े लोकतंत्र की नीति बनती है। जब मैंने चाणक्य को पढ़ा तो राजनीति के प्रायोगिक पक्ष समझ में आए। जब मैंने सिमोन दे बोवुआर को पढ़ा तो लैंगिक समानता के लिए मेरे विचार और सोच बेहतर और मज़बूत बने।

इस तरह मैंने जब भी, जिसे भी और जो भी पढ़ा तो ख़ुद में कुछ नया और बेहतर ही पाया। मैंने यह सब सीखा क्यूंकि किसी ने लिखा और लिखे हुए को मैंने पढ़ा।

मैंने सीखा कि कोई समाज किसी इंसान और किसी लड़की के कपड़ों की साइज़, उसके बोलने की पिच, उसके बैठने का ढंग, उसके ज्ञान के विस्तार, उसके सपने और उसकी ज़िंदगी के मायने नहीं तय कर सकता। अगर कोई यह तय कर सकता है तो वह खुद है। इस समाज में मेरी तरह बहुत सी लड़कियां अपनी बात कहना चाहती हैं लेकिन कह नहीं पाती, बोल नहीं पाती- कुछ हिम्मत की कमी, कुछ समाज का डर, कुछ बगावत की अनिच्छा और शायद कुछ मेरी तरह अंतर्मुखी होने के चलते।

इसलिए मुझे लिखना पसंद है। मैं लिखती हूं अपनी बात रखने के लिए, बगावत करने के लिए, अपने अंदर के डर को भगाने के लिए और खुद को बेहतर बनाने के लिए। मैं लिखती हू उन सबकी आवाज़ बनने के लिए जो बोल नहीं सकते। मैं लिखती हूं समाज को आइना दिखाने के लिए, सच को सच और झूठ को झूठ कहने के लिए, उन सब को हिम्मत देने के लिए जो आज़ादी से जीना चाहते हैं, बोलना चाहते हैं और लिखना चाहते हैं। मैं लिखती हूं खुश रहने के लिए, मैं लिखती हूं कि कोई कोई मेरी तरह उसे पढ़ेगा और शायद सवाल करेगा इस समाज की खोखली सोच पर, मैं लिखती हूं ताकि कोई और भी लिख सके।

The post मैंने पढ़ा क्यूंकि किसी ने लिखा, मैं लिखती हूं ताकि कोई और पढ़ सके appeared first and originally on Youth Ki Awaaz and is a copyright of the same. Please do not republish.

On May 13, 2018, an unprecedented 59,000 students wrote the Common Law Admission Test, the national law entrance examination. The number of law aspirants in India has been rising spectacularly over the last few years, but the expectations about the fair conducting of the exam have only fallen year after year. This year’s edition has been the worst in the history of the exam, with widespread complaints pouring in from all corners of the country.

The most frequent issue that seems to have been felt by hundreds of students is that the questions did not get displayed on their screen at 3:00 PM, when the exam was supposed to start, and they faced around five to ten minutes of delay before the first question showed up. In other cases, when the screen opened, the questions or the options were missing or were still encrypted and did not display properly.

Another widespread issue had been that the systems provided to candidates repeatedly hanged or shut down, or the screen froze, all while the timer counted down their time. All of this resulted in delays and loss of time, in an exam where attempting all 200 questions is difficult even with the two hours utilised completely. Further, when there are 60,000 students writing the exam, fighting for just around 2000 seats, a difference of a mere 0.25 mark is sufficient to alter your future. It is the difference between a rank that gets you an NLU, or one that forces you to drop a year or let go of your dream of studying law.

Additionally, another serious issue has been that of corrupt hardware, such as malfunctioning mouses and monitor screens. Other complaints that have been heard relate to bad infrastructure – many centres did not provide proper chairs to candidates and made them write the exam in the heat without switching on the AC or the fans, nor did they provide them with water in the mid-May heat. Many candidates also complained of ill-behaved and unhelpful staff at the centres, who in addition to causing delays themselves, also went on to pick fights with students while the exam was going on!

But perhaps the most serious complaint raised so far is that of improper invigilation. Stories are being shared of multiple centres in the country where the invigilators walked out of the room or simply allowed the candidates to talk and discuss questions amongst themselves. In other cases, where the computers stopped working, or the screen froze in the middle of the test, the centre staff scuttled about helplessly, while the candidates were allowed to have a discussion about the questions they attempted so far.

Parents complain to the police while invigilators argue right next to the computer lab, all while the exam goes on in a centre in Varanasi.

Adding to an ever-growing list of reminders that goes into every article that talks about the CLAT every year, this is not the first time that CLAT found itself in a hot mess. The first CLAT, held in 2008, is the only edition to have been conducted without any controversy. In 2009, there were allegations that the paper was leaked. In 2011, the paper was found to have some answers underlined among the MCQs. In 2012, the organizers gave explicit instructions saying certain question types would not be featured, unlike previous years, only to include many such questions anyway. In 2014, the rank lists and results were messed up. In 2015, many questions were found to have wrong or no answers. And even while exceptionally easy, 2016 still had a few errors in its answer key. The 2017 paper also followed suit and had around 15 errors in its questions.

If these issues related to the conduct of the nation’s premier law entrance test are not enough to shake your conscience, let us contextualize this a bit further. Each of the 59,000 candidates who wrote the exam this year was charged a whopping Rs 4000 for registration by this year’s organizing University, NUALS Kochi. This means that the University generated a revenue of Rs 23 crores for conducting this examination. An industry insider will be able to tell you that a fraction of this amount goes into conducting an online examination without any glitches. It is clear that this year’s technology partner, Sify, had not properly vetted their examination centres, or attempted to conduct a meaningful sensitization programme for their staff before the exam. NUALS Kochi must respond appropriately, taking steps to address each of the grievances, while detailing exactly what the 23 crores were spent on, if not on finding an effective technology partner.

While this year seems no different in terms of the CLAT tradition of inefficiency being followed, the number of issues that are being reported (even before the answer key has been released) is of an unprecedented level and nature. This time, action needs to be taken by the government swiftly, especially in light of the Class 12 CBSE Economics retest that was conducted citing justice and faith in the Indian education system.

In case no action is taken this year, law aspirants across the country will lose the little faith they have in this exam, and will choose to study a different stream instead. Keep in mind that coaching centres charge between ₹1-2 lakh for CLAT training, and many students from middle-class backgrounds are unable to afford the amount. The students who are able to drop a year, are those from affluent backgrounds who can finance the coaching and can afford to spend another year studying. All this exacerbates the lack of access to legal education for students from lower socio-economic backgrounds, a fact that is painfully evident in the demographics of all National Law Universities.

A plea for a retest is already being heard through online petitions and in social media portals. Another important requirement in this regard is the constitution of a permanent CLAT body that is responsible for organising the national law entrance test. So far, CLAT has been conducted by each of the NLUs on a rational basis, with each edition being conducted by a different university, resulting in opaque administration and lack of accountability.

Having such an independent body for the conduct of a national exam, such as the Joint Admissions Board for the IITs, is important to bring transparency to the system and to hold relevant persons accountable, and avoid exactly the kind of issues that candidates faced this year, and previously as well. The issue has been fought for in the past, with an important writ that was filed in 2015 still being heard by the Supreme Court. One can hope that this year’s protests will finally result in the Court intervening and bringing some meaningful resolution to the issue.

While it might seem futile to fight against this year’s debacle considering the lack of impact of previous year’s protests, this year’s fiasco is far graver than the previous ones. With thousands of school students now looking at law as a viable career option, it is also an important time to set things right and assure them that all their time, money and efforts will not go in vain. At least now, after all these years, let us teach the future generations of India’s lawyers what justice and integrity look like.

Please participate in this survey if you have faced issues during CLAT 2018.

The post CLAT 2018 Mismanaged, Calls For Retest Echo Nationally appeared first and originally on Youth Ki Awaaz and is a copyright of the same. Please do not republish.

With the Karnataka elections in full swing, many young people were seen contributing to election campaigns in a significant way. So be it tweeting, sharing, appealing others to vote, discussing, etc – young people were actively involved in the whole process. Until the results come out, one cannot be sure about the real-time impact the participation of youth has created. But one thing we can be sure of is that lack of participation from the youth can definitely have an extremely negative effect on the overall results.

More than 50% of India’s population is below the age of 25, and more than 65% below 35. So going by statistics, India’s youth can play a fundamental role in shaping and running the biggest democracy in the world.  Yet, as per a recent report, only 6% of the leaders and ministers in the government of India are below the age of 35. This is really shocking and implies that in spite of the availability of talent, enthusiasm, knowledge and resources, the youth of this country are not interested in jumping onto the bandwagon, be a part of the politics in India and contribute in the workings of the country. Where we have numerous young and extremely successful entrepreneurs who are earning huge money, we don’t have an equal number of young political leaders who can run the country. We also have a majority of the population which just wants to criticise but when asked to change the situations themselves, they are completely reluctant to co-operate.

What exactly is keeping the young intelligent minds of this country from getting into politics? Why, even in the 21st century, do educated and bright youths not want to start a full-fledged political career?

Below are some of the factors that might be the reasons.

It is all so unpredictable and uncertain

Politics is unpredictable. Period.  Agreed, some of the parties in the Indian politics today provide huge economic benefits to the “karyakartas” sometimes even better than a highly paying job. But till what time? There is no job guarantee and there is no written contract protected by the law. Besides, most of the money provided is black and is liable to scrutiny. Once you go into it, you also have to play according to the rules of politics and the rules keep on changing based on the situation. What if the young people are not able to adapt? Families which are used to living a routine life with a monthly pay cheque would not advise their children to enter such a volatile field.

A fierce competition which stops at nothing 

If you think, nepotism exists only in Bollywood, think again. Indian politics is one of the world’s biggest fields for nepotism where most of the picture is run by the aristocratic, old Indian political families. A leader’s child is expected to follow their parent’s footsteps. Surprisingly, they might get more popular than a genuine youngster who has just entered the field and is working hard. It’s extremely difficult for the outsiders to prove one’s talent, work and achievements and reach out to the public at the grass root. Also, powerful netas have various means to ensure that a good newcomer is shown ‘their place’ if they come in the way of their successor’s path. And to add to it, there is hardly any guidance for the newcomer. So it’s a slippery situation altogether.

It’s all about money, honey!

No two thoughts about that. One has to have a lot of money to promote, advertise and publicise one’s own work.  More than the actual work one does, it’s more important today to promote the work. Millions are spent today on advertising and marketing. Even for doing some really good work, one requires money and it’s hard to come from middle-class families with limited savings and make a commitment. In such cases, one has to raise the money through illegal means which is a big reason not to enter politics.

In-house complexities and hidden agendas

Every member of the party has their own ambition to succeed and there are limited means of achieving that success. Parties have a very complex internal structure driven by egos and ambition. With the fierce competition inside and the ever-changing volatile situation outside, every member holds on to their own hidden agenda within the party. Any new entrant posing a threat to their agenda can be easily exterminated and stopped. It also creates major trust issues and long-term loyalties are hard to find. So young people find it difficult to sustain their goal and focus and everything thus becomes only a power game and not just the plain career choice it was supposed to be. Young people might not find it “worth it” in the long term.

The increasing graph of crime rates and criminal charges

Just do a check of the some of the big political parties in India and the number of politicos with criminal charges. It’s astounding and shocking. Every day there is some new story about the political parties and all the illegal practices happening within a party – be it corruption, murder, money laundering, land grabbing. This news can scare the shit out of even some of the bravest people around. It’s no surprise that youth want to keep away from the murky quicksand which can engulf anyone. No one is sure what happens. Even if they are clean what if they are wrongly implicated or cheated? Better keep away! Even parents are scared and would not want their children to enter a profession so full of lies, uncertainty and danger.

The life is very hard dude

If one compares a life with a desk job – sitting in an AC office for eight hours a day and getting a pay cheque at the end of the month – to the life in politics –  constant travelling, keeping in touch with public, creating network, making physical efforts at the ground level, visiting internal rural areas – it’s easy to understand who wins! Very few are ready to pay the price for the “so-called” social service or doing good for the country. Also, one cannot be fully sure that his hard work will really work.

Is it really worth it?

In any other field of work, one is liable to get the results of the hard work and efforts they have put in. Even in Bollywood or cricket which are very uncertain and creative fields, one’s talent is sure to get noticed one day or the other. But is it true for politics? And what exactly can be the basic reason to join the politics – apart from the fame and money? Is it social work? Is it service to the people of your country? Or is it just plain passion? Even if the intentions are in the right place; is it worth the efforts – looking at the number of compromises on has to make which can impact a huge number of people?

It’s extremely tough to be connected to your roots and keep serving the people irrespective of the constant negativity one has to encounter every day in politics. And there would be very few youth who are ready to take on such a war.

So the end result – youngsters keep away and the country is left to some indifferent goons who just want to fill up their accounts.   

The post Why The Indian Youth Is Not Entering Politics appeared first and originally on Youth Ki Awaaz and is a copyright of the same. Please do not republish.

By Kabir Trivedi:

I still remember when I first read about the Orlando nightclub shooting. On the morning of June 13, I opened my phone to read the words ‘gay’ ‘shooting’ ‘nightclub’, ‘49’. I began to get a pain in the pit of my stomach, the kind you get when someone you love abandons you; the kind that spreads until you can feel it in your fingers. I thought it would leave, and I would get back on track with my college applications and career track. But months passed, and that nasty feeling kept coming back. After all, it wasn’t as if a friend had left me. 49 had.

Queerphobia is, in its definition, a fear or hatred of queer and LGBTQIA+ spectrum people. But I think this definition needs to be rewritten. Queerphobia is the reason we lose our friends to vicious murders (the instances of which are too many to name) or suicide such as our dear friend Pachu, a 22-year-old transgender man we lost this week, who could not even have his gender affirmed in the press coverage about him. They called him “she”. He was a man.

Queerphobia is every look, every comment that makes our gay and lesbian brothers and sisters afraid to hold their lovers’ hands in public. Queerphobia is the feeling you get of complete self-abhoration when your mother asks why you just can’t be normal. It is a monster of many shapes, ever present and ever growing, more powerful with each victim it attacks. Being a mentally and physically healthy (for the most part), immensely privileged transgender man, it may not occur to many that queerphobia can affect me. It does, immensely, and almost every day. In college, it may be the rumours spread about me or the way professors interact with me. At home, it may be the immense pressure of keeping up appearances of ‘normalcy’. On the streets of our nation’s capital (comparitively one of the safest cities for queer people), it may be stray calls of “dekh, hijri!”. But what is important to note is that if the privileges of caste, class, and religion can be transcended to make someone like me feel unsafe, it is only too easy to imagine what the daily life is for Dalit and tribal queer people, disabled queer people, or economically disadvantaged queer people.

Here, we must distinguish between ‘hard’ and ‘soft’ queerphobia. Hard homophobia is easy to track; it is visible and tangible in violence, slurs, or structural disadvantages placed in our legal system (such as Section 377 of the IPC). Soft homophobia is a little harder to trace, and all the more damaging for that reason. It’s a comment here, a joke there, all passed off as ‘polite polite’. Every time you try to question it, your experience is invalidated. For me, it is the primary form of transphobia, as it is more everyday, and can even get exacerbated by this everydayness. It can hide behind the guise of “nothing’s wrong”, and make the queer person pointing it out look the villain.

As a metaphor (or maybe some sort of misplaced coping mechanism), I think the song “Home” by Lisa Hannigan applies to my experience of queerphobia. Maybe that’s why it’s on just about every playlist I make.

For me, transphobia in my college and home leaves me with a sense of alienation with my body and my personhood. I am, but I am not.

“Home, so far from home,
So far to go
And we’ve only just begun”

Every medical professional I go to has laughed at me. Every college professor has treated me as their personal petri dish, throwing in whatever name and pronoun they choose. I hide now, smoking in my bathroom while my parents think I’m at yoga. It’s the only substance that doesn’t clash with my psychological medication.

“And oh, every lie we told
Is written in stone
Every lie we wrote
In our bones”

But I digress. The question was how I deal with queerphobia. I fight. I fight everyday. I sit in front of bureaucratic offices all day to meet with officers who couldn’t care less, to start the Queer Collective in my college. I correct people about my pronouns no matter how redundant it gets. I fight people who crack jokes and pass comments about my community, no matter how ugly it gets. Most importantly, I fight myself. Every time I feel like the Miranda House Queer Collective has not made a difference, I look at a card a junior gave to me. It says, “Thank you for building a community“. That card keeps me from taking steps I can’t come back from. But it’s also a testament to how much the queer community needs to be just that, a community. There would be no fight left in me had I not found my people, willing to fight by my side. People who are willing to change whichever institution they are in, and to change the world, making it a safer place for queer people everyday.

“And hold on, there’s nothing to pack
We know we’re not coming back.”

Images courtesy of Kabir Trivedi.

The post I Am Not Your Petri Dish: Dealing With Transphobia In College appeared first and originally on Youth Ki Awaaz and is a copyright of the same. Please do not republish.

An article should be factual. So, let’s start with the few basic facts. These are –
1) Indians are obsessed with weddings.
2) Indians are obsessed with Bollywood.

Sometimes, once in a blue moon, if the stars align perfectly (both literally and figuratively), we’re blessed with the extravaganza called a “Bollywood Shaadi”. The Mehendi looks are scrutinised, and the wedding invites are looked at with magnifying glasses. Your newsfeed is filled with sangeet videos, and your newspaper only has the news about last night’s events; there’s absolutely no escape. On the outside, you complain, crib and behave indifferently but deep down in your heart, even you want to know about which superstars danced at the wedding reception.

We assume that we’ve set a precedent to the real issue pretty well up till now and no, there are no prizes for guessing that this is yet another article about #sonamkishaadi. Let’s admit another fact about ourselves – we all have a judgemental ‘dulhe ki bua’ inside all of us. From dulha’s age to dulhan’s dress, everything needs to be judged by us, and God forbid if we approve. However, these scenarios are pretty basic and expected. What happened during last week’s most hyped event (read #sonamkishaadi) was not just unexpected but baffling to another level altogether.

Let’s solve this case study together – a Bollywood Starlet, who also happens to be the eldest daughter of a living legend and co-owner of a fashion brand and her own production house, meets an industrialist through her elite fashion designer friend and hits it off with him. The guy is pretty loaded too but is not known anywhere except for his limited social circle in Delhi as he studied abroad all his life. Soon, they fall in love as it naturally happens to people who share similar interests, outlook, and backgrounds.

The guy also starts getting recognition as he starts appearing alongside the Bollywood star in public and appears regularly on her social media profiles where she has more cult followers than most of her contemporaries. By now, everyone knows who he is and that he’s the owner of a boutique sneaker shop (affiliate marketing does work) and the heir to India’s biggest export house. He also has increased number of followers on social media platform without any SEO strategies. Anyway, as a gradual progression of the relationship, they decide to get married with their family’s blessings.

A post shared by Bollywood(new&old) Varun (@bollywoodkg) on May 9, 2018 at 2:41am PDT

Now, the question which needs to be solved here is – who, amongst the boy and the girl, is a gold digger? If you’re already looking down on me because of the lowliness of my thoughts depicted through this question, hold your horses – it’s not me, it’s you (at least, some of you). As it happens in every marriage, the worth of the dulha and dulhan were judged, and the dulha happened to be worth ₹3000 crore, the dulhan was automatically declared to be a gold digger.

Now, you may ask who is a gold digger? A gold digger is someone who engages in romantic relationships because of money and not love. As far as I know, the woman, in this case, is quite affluent herself belonging to an illustrious family. If anybody gained any brownie points here, then, it is definitely the guy who got a star name attached to his brand. But if we started discussing the brand value culminating by virtue of marriage then we, too, would also fall in the similar category as that of these ‘highly intelligent’ men who came up with this conclusion.

The whole point of this rant is to expose the skewed mentality of our society when it comes to its women. Especially those women who are successful, outspoken, are not diplomatic and still somehow manage to find love. In this day and age, marriage is still considered to be a means of sustenance, especially for women. Marriage in the 21st century is about companionship and camaraderie between two equal individuals who would like to grow and share a life together. Why do we still find it necessary to evaluate the gains or losses of the parties involved? Why do we still belittle women who dare to ask uncomfortable questions and claim their position in the world? Why do we mock men who choose a partner better known than them? Why do we still refuse to accept realities other than ours?

Sonam and Anand do not belong to our world. They have never known the struggle of a middle-class common man and might never have to know in the future. Yes, they had it easy and it is about time that we stop putting them down because of it. They did not choose the millionaire life just like you didn’t choose the middle class one. Why do we marginalise any success if it is without a struggle? Why are we so cynical that we need to see people suffer before we respect them?

Let’s put aside our bitterness for a moment and understand that our horrible remarks do not affect any of them but show our perspective where we cannot stand the happiness of other people. We’re still a regressive generation who believe that acting is not a serious profession for intelligent, respected individuals; especially women. It is easy for us to acknowledge a Shahid Kapoor marrying an industrialist’s daughter in an arranged marriage (did anybody try and find out her net-worth?) and call them couple goals but not a Sonam Kapoor doing the same for love. We still cannot digest the fact that a woman, especially a highly privileged one, can sustain herself and doesn’t have to go husband-hunting to support her lifestyle. Our thinking reeks of everything it shouldn’t in the 21st century – sexism, regressiveness, and jealousy.

It’s okay to find a profession or its people frivolous, but it is definitely unfair to deem them immoral and greedy. We Indians have been better than this foolishness. We Indians have been better than this blatant gender bashing. We Indians are better, just simply better than stooping to such a low. Let’s get together and pray that we regain some of our sense and sensibility we seem to have lost.

Till then, if you’re free, do let me know how did you like #sonamkajora on #sonamkishadi? (pun intended)

The post How #Sonamkishaadi Exposed The Hidden Misogyny And Sexism Of Modern Indian Men appeared first and originally on Youth Ki Awaaz and is a copyright of the same. Please do not republish.

The ongoing series of Indian Premier League (IPL) has been exciting this year. But the results of the 2018 Karnataka Assembly elections might have drowned the excitement for the IPL.

On the night of Wednesday, May 16, the Governor of Karnataka invited BJP’s BS Yeddyurappa to form the government. He took the oath as Chief Minister on Thursday and has to prove his party’s majority within 15 days.

The BJP, which is going to form the government, has 104 seats and is the single largest party. But the post-poll coalition of JD(s)-Congress has 117 seats. The magic figure in Karnataka to claim the majority is 113 which means the BJP fell short by 9 seats.

To prove the majority in the assembly, the BJP needs 9 more seats and this is what has prompted the allegations of ‘horse-trading’. Let’s discuss what it is all about.

1) The horses are the MLAs.

Let’s be very clear that there is no real horse in this business. The MLAs are the horses and the political parties will use money and power to break them from other parties and include them in their own party to achieve the magic figure.

2) This business is not always conducted with cash.

The purchase of MLAs does not happen the same way you buy a packet of Maggi from the store. The transaction here is not always through cash but also through benefits like shares of companies, lands, houses and other items.

3) Horse trading is not illegal.

Well, it’s unfortunate but MLAs are not drugs so you can buy one. There is no law in the Constitution which objects to buying of MLAs by any means.

4) It’s all about black money.

You guessed it right. The monetary transaction that usually takes place during horse trading is done through black money. The huge amounts that are paid usually come from different sources.

5) The key players are the corporates.

The money here usually does not come from the pocket of any minister or MLA directly. The big corporate groups spend this money and give it to the parties involved in the trade. It’s a give-and-take backdoor business.

6) MLAs do not necessarily join the party in question.

In the horse-trading process, it is not necessary that the MLAs of JD(s)-Congress coalition will join the BJP. But the main issue is at the time of the floor test, the coalition may not have the majority number. Which means that if 9 MLAs of the coalition are absent on the day of the floor test, then it’s a successful test.

7) It’s not a one-party business.

Do not think that horse trading involves only one political party which is trying to prove its majority. The trade can happen the other way round too. In fact, the MLAs can negotiate with their own party to not get traded and ask for position or money.

8) Karnataka is not the first state to have ‘horse-trading’.

It is an old business and happens during every election. The purchase of MLAs to prove a majority has happened earlier in various cases and has been done by various parties.

9) The JD(s)-Congress coalition may not be clean either.

The JD(s)-Congress coalition is a post-poll one. There may be monetary transactions involved in such cases too.

10) The Indian political system is the key factor behind ‘horse-trading’.

It’s not about a state or a party. The whole polticial system in India is the reason behind such business. Politics and power in India depend on money and that’s why such cases occur.

The post Karnataka Elections 2018: All You Need To Know About ‘Horse Trading’ appeared first and originally on Youth Ki Awaaz and is a copyright of the same. Please do not republish.

Recently, in a BBC documentary, “Bollywood’s Dark Secret”, actors Radhika Apte and Usha Jadhav spoke out against sexual harassment in Bollywood and revealed that the casting couch is still indeed a sickening reality for aspiring actors who move to the city of dreams and seek a future in the Hindi film industry.

You would expect these disclosures to be Bollywood’s “Harvey Weinstein” moment, with names, skeletons and dirty secrets tumbling out and sending social media in a tizzy, but all that’s not likely to happen. Not in Bollywood.

These lone voices are most likely to remain just that – lone voices. They can scream themselves hoarse because the big names (and therefore most of mainstream media) are sure to look the other way, like they have for several decades.

It’s a well-known fact that despite their internal rivalries, the Bollywood fraternity protects its own, mafia-style (Don’t mess with the family). It comes out in full support of something that’s valuable to its existence but is strangely quiet on matters that might ruffle feathers or disrupt box office collections.

When Bollywood superstar, Salman Khan was convicted in the blackbuck poaching case, celebrities who often get “outraged” at injustice, came out in unabashed support of one of the most powerful men in the industry.

Rahul Dev tweeted:

I respect the law but must confess the verdict saddens me. My heart goes out to @BeingSalmanKhan & his family members. 5 yrs is too harsh! I hope they review the decision, in lieu of his great humanitarian work & grant him bail tom #WeSupportSalmanKhan #BlackbuckPoachingCase

— Rahul Dev Official (@RahulDevRising) April 5, 2018

Nafisa Ali Sodhi tweeted:

Salman Khan after 20 years convicted of killing a Black Buck that he never killed !He was man enough to take the entire blame and only his name registered in the FIR . This the reason why all the other were acquitted . Salman we know the truth. Hope justice will be done tomorrow.

— Nafisa Ali Sodhi (@nafisaaliindia) April 5, 2018

Shatrughan Sinha, politician and former actor said: “…I feel Salman has suffered enough in this case. What is his crime?”

Jaya Bachan, actor and politician said what every film producer was thinking: “The film industry has invested so much on him, they will suffer loss”. Bhai has “Race 3”, “Bharat”, “Dabangg 3” riding on him. Why let two endangered animals come in the way?!

Similar sympathetic reactions did the rounds when Salman Khan was charged with culpable homicide in the drunk-driving case (2002).

I’m not basing my argument on specific statements or isolated incidents but on a historical record of selective outrage, silence and favouritism.

Bollywood is no stranger to abuse, nepotism and cover-up. Actor Aishwarya Rai’s account of Salman Khan’s abuse is well documented. He’s reportedly abused his ex-girlfriends, Katrina Kaif and Somy Ali too and on one occasion allegedly pulled Somy Ali by the hair and poured a beverage on the table because he disapproved of her drinking. Bollywood’s erstwhile superstars Rishi Kapoor and Rajesh Khanna have had abusive histories. Sanjay Dutt has had a history of drug abuse and underworld links. The list goes on. However, these stars must be revered to keep the well-oiled Bollywood machine running. They call the shots, are lovingly called Bhai and Baba and even have biopics made about them by close friends and family.

Amitabh Bachchan, who wrote empowering “open letters” to his granddaughters, perfectly timed with the release of his film “Pink” was strangely silent when right-wing trolls attacked Priyanka Chopra for wearing a knee-length dress in PM Modi’s presence. “I’m not the PM or Priyanka Chopra. How can I comment?” was all that the superstar could say despite telling his granddaughters (rightly so) that the length of a skirt isn’t a measure of character. He chose not to comment on rape-threats issued to student activist Gurmehar Kaur, by Hindutva supporters, despite breathing fire on Twitter every time an incident of rape occurs.

When the Karni Sena threatened to cut off Deepika Padukone’s nose, very few actors condemned the group directly. Most actors ranted about “law & order” and hoped for “peace” but like the government in power, were very careful not to offend the sentiments of the powerful Rajput community.

Despite paying occasional lip service to women’s empowerment for the sake of sounding progressive, the formulaic masala films that rake in Bollywood’s millions are anything but. Understandably, no celebrity has spoken out against the patriarchal, regressive tripe that Bollywood churns out year after year, comparing women to firecrackers, meat and everything in between.

In the documentary, Radhika Apte says, “Some people are regarded as Gods. They are so powerful…… people think that if I speak, probably my career is going to get ruined.”

It is positive that actors like Apte and Jadhav are speaking out, but it’s unlikely that the “Gods” will throw their weight behind them and come together to end this. Despite their posing with sanitary pads and other forms of tokenistic feminism, the fraternity is unlikely to name names or come out strongly against sexual harassment. It’s not good for business.

It is indeed disappointing that despite having enormous power to spark conversations and influence change, most Bollywood stars favour career longevity and political correctness instead.

It may be their prerogative to not take a stand on sexual exploitation, but it’s time Bollywood’s elite stopped pretending to care about gender equality. They just don’t have the moral standing to do so.

The post Why Bollywood Will Never Have A #MeToo Moment appeared first and originally on Youth Ki Awaaz and is a copyright of the same. Please do not republish.

The Common Law Admissions Test (CLAT) examination is held annually on a rotational basis by National Law Universities based on the order of their establishment. NUALS, Kochi conducted this year’s examination. They outsourced the conduct of this exam to Sify Technologies. It is this exam which produces the next generation of lawyers in the country and just like we care about the CAT exam for MBAs and the IIT exams for engineering, this exam deserves as much importance.

NUALS along with Sify probably conducted CLAT in the worst possible manner. Let us point out how. Everything was going smoothly at most examination centres till the paper started. On starting the paper, the timer set at 2:00 hours started the countdown, but no questions appeared on the screen. Some questions appeared in an encrypted format, making them impossible to comprehend. Students lost about 5-10 minutes in this.

The invigilators (who seemed to be employees of the test centre) told us to shut down our computers. We did so. On restarting our computers, different systems showed different amounts of time that were left. One thing was common to all systems that none showed the actual duration, i.e., two hours, as the time that remained for us to attempt the paper. We were given assurances by the invigilators that extra time would be given to make up for the lost time due to technical glitches. There was panic in the examination hall which resulted in shouting and arguments among the students and invigilators.

At this point, the invigilators, amidst the commotion, asked us to start the exam. A national level exam, which requires focus and concentration, was being taken by most of us in a situation that could be used to describe a fish market. This was when the cheating started. As the test was started on different computers at different times, a few candidates (who had not started their exam) got up from their seats and gathered around one computer system on which the exam was going on. They saw the questions, solved them and told the candidate actually taking the exam what to mark. Not only did they save their time (as they hadn’t started the exam on their system, but had solved a few questions) but they also assisted the candidate (on whose system they had gathered around) in answering. The invigilators paid no heed to this as they were busy trying to get all the systems up and running after the initial crash.

When there were 30 minutes remaining for the exam to end as per the timer, an invigilator told all of us at our centre, to shut our systems so that extra time could be added. The systems were shut. Now, this was a disastrous move by the organising authorities. As soon as the systems were switched off, questions were being discussed by the candidates, some had written down the questions from the Mathematics section and were solving them. All this while the systems were off – which means that their timer was paused.

Essentially, cheating was easier than actually asking for a sheet of paper from the invigilators (which, at some instances, they took more than two minutes to give). Then when the systems restarted, different amounts of time were added to different systems. In an all-India exam which was written by close to 60,000 candidates this year, such levels of inefficiency is unexpected.

Some candidates claim to have got 30 minutes over the designated two hours, even though their systems had crashed for only three minutes initially. Other candidates at various test centres claim that they weren’t given extra time, despite the assurance of the invigilators, and that they lost 10–20 minutes. This is in violation of Article 14 enumerated in the Indian Constitution, which guarantees us the right to equality and is grossly unjust and unfair.

A video has surfaced which shows a student writing his exam beyond 7 PM, with 30 minutes left on the clock. The examination was supposed to start at 3 PM. Not only did people barge into the examination centre with an electronic device, they actually took a video of the student attempting his paper and his computer screen. This means that electronic gadgets could come in contact with students while the paper was on and they could easily assist in cheating.

Utter mismanagement, different amounts of time given to different candidates and massive commotion and shouting during the examination was going on during CLAT. As of 8 PM, May 16, more than 2000 students have signed an online form agreeing to file a writ petition against the CLAT authorities demanding a re-test and thousands of students have reported that their system crashed.

Supposedly, Sify technologies is under the CBI scanner for high-level corruption, malpractices, use of unfair means in the online examinations (CGLE tier 2 exam held earlier this year) and the Staff Selection Commission (SSC) candidates sent a representation to the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) demanding suspension of services of private vendor conducting online exams pending probe.

Now let us come to the events that have taken place after CLAT. The Vice-Chancellor of NUALS Kochi, Prof. Rose Varghese remarked, “…the students are young so they are reacting.” It would be appreciable if the students were considered as stakeholders and that their reaction was taken seriously as it is their careers at stake.

On May 15, the answer key for the examination was released. The undergraduate exam has a lot of wrong answers, and unsolvable questions. There are about 15 of them. A set of questions for five marks (sitting arrangement, questions 99-103) was unsolvable due to contradictory information in the question. The waste of time on these questions alter the chances of candidates getting into a university they deserved to study at.

Another question, which asks candidates to identify the sentence which has an error, has taken the sentence “The college has organized a science fare” to be correct. The sentence clearly has a spelling error, i.e., ‘fare’. The correct spelling should be ‘fair’. Another question asks the number of languages mentioned in the eighth schedule of the Indian Constitution. The given answer is 21, but the correct answer should be 22. One question in the General Knowledge section asked “Which country joined as the eighth member of the South Asia Sub-regional Economic Cooperation (SASEC) in February 2017?” As it turns out, the SASEC has only seven members! More than 13 supposed errors in the answer key have been identified.

Although the students have the option of filing grievances, the options available are “Incorrect Question”, “No Correct Option”, and “Correct Option is”. There is no option for multiple answers, which is a possibility in Q5. Once one of these three options is selected, and we proceed to the next page, a message appears which says, “Grievance has been created successfully”. No option has been given to make a representation, or to record reasons in writing, or to offer an explanation for the question being wrong to the candidates. Besides this message, on clicking “view” option, which shows a summary of the grievance, this column appears –

Now, the suspiciously weird part is – even though the grievance text option appears, the candidates weren’t given an option to record the reason for their grievance. The column appears, but the candidates were never even given a chance to write something for it to appear in that column! This grievance system of challenging questions started in CLAT 2015. Every year since then, the grievance portal gives the candidates an option to record their reasons in writing or their explanation or the basis of challenging the question.

But CLAT 2018 does not give the candidates a right to be heard. CLAT 2018 does not give candidates the right to proper representation. Now, because candidates cannot enter grievance text (although final report shows a column regarding the same) it would be extremely easy for the CLAT authorities to dismiss the grievances, to not change as many answers as wrong, and to release another extremely faulty answer key on May 26. This is in violation of the basic rule of natural justice which is of Audi Altrem Partem (i.e. to hear the other side). It is in violation of Article 21 (Right to life and personal liberty).

CLAT 2017 saw the authorities admitting to nine mistakes in the question paper. CLAT 2015 which allegedly had 15 wrong answers, only admitted to two of them. A set of seven questions was wrong in CLAT 2015 as well, but the authorities never did anything about those questions. Such contrasting figures don’t give an assurance to the candidates as to whether the amended answer key issued on May 26 will have correct answers or not.

Under these circumstances, it is only fair and in the interest of meritorious students to conduct a re-examination. An examination of which violates the law itself on multiple counts does not keep up the sanctity of CLAT. Reports of police cases being filed in Jaipur support this assertion. In 2015, the Supreme Court directed the CBSE to conduct a re-examination of the AIPMT (Medical Entrance) due to irregularities in the examination. The Supreme Court took this decision in order to provide a fair chance to all the candidates who took the exam in 2015.

A fair chance is what the candidates of CLAT 2018 need. A re-exam would not be an unprecedented step. The recent decision of conducting a re-examination of the CBSE Class 12 Economics paper goes on to show how CLAT authorities are lacking in the will to ensure a ‘just and fair’ examination by not announcing a retest. The fact that mass cheating took place is out in the open and has been recorded on the CCTVs under which candidates gave their exam. The importance given to medical entrance examinations needs to be at par with the importance given to Law entrance examinations.

A law aspirant puts in massive amounts of hard work for approximately two years and sacrifices a lot of things to be able to perform well in CLAT – the test which opens gates to 19 NLUs. But when that ability to perform is snatched from the candidate due to mismanagement and a shortage of time, it is devastating and depressing for meritorious students.

Prof Rose Varghese remarked, “At 1.5% centres computers failed and immediately [the candidates] were given the time.” This statement is disputable because almost at every centre across India, there was mayhem. For the sake of argument even if we assume the statement to be true, what about those 1.5% centres? When the paper stopped, couldn’t the students solve questions without losing any time and discuss answers among themselves? The convenor of this year’s CLAT committee has herself given us enough reason to demand a re-test. The future of the country is at stake here. If things remain as they are and no re-test is announced, ‘Common Luck Admission Test’ would be a better expansion of ‘CLAT’.

What we can conclude about CLAT 2018 is that meritorious students are the ones that have suffered the most due to mass cheating, mismanagement and chaos during the examination, a wrong set of five questions on which time had been wasted, and an extremely faulty answer key. The only logical recourse to fix this would be to announce a re-test soon so that students get the college they ‘deserve’ and the country gets the quality of future lawyers that it deserves.

The post Mass Cheating, Mismanagement And Chaos: What Happened During And After CLAT 2018 appeared first and originally on Youth Ki Awaaz and is a copyright of the same. Please do not republish.

SPOILER ALERT

In less than a month’s time after its release, “Avengers: Infinity War” is on its way to becoming one of the highest grossing movies of all time. Avengers is a comic book based movie with aliens, Gods, superpowers and futuristic science so we need a healthy dose of suspension of disbelief to properly enjoy this movie. But the basic premise of the movie is so poorly dealt with that I am feeling compelled to deal with it here in this article.

“Avengers: Infinity War” is a movie about a powerful alien being called Thanos who is on a quest to kill half of all life in the universe to achieve what he calls “balance”, i.e. to reduce competition for limited resources, which he thinks will, in turn, lead to general prosperity for the survivors.

If you have been following the news recently, then I can say with some confidence that you have heard political and economic discourse similar to Thanos’ idea at one time or another. In fact, such arguments are so common that far-right organisations and political parties everywhere around the world can be seen frequently claiming that immigrants, minorities and refugees steal, misappropriate or syphon off “valuable and limited” resources for themselves.

Unfortunately, not only is Thanos’ idea for securing universal prosperity via mass genocide largely left unrefuted in the movie but Thanos is also shown as a being in possession of great knowledge. So, there is a danger that “Avengers: Infinity War” could be seen as backing and reinforcing the ideology of the extreme right wing.

So if the Avengers are not going to do it, I will. Below, I have shown why Thanos’s ideas are not only ill-conceived but also objectively wrong.

Population and Prosperity

Thanos’ big idea about universal prosperity had two elements— population and prosperity and according to him both were inversely related i.e., if there was more population there will be less prosperity and vice versa. Let us have a look at what history of the world shows us.

Figure 1: Population adjusted by 1,000,000 and per capita GDP is based on 1990 International Geary-Khamis dollars

Figure2. Source: Riley, J., Estimates of Regional and Global Life Expectancy, 1800–2001, Population and Development Review (2005), pp. 537-543.

What we see from Figure 1 is that consistent growth of population and per capita income need not be mutually exclusive. In fact, what the said figure tells us is that over the last 1000 years, it has been seen that growth of per capita income consistently accompanied the increases in population. Figure 2 additionally shows us that people now are living longer and thus healthier lives than they have ever lived before in human history despite human population being at the highest levels ever.

It needs to be mentioned here that the patterns seen above in the two figures hold true for most countries in the world.

I am not trying to explore the causes behind the increase in population, average life expectancy or per capita income, but I am just trying to show that Thanos in “Avenger: Infinity War” was wrong. As shown above, you do not necessarily need to reduce the population (let alone reduce it by half) to ensure that people can live prosperous, happy and long lives.

But how did a being in control of all forces of the universe go so wrong?

Malthusian Theory In “Avengers: Infinity War”

After all is said and done, Thanos is a fictional character created by people and hence reflects human philosophy behind his ideas. Thanos’ theory about reducing the population by half to make the universe a paradise to live in is based on one of the most powerful and influential theories in demography— the Malthusian theory.

Thomas Malthus theorised in his 1798 book, “An Essay on the Principle of Population”, said that population grew geometrically (e.g. 2, 10, 50, 250) while the food supply grew arithmetically (e.g. 2, 7, 12, 17). Malthus further hypothesised that if preventive checks like family planning, late marriages or celibacy is not undertaken to bring the population in line with the food resources then it will trigger positive or natural checks like wars, epidemics and famines which will, in turn, bring about what Thanos called “balance”.

In the years that followed the publication of Malthus’ theories, many of his followers expanded on his theory by including more resources (other than just food), encompassing greater economic, political and sociological consequences into Malthusian theories and considered newer forms of preventive checks like birth control. These followers of Malthus were called neo-Malthusians.

These largely simplistic Malthusian theories were and still are very popular but one historical event/process caused serious problems for it, which is the Industrial Revolution.

Industrialisation, Food And Other Resources

Before the Industrial Revolution, food was the primary source of energy as it not only fuelled human activity but also helped to utilise the animal wealth of the community. Unfortunately, this also meant that societies had to place limits on their activities as food was often scarce and never unlimited. Also, food and other perishable resources could not be traded long distance (which often meant from the land of plenty to those of scarcity) because food was an inefficient source of energy.  For example, if one bullock cartload of food grains was to be transported from the North of France to the South of France the bulls driving the cart will need more food than they are carrying to achieve the said task, thus making the whole task unviable.

Now, let us consider some developments that took place before the Industrial Revolution like the “discovery” of the New World or the Americas which in turn led to the discovery of new nutritious food like potatoes, tomatoes, sweet potatoes and maize. Discovery of new gold and silver mines in the New World and establishment of oceanic trade links between the “West” and the “East” lead to an increased globalization of trade and the new food sources spread rapidly throughout the world. Also, foundation of modern states via recognition of the primacy of formal institutions and fiscal consolidation meant the creation of strong states with the power to raise substantial resources whenever necessary and manoeuvre those resources in any direction they wanted.

So, when the steam engine was invented it was realised that the primacy of food as the main source of energy for activities like trade and transportation had come to an end. New sources of power like coal and hydrocarbons which were much more efficient sources of energy than food, now held the keys to the future. Steam engine based transportation vehicles like trains and stream ships became so fast that by the 1800s they could profitably transport large amounts of food and other resources from one corner of the world to another. Moreover, modern states could now use their considerable strength and resources to build better infrastructure to make energy utilisation even more efficient. Add to this the developments in electromagnetism and communication technologies and you have Karl Marx sitting in London writing for the New York Daily Tribune about the Indian Revolt of 1857.

It is because of these above-mentioned reasons that mega cities like New York and Shanghai could exist today and hugely successful cities like Dubai and Abu Dhabi could be built in the middle of a desert. Today, human technology has developed to such an extent that if there is a want for any resource anywhere in the world, that resource could be transported to the place of scarcity from the place of surplus within a day’s time.

These are the reasons why the Malthusian theories which claimed that a society could only be sustained if the population was “balanced” by the resources available, are no longer valid. Hence Thanos’ theory in “Avengers: Infinity War”, that population reduction is the only way towards sustainability is based on a bankrupt idea.

Population Pyramid

Let us come to another misleading and entirely impractical idea in Thanos’ theory to make the universe a paradise to live in. Thanos adopts the PC (politically correct) culture by claiming that although he is going to kill half the population of the universe, the killing will be random and will not discriminate between race, religion or class. Unfortunately, such random and indiscriminate reduction in population will more likely lead to a massive imbalance which might result in the “collapse of humanity as we know it, rather than lead to the “balance” that Thanos craves for in the movie. Before I explain how, please have a look at the population pyramid below.

Figure 3: Population Pyramid of the world circa 2017

As can be seen from the population pyramid, most of the population of the world is concentrated around the working ages. It is this demographic that supports the people at the bottom of the pyramid and the top of the pyramid because they are too young or too old respectively, to adequately support the society. As shown in the movie, if a plan like the one Thanos had is implemented then most of the people who would end up dying will be working age people and with no one left to support them the mortality rates amongst the young and the elderly will sky-rocket. Also think about it, in a likely circumstance where most of the doctors, engineers, teachers etc. disappear forever (as most of the people who are practising such professions belong to the working age group), who will train the young, who will build the world anew or who will look after the old?

Random selection like the one proposed by Thanos could have another serious implication. What if after eliminating 50% of the world’s population, we are left with just 1-5% female population with the rest all being males. This could spell the end of the human species as we know it. To sustain a population, women are much more important than men as the number of children that a woman can give birth to is far lesser than the number of women a man can impregnate.

So, as can be seen from above, demographics of the world is not only very complicated but extremely sensitive to changes and any tricks like the one Thanos wanted to pull in Avengers: Infinity War could lead to the collapse of the human civilization as we know it.

Conclusion

As seen from the above, Thanos’ idea about achieving universal “balance” could be easily countered by even an amateur economic historian like myself. But the question we need to ask here is, why was Thanos given such a silly raison d’etre which had more in common with the crackpot ideas of the extreme right wing than with any in-vogue ideas of the intelligentsia, in a movie which everyone expected to be a massive blockbuster? The answer, unfortunately, is quite simple i.e. anti-intellectualism. Anti-intellectual tendencies like disregarding expert opinion in lieu of something that is more convenient to believe or implement has become so rampant that it has now seeped into every aspect of our lives. Actually, it is quite fitting that “Avengers: Infinity War” through its idiotic premise has now become the torch-bearer of an industry which specializes in making fun of intellectual/expert advice or arguments because apparently, they are too complicated to comprehend.

The post Thanos’ Idea Of Balance Is All Wrong: An Economic History Critique Of ‘Infinity War’ appeared first and originally on Youth Ki Awaaz and is a copyright of the same. Please do not republish.

[SPOILER ALERT]

“Raazi” was released in the face of lots of expectations. We had high expectations from Alia Bhatt and the ensemble cast and from our own experience of Meghna Gulzar’s nuanced direction of “Talvar”.

I don’t think anyone was disappointed with “Raazi”. The film is an espionage thriller without the cheap thrills and the stunts, and with little melodrama. It is one of those rare films in which the characters are so well-sketched, that even those with limited screen-time and dialogues manage to steal the light. Alia Bhatt as Sehmat, the ‘pastel-clad spy’ (Meghna Gulzar’s own words for her) is so fragile and determined. Her movements are so graceful and stealthily sharp that we follow her with our eyes with our heart in the mouth, inwardly praying for her safety and success, like nothing else matters. Jaideep Ahlawat as Khalid Mir, an unassuming and very intelligent man, represents the steely and somewhat unpalatable resolve of men in the defence forces – taking tough calls that sacrifice and save people at the same time. And yet, there is a warmth he brings to his role – and the flashes of humanity and concern in his treatment of Sehmat make up for the coldness of his manners and deeds.

Finally, it is Vicky Kaushal, who, as Sehmat’s husband, stays with us. His role is so gratifying, the refinement and gentleness that he wholly embodies breaks away our ‘army man’ stereotype. “Raazi”, among other things, was successful in providing a humane portrayal of the Pakistani army officers, infusing in them a real and justifiable patriotic sentiment for their own nation.

In many nationalism-infused movies made in India (perhaps, in Pakistan too), the enemy is shown as fierce and inhuman, unjust and merciless – sometimes guided by personal motives, so that the hero gets a chance to save the enemy’s people too. “Sarfarosh”, which was a pretty-much realistic portrayal of terrorism in India, had at least given us a little glimpse of the sense of hurt and bitterness that the survivors of Partition carried against the state. Yet, they did not attempt to justify the actions of the antagonist – and in the eyes of the audience, Gulfam Hassan was as undeserving of sympathy as anybody else.

Few films even bother to show what “Sarfarosh” did – a perspective into the reasons of war and conflict from the enemy’s perspective. Often, they are only painted and ‘tainted’ as power-hungry and even as invaders. Our side is always the one with the right values in place – tolerance, sensitivity, honour and propriety, and protection of women and children. And this always runs contrary to the values the enemy holds.

Here however, Meghna Gulzar delicately showcases the unbelievable – how the enemy might also hold the same principles as we do, and that war is as horrifying an experience for them as it is for us. The film is indeed appreciable for its non-jingoistic presentation of nationalism, and the message that loving your country doesn’t mean hating each other comes out very clearly.

At some point in the film though, it seems that Meghna Gulzar not only steers clear from bashing Pakistan but also tries to make a decisive anti-war sentiment. Perhaps, she tries to question the very rationale behind why these conflicts exist, which end up claiming the lives of so many innocent people on both sides – with little consequence to the cause due to which the war began in the first place (Kashmir continues to burn even after the many wars). However, as noble as this intention may have been, they come to us as an overview of the movie, and not through the trajectory of Sehmat’s life, as I would have liked to see.

In the film, Sehmat does not question why she was being placed as a spy in Pakistan. It is understandable – we were on a brink of war and her services were needed to protect the country. However, Sehamt herself takes little efforts to understand the reasons for the conflict. Neither does anybody bother to make her understand these reasons. There is no mention of the atrocities of the Pakistani army against the Bangladeshi freedom fighters, or the influx of refugees that forced us to enter the conflict.

Sehmat gives no concrete reason for her support of the Indian side, other than her blind love for the nation she keeps referring to. Moreover, her sense of duty to the watan is a legacy she carries – and it is a little disturbing that apart from this one reason, she doesn’t have any other to risk her life. Why couldn’t she have said that “I fear that the frontal attack Pakistan will launch will destroy my territory” or that “their actions are unjustified” or that “they should grant Bangladesh the freedom of self rule they want” – and therefore, “these are the reasons I am willing to work as a spy”?

On the other hand, the reasons she offers as to why she became ‘raazi’ for the dangerous mission are that she carries patriotism in her blood and that she doesn’t want to disappoint her father. Thus, it seems that there is no rationale offered for her desire to work against the enemy – and she never questions it either. And because we are following Sehmat’s story, we too, as the audience, are not able to get clear socio-political insights into all that was happening in 1971.

A sentiment should be substantiated with facts, otherwise it wavers – like Sehmat’s patriotism did, in the end. In the end, she does question her mentor, confronting him for killing her guiltless husband, when all she had asked for own life to be taken away had she been caught. “This is how it is in a war”, he retorts back, rather heartlessly, to which she replies, “Take me away before I completely become like you”. Needless to say, Sehmat remains traumatised for the rest of her life, carrying in her conscious mind the weight of those she killed, who were merely echoing the same sentiments she did, at that time.

As mentioned before, this is where “Raazi” seems to touch upon the futility of wars, the senseless destruction of lives it causes, the emotional damage it has on the minds of those involved – and most importantly, how blind nationalism, without the sense of what is morally right and wrong, serves no purpose. However, because it refrains from taking a clear stand through Sehmat, she somehow gets reduced to a brave Indian whom we should be grateful to – for saving India from war catastrophes.

The fact she and so many of our soldiers, combatants, intelligence officers and others not only put themselves in mortal danger for us – and also the fact that they rendered their mind prone to mental trauma and suffering (that comes from loss and taking the lives of others) – is not sufficiently highlighted. If it had, maybe the film would have also opened a conversation on the wisdom of conflict-resolution and peace-building. It could have gone one more step ahead in humanising the faces of the people from Pakistan. I understand that this would have been a very tall task. With the worsening conditions in Kashmir and the increasing sentiment of aggressive nationalism in India, the film would have run into trouble.

Also, there’s the fact that in the war in 1971 or the other ones we have fought with Pakistan, we have seemingly always been on the defensive side, protecting our territories from attacks. To say that the war was futile would, in my opinion, be an injustice to the martyrs who had fought for India. What I am trying to say that maybe we should do what Meghna Gulzar could not – delve into the intrinsics of war and conflict, stop glorifying it, and as citizens, try to build a consensus against it in future.

If “Raazi” can make us do this, I think it will have achieved far more than the box office collections and the positive reviews it is getting.

The post “Raazi” Should Make You Rethink Your Sense Of Nationalism appeared first and originally on Youth Ki Awaaz and is a copyright of the same. Please do not republish.

“कुछ दिन के लिए, लोगों को लगा कि भारत हिल गया है। लेकिन उनको यह पता होना चाहिए कि जब एक महान पेड़ गिरता है तो हमेशा झटके लगते हैं” इस वाक्य से सैकड़ों बेगुनाह नागरिकों की हत्या को कमोबेश जायज़ ठहराते हुए, 40 साल के युवा राजीव गांधी ने भारतीय राजनीति में उस समय प्रवेश किया जब देश के कई राज्य हिंसा में जल रहे थे।

इंदिरा गांधी की हत्या के बाद राजीव गांधी, वरिष्ठ कांग्रेसी प्रणव मुखर्जी को हाशिए पर ढकेलते हुए, सोनिया गांधी के विरोध के बाद भी, भारतीय राजनीति के केंद्र में आ गये। राजीव गांधी से देश को उम्मीद का अंदाज़ा इससे लगाया जा सकता है कि 1984 के लोकसभा चुनाव में 413 सींटों के साथ उन्होंने जो सफलता पाई उससे जवाहर लाल नेहरू और इंदिरा गांधी तक महरूम थे।

हालांकि इसके पहले भी राजीव गांधी कई अवसरों पर पर्दे के पीछे कई महत्वपूर्ण ज़िम्मेदारी निभा रहे थे, 1982 में एशियन गेम्स की ज़िम्मेदारी उस समय संभाली जब पंजाब में अलगाववाद की समस्या से एशियाई खेलों की सुरक्षा पर सवाल खड़े हो रहे थे। राजीव गांधी की कोशिशों से यह अयोजन सफल रहा। इसके साथ उन्होंने काँग्रेस के महासचिव के रूप में उन्होंने पार्टी संगठन को व्यवस्थित एवं सक्रीय भी किया।

राजीव गांधी को त्रासदी के बीच युवा नायक की उपाधी दी जा सकती है, क्योंकि जहां कई मोर्चों पर उनकी असफलता निराशा और क्षोभ पैदा करती है वहीं उनकी उपलब्धियां भी भारतीय राजनीति में बदलाव के साथ आज के युवाओं को असंख्य क्षितिज देती है।

मसलन, राजीव गांधी ने पहले आर्थिक उदारवादी राजनीतिक के रूप में कई सेक्टर्स को सरकारी नियंत्रण से मुक्त किया, जिसने लाइसेंस राज की नींव को खत्म कर दिया। इस वजह से कंप्यूटर, ड्रग और टेक्सटाइल जैसे क्षेत्र बंद अर्थव्यवस्था से खुली हवा में निमार्ण और व्यपार करने के लिए मुक्त हो सके। कंप्यूटर के लिए मदरबोर्ड के भारत में निर्माण ने कई कंपनियों के लिए सिलकन वैली का दरवाज़ा खोल दिया।राजीव गांधी विज्ञान, तकनीक और समावेशी शिक्षा की मुक्तकारी भूमिका के बारे में एक स्पष्ट राय रखते थे। उनका मानना था कि ” विज्ञान और तकनीक देश की कई पुरानी समस्याओं का निराकरण कर सकते हैं” इसलिए उन्होंने टेलीकॉम और इन्फॉर्मेशन टेक्नोलॉजी के क्षेत्र में विशेष ध्यान दिया।

“पावर टू द पीपल” आईडिया से राजीव गांधी ने पंचायती राज को संवैधानिक दर्जा दिलाने की कोशिश की, जिसने सत्ता के विकेंद्रीकरण का रास्ता बनाया। मतदान की उम्र सीमा 21 से घटाकर 18 साल करके राजीव गांधी ने अपने दौर में युवाओं को तो साधा ही, दल-बदल कानून बनवा कर भारतीय राजनीति को अवसरवादी राजनीति से मुक्त करने की कोशिश की, जिसके छींटे खुद काँग्रेस पार्टी पर भी थे।

राजीव गांधी ने भारत को शिक्षा के नये युग में प्रवेश कराने की भरसक कोशिशें ज़रूर की अपनी इस राय से कि “शिक्षा ने हमारे समाज को बराबरी का स्थान दिया है, यह एक ऐसा उपकरण है जो पिछले हजारों वर्षों के सामाजिक व्यवस्था को एक बराबर के स्तर पर ला सकता है।” 1986 में राष्ट्रीय शिक्षा नीति का एलान और नवोदय विधालय की परियोजना से राजीव गांधी ने भारतीय समाज में ग्रामीण छात्रों को बेहतरीन शिक्षा सुविधाएं दिलाने की कोशिश की और कुछ परिणामदायी लक्ष्य हासिल भी किए।

राजीव गांधी के पूरे राजनीतिक सफर में सिखों पर राजनीतिक हिंसा रोकने में विफलता, भोपाल गैस त्रासदी, शाहबानो केस, आयोध्या मसले, श्रीलंका में लिट्टे के खिलाफ भारतीय सेना भेजना और बोफोर्स कांड वह अध्याय है जिसका जिन्न आज भी भारतीय राजनीति को सालता है। वक्त-बे-वक्त वो ज़िंदा हो जाता है और एक साथ कई ज़ख्मों पर नमक छिड़क जाता है।

सिख-विरोधी दंगे में शामिल लोगों को महत्वपूर्ण पद देना और जांच प्रक्रिया में सुस्ती के बाद भी लोगोंवाला समझौता में राजीव गांधी की भूमिका में उनकी सकारात्मक भूमिका का आकंलन कभी नहीं किया गया। यह कई हद तक सही है कि भोपाल गैस त्रासदी, शाहबानों केस, अयोध्या मसले, श्रीलंका में शांति सेना और बफोर्स विवाद ने 1989 में उनको पराजित करने में महत्वपूर्ण भूमिका निभाई। पारिवारिक पृष्ठभूमि और राजनीतिक परिस्थितियों के बीच पायलट से प्रधानमंत्री तक राजीव गांधी का सफर एक युवा संभावना के उदय और उस दौर के राजनीति की त्रासदी की गाथा है जिसमें वो भी फंसते चले गए या तमाम कोशिशों के बाद भी उससे मुक्त नहीं रह सके।

परंतु, यह भी सच है कि देश में आर्थिक उदारीकरण और सूचना तकनीक के व्यापक उपयोग का पहला अध्याय उनके नेतृत्व में लिखा गया। तमाम राजनीतिक आलोचना और खामियों के बावजूद उनको एक उत्साही और प्रगतिवादी प्रधानमंत्री के रूप में हमेशा याद किया जाता रहेगा, जिन्होंने आर्थिक नीतियों तथा सूचना क्रांति के कार्यों से वर्तमान भारत विकास और उपलब्धियों की कहानियां गढ़ीं।

The post त्रासदियों में उलझे, उत्साही और प्रगतिवादी राजीव गांधी appeared first and originally on Youth Ki Awaaz and is a copyright of the same. Please do not republish.

श्रीमान मोहन भागवत जी, 17-5-2018
सरसंघ चालक
राष्ट्रीय स्वंयसेवक संघ

नमस्कार,

मेरा नाम विमल भाई है। मैं उत्तराखंड में सन् 1988 से टिहरी बांध के विरोध में गंगा पर बन रहे बड़े बांधों के खिलाफ जनता और पर्यावरण के हक में काम करता हूं। हां साथ ही अपने देश से प्यार करता हूं उसके सही विकास के लिये सजग हूं। इसलिये आपको यह पत्र लिख रहा हूं। मेरे स्वर्गीय माता-पिता क्षत्रिय रहे हैं। उन्होंने मुझे सबसे प्रेम करना सिखाया है। इतिहास बताता है कि कोई भी देश शांतिकाल में ही आगे बढ़ा है। शायद आपको यह पत्र ना भी मिले इसलिये मैं इसे कही छपने देने की कोशिश कर रहा हूं। आपको आलोचना, सीधे पत्र द्वारा भेज रहा हूं ताकि संवाद हो सके। आपसे मिलने की कोशिश करुंगा। मगर अब तो मोदी जी ने आपको एक तंग घेरे में रख दिया है। 90 के दशक में आपसे मिलना आसान था।

देश की परिस्थिति 2014 के बाद जितनी तेज़ी से बदली है। आपकी राजनैतिक शाखा के कृत्यों के खिलाफ बहुत आंदोलन हो रहे हैं। सेमिनार बैठकें भी हो रही हैं। और आप जिस संगठन का नेतृत्व करते हैं उसके आनुषंगिक संगठनो द्वारा मुसलमानों पर विभत्सव तरीके से हमले हो रहे हैं। मुसलमानों की आस्था को चुनौती जा रही है, उनके रोज़गारों को खत्म करने की साज़िशें हो रही हैं। उनके शिक्षा संस्थानों पर हमले हो रहे हैं।

मैं संक्षिप्त में कहना चाहूंगा कि आप इतिहास को झूठी तरह से बदल रहे हैं, आप मुसलमानों की पारिवारिक संरचना और कुरान की गलत-सलत अपनी तरह से व्याख्या करते हैं। आप उनको दूध-दही से रोज़ा खोलने की सलाह देते हैं, बकरे की कुर्बानी की जगह अपने बेटों को कुर्बान करने की नसीहत देते हैं। शिक्षण संस्थानों पर हमले हो रहे हैं। उनके प्रति कटुता रखते हुये कभी आप सभी मुसलमानों को पूर्व में हिन्दू होने की बात करते हैं। ये कैसा अभ्यास है आपका?

बोलने के अधिकार पर आपके आनुषंगिक संगठन कब्ज़ा जमा रहे हैं। ऐसा भी नहीं है कि यह पहली बार हो रहा है। मैंने जब से होश संभाला है तब से RSS के साथ जुड़े लोगों को यही सब करते देखा है। किंतु आज आपका राजनैतिक दल सत्ता में है इसलिये ये हमले बहुत तेज़ी से बढ़े हैं।

युवाओं को थोड़ी सी ताकत का एहसास दिला कर अपने मनमाफिक चलाने के लिये हिन्दू अस्मिता का प्रश्न, मुस्लिम आबादी के फैलने का झूठा डर, ईसाइयों द्वारा धर्म परिवर्तन प्रचार करते हुये, इल्ज़ाम लगाकर आप तमाम तरह के हिन्दू युवाओं को उनके रोज़ी-रोटी के प्रश्न को एक तरफ करके, आपके अपने ऐजेंडे से जोड़ने की कोशिश करते रहे हैं।

सोशल मीडिया के ज़माने में यह काम और भी आसान हो गया है। व्हाट्सएप और फेसबुक का आपके संगठन ने बहुत खतरनाक तरह से इस्तेमाल किया है। जिस पर आपको सत्ता का संरक्षण भी प्राप्त है। व्हाट्सएप और फेसबुक के ज़रिये घृणा फैलाना आसान हो गया है। 2014 के बाद देश के अनेक स्थानों पर आपका संगठन ये नये प्रयोग कर चुका है। आपकी सफलता है कि आपने इतना ज़हर फैला दिया है कि अब किसी खास व्यक्ति को भेजने की ज़रूरत नहीं होती है। बस संदेश फैलाओ और काम हो गया।

पुरानी बातों को हटा भी दे तो आपने हमें 2014 से बहुत ही व्यस्त रखा है। एक मुद्दा सिमटता नहीं कि नयी हत्या हो जाती है उस पर कुछ करते हैं तब तक हरियाणा में सैकड़ों मुस्लिम परिवार स्थानीय थाने में शरण लेकर रहते हैं। लिस्ट बहुत लंबी है आपको भी मालूम होगी। मैं RSS को देश में आतंक फैलाने का ज़िम्मेदार मानता हूं। इन सब के बावजूद भी आपको पत्र लिखने की ज़हमत इसलिए उठा रहा हूं कि मैं गांधी को मानता हूं और गांधी ने हिटलर को भी पत्र लिखा था।

मुझे विश्वास है कि आप कभी शांत मन से इस पर ज़रूर विचार करेंगे। कहीं कोई शब्द आपको यदि चुभता हुआ लगे तो उसे मेरे मन की बात मानकर मर्म ले लीजिएगा शब्द छोड़ दीजिएगा। ये भावनायें हैं इसलिये बातों का कोई क्रम नहीं है। वैसे मेरे देश के बहुसंख्यक लोग जो धर्मनिरपेक्ष हैं वह भी मेरे से खफा होंगे कि मैं आपको पत्र क्यों लिख रहा हूं मगर मुझे अभी भी अंधकार में विश्वास नज़र आता है। मुझे इस देश की मिट्टी पर, सदियों पुरानी इस देश की संस्कृति पर विश्वास है, गर्व है। इसलिये आपकी सोच और आप इस बात पर कुछ बदलाव ला पाएं तो वास्तव में मेरे जीवन की धन्यता होगी।

समाधान तो बातचीत से ही होता है। धमका-मार-हिंसा से तो र्सिफ शक्ति संतुलन होता है। आज आपकी सत्ता है तो पुरोहित जी के खिलाफ पुलिस अदालत में कोई खास सबूत पेश नहीं कर पाये और वे आज़ाद हैं दूसरी तरफ देखिये वर्तमान के साधुराज में दलित आर्मी के नेता चंद्रशेखर अदालत से बरी होकर भी जेल में है।

आपके पास तो पूरी जानकारी होगी वैसे मुझे मालूम है कि आपके कार्य मुंह ज़ुबानी चलते हैं। खासकर कि देश भर में मुस्लिम विरोधी कार्य। ताकि पकड़े गये तो आप भी कह देते हैं कि ये हमारे नहीं और वो भी शहीद हो जाते हैं किसी भी दुश्मन देश की जासूस की तरह। पाकिस्तान कभी अपने आतंकियों को नहीं अपनाता।

आप भूल जाते हैं कि देश के लाखों लाख बौद्ध मतावलंबी दलित रहे हैं और आपके “हिंदुओं” के हमले के कारण ही बने हैं इस बात को ध्यान में रखकर आपने बाबा साहब अंबेडकर को राम अंबेडकर कभी भगवा पोतकर और हिन्दू-हिन्दू एक हो जाओ का नारा देकर भ्रमित करने की कोशिश की है जो जारी भी है। देश में 2014 के बाद ना केवल दलितों पर अत्याचार बढ़ा है, बल्कि दलित नेतृत्व को हर तरह से दबाने का प्रयास चालू है। खासकर उत्तर प्रदेश में जहां तथा कथित रूप से एक साधू सत्ता में विराजमान है आपके द्वारा प्रचारित हिन्दू-हिन्दू आज इस तरह से लिया गया है कि साधू की परिभाषा भी बदल गई है। हमारे उत्तराखंड के योगी जी इसका सबसे बड़ा उदाहरण हैं। उनकी हिन्दू वाहिनी भगवा रंग आतंकी रूप में नज़र आने लगी है। हो सकता है कि आपको यह बात तथाकथित हिन्दू राष्ट्र के लिए सकारात्मक लगती हो।

मुश्किल यह है कि आपने वास्तव में हिंदुओं के लिए और बहुत हद तक अन्य धर्मावलंबियों के लिए पवित्र गंगा बर्बादी पर ठोस कदम बिल्कुल नहीं उठाए हैं गंगा के बांध हिन्दू ठेकेदारों ने बनाए हैं। आप क्यों सनातन धर्म के भगवानों को बदनाम कर रहे है। मैं शुरु से देख रहा हूं आपने राम जी को किसी हिन्दी फिल्म की हीरो की तरह पेश कर दिया है। जैसे फिल्मी हीरो अपना सुडौल शरीर दिखाते हुये विलेन के इलाके पर हमला करते हुये दिखाया जाता है।

राम की करुणा, दया गायब कर दी। ऐसे ही हनुमान जी को आपने बना दिया। शिव सेना तक तो सह लिया था, शिव तो भोले बाबा हैं। इन सबसे प्रेम की जगह डरना सिखा रहे है आप। समाज को डराकर रख रहे हैं। ऐसा करके आप किस तरह से मुसलमानों को सबक सिखाना चाहते है?

आप तो भगवानों को मानते ही नहीं, आप कब जान पायेगें की प्रेम ही जोड़ता है। क्या राम ने वानरों को डराकर जोड़ा था। ऐसे अनेक प्रसंग आपको दे सकता हूं जिनको आप राम मंदिर में उकेरना चाहते हैं। मैं आप पर आरोप लगा रहा हूं कि RSS ने सनातन धर्म को विकृत ही किया है।

भागवत जी, आप इस देश की रंग बिरंगी मिट्टी के बने हैं, आप क्यों भूल रहे हैं इस बात को। हमें भगवे रंग से कोई परहेज़ नहीं, राम हमारे कई मामलों में आदर्श हो सकते हैं। किंतु आपके द्वारा छुपे-थोपे हुए रंग, सोच-विचार, गीत, नारे, तौर तरीके इस देश को कबूल नहीं होंगे। देखिए ना गांधी से लेकर गौरी लंकेश के बाद तक कलमें कहीं रुकी नहीं है। आप इस बात को देख ही रहे होगें।

पत्र लंबा हो रहा है किंतु उम्मीद है कि इस पत्र की पावती मुझे मिलेगी और मैं आपको अन्य बातें भी लिखकर भेजूंगा अगले पत्रों में।

आपसे जानना चाहता हूं कि मुसलमानों पर आप कब तक यह खेल खेलते रहेंगे? क्या उनको हर तरह से दबाने दूसरे दर्जे का नागरिक होना स्वीकार करवाने तक? दलितों पर अत्याचार बंद कराने के लिए कब सही वाली भूमिका ले रहे है?

मेरी और एक मांग है कि आप थोपना बंद कीजिए। अपनी बात कहिए और सरकार के भरोसे मत रहिए सरकार बदल जाती हैं। अगर आप इस सरकार से कुछ बदल पाएंगे तो अगली बार फिर नई सरकार कुछ बदल देगी। इस सत्य को आप भी जानते हैं। इसलिए आप देश की हर व्यक्ति के मस्तिष्क में हर तरह से ज़हर भी भर रहे हैं। वह सबसे कामयाब तरीका है पर फिर भी मैं आपको विश्वास दिलाता हूं, आप पर भरोसा रखता हूं कि यह सब देश के लंबे इतिहास में मात्र एक क्षण सिद्ध होगा।

इस देश को ज़िंदा रहने दीजिए, इस देश की संस्कृति को ज़िंदा रहने दीजिए, फूलों को खिलने दीजिए, रंगों को बिखरने दीजिए, महकती फिज़ाओं में युवाओं को नए रास्ते तलाशने दीजिए हिन्दू राष्ट्र की चाह में देश को बर्बाद मत कीजिए।

अपेक्षा में,
विमल भाई
फरीदाबाद, हरियाणा, भारत

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