A Terrible Morning to Wake Up To

 

India, January 22, 2024: A terrible morning to wake up to

A Terrible Morning to Wake Up to

Day 3 of Fast. This is a truly terrible morning to wake up to. And sitting here one has been seeing photographs of markets filled with orange flags everywhere. At night I could hear chants of someone ferociously screaming “Jai Shree Ram” from the main road.

And one has been watching the interviews on television and things that have been going on.

Someone wrote to me saying it marks the death of secularism in India.

When one looks at the participation of the people of India in this whole production, one wonders whether there ever was secularism here.

But I think that it’s still too early to say exactly what is going on. There is a tendency to feel very despondent when you hear of a colony that you know filled with saffron flags. But on the other hand there’s jubilation when you just hear ordinary, non-political people go out and have it removed because it doesn’t have permission. And even when they go to the local pundit to ask if they put it up, they find that the local pundit had nothing to do with it.

So exactly what is behind all the symbols of celebration that you see around; how much it comes from the people and how much it has been orchestrated; and also, perhaps more importantly, what is the spirit in which different people are celebrating this….Even in a dark time like this, there is a certain innocence and beauty in the bhakti of the common Indian, the common Hindu. And many of them could be responding simply from that, and not even very much aware of the politics or the history or the larger narrative that the Modi regime is presenting in this regard.

So, while one feels very, very despondent and hopeless today. At the same time, one has to wait and see as to exactly what is going on.

What We Have to Address

There are two things that I’ve been hearing a lot in the last two days, which I think we will have to respond to. One is this claim that this temple has come up after 500 years of struggle.

The other one: there was a secular news outlet which was going around interviewing villagers and asking them what they thought about things. One of the things the interviewer asked one person was tell me four things which Ram did which you believe that Modi has done. And the person responded saying: “चार चीजें, मैं तो ऐसे नहीं बता सकता। लेकिन, मोदी ने जो सनातन का झंडा लहराया है, वो सही है [I don’t know about four things, but what Modi has done by raising the flag of Sanatan [Hinduism], that is right.]”

Behind both of these statements is a version of history and an existential position that the Hindu in India has placed himself in, which is a very vast and deep narrative and that is where our work will have to begin in responding.

Making the Case for our Composite Culture

One of the things that has emerged in thinking about all of this and responding to some of the more concerted and open efforts to change the ideals of this country, especially the attempt to dislodge Gandhi, for example, is that the idea of a secular and compassionate India is not something new. And the reason why Indians in the past have responded to appeals for this is because we do have a composite culture. We need to look back into this culture and really understand it and participate in it. One has to make more of an effort to assert one’s authenticity, and assert one’s belongingness. And for that there needs to be a much deeper and wider understanding of all the aspects of our culture that lie behind people like Gandhi, or Nehru, or the Frontier Gandhi Khan Abdul Gafar Khan or Maulana Abul Kalam Azad.

When all of our scriptures, sayings and texts are part of our body of knowledge then we will be able to respond from there. If this fight is being fought in the name of Hinduism, or in the name of nationalism, or in the name of authenticity, or in the name of pushing back against Westernisation, then from those same places, from Hinduism, from our ancient texts, arts scriptures, philosophies and beliefs we can give the answers. But we need to have more of that information, and a lot of the work that I do is putting that together.

While there is nothing wrong with making the case based on constitutional rights, human rights and common human decency, that is not enough. You see it wobbling even in the West. And one of the reasons that the West is not able to respond to that is that there is no sense of an organic growth of a composite culture there. You cannot forge a society based only on intellectual ideals.   

Any kind of political intervention must be based on a very deep and empathetic understanding of the people you are talking about. And this is something that is lacking both on the Left and Right of politics today. We have to start thinking about how to respond creatively to the situation in India today.  

Creative Protest, Redemptive Politics & Satyagraha

Martin Luther King spoke of creative protest and he spoke of a sort of redemptive politics. He called it “redemptive non-violence”. In changing this narrative and getting people to open their minds again which have been closed by the idea that there has been 500 years of struggle for Hinduism and that the flag of Hinduism needs to be raised in India as though it had ever been lowered, in order to respond to that we need to also be functioning on another gear.

This requires a redemptive approach. We have to rise above the hurt, the anguish and the sense of betrayal. Only then can we get to the other side of the situation where we find ourselves.

This is what Gandhi used to speak about. His Satyagraha was different from civil disobedience, strikes, boycotts and other forms of civil resistance. Satyagraha for him was an exercise in changing the heart and mind of your adversary. He said that ultimately the idea was that whoever you’re facing, you have to be able to bring them across to your side, and in the end neither side must feel that they have won or lost, but both sides should feel released and redeemed from the situation of antagonism in which they were, to a situation of a mutual celebration of justice, of a mutual respect and a mutual love. In order to get there, you have to go to a much deeper level than laws or even politics.

Ancient Texts and Traditional Arts as a Door to Regaining the India we Cherished

In the course of the work that I started to do with the arts and theatrical productions, one of my great dreams is to do a musical history of the music of India. So one kept going back into time researching this. In the course of this work I read parts of the Natya Shastra. Reading the Natya Shastra, the Valmiki Ramayana and the Bhagawad Gita for this work, one thing which struck me was the sophistication of this work. If Indians were even to adopt their aesthetic, it would take so much out of the poison that surrounds us today.

To really comprehend what I am saying you need to get to know this literature yourself. I think that we are missing an opportunity if we say that we are not going to look at this because it is attributed to a particular religion, or because we ask why this cannot be done based on rights and constitution. I wish we could, but consider this other way.

Because if you get into the mood of these works, the point of view, which is very sophisticated, liberal and cosmopolitan, then we can claim all these ideals from things which nobody can deny belong to us.

The Need to Speak Up

A lot of people of Hindu origin, or people who are Hindus, are concerned about what is happening in the country today. They are happy if someone stands up and speaks. But this is not going to be enough.

I think it is very understandable for people for be nervous in the current atmosphere. It is not a free atmosphere. But in a way even, the restriction under which we are operating forces us to go on a better path. There is no point taking a confrontational approach in the current environment. But we have to think as to how we can talk about our values and assert and celebrate them. This does not have to be done in a confrontational or pejorative way. This requires more people to be involved and to be seen to be involved. So get in touch if what I say makes sense.

I am talking to ordinary, apolitical people who are comfortably doing their jobs and raising their children. I think that the time has come for you to start doing more. Goodwill alone is not going to work anymore. You don’t have to be an activist. Celebrating all the things that make us such a beautiful and joyous country don’t require you to take any particularly political position on the things that are going on today. But you must come out. You must come out with your money. You must come out with your participation. You must atleast be an audience for this. Because things have really spiraled out of hand.

And not everyone in the country can just leave. I don’t think that you should take advantage of the fact that you can simply fly off and settle elsewhere.

Ultimately it is one world. Gandhi used to say that my experiment is in India but I have a message for the world. If in India, we are not able to again grow the flower of love that once was here, then everywhere else will also start drying up into a desert of hate. Don’t think that you can just settle in America or Australia and escape this. You cannot – not for more than a generation.

 We need to leave a good and noble world for our children and their children. And I know that somewhere in your heart you must feel this but you’re repressing it because you think that it’s too much trouble, or it’s going to go away or maybe by saying anything or doing anything you will only make things worse. But I don’t think that’s right.

Now is the time. Now is the time for ordinary people to simply express their love for their fellow Indians and for their wish for a happy India in which everyone has equal respect and dignity.