David Buhril
The diverse nation with all sorts of its compartments is simmering with various aspirations and expressions. A statement in support of the displaced people of Narmada valley is all it takes for the Government of Gujarat to ban veteran actor Amir Khan and everything about him. How long? Over flexing its power in hunger and thirst, Modi’s band wrecks the reason to weigh the fair and unfair side of its actions and judgment. Narmada Bachao Andolan’s leader Medha Patkar called it “unlawful action”. The Government at the Centre is sweating to lull and pacify the storm it raised with its decision to implement 27% reservation for the Other Backward Classes (OBC).
Sharing thoughts on the “ Say No To Reservation” campaign, I am glad to read the opinions of our folks with their clear inclination. Wonderful shift, should I say? On the part of the well-bred urban protesters, well-orchestrated expressions are staged in every part of the country. Protesters planting trees. Protesters riding shirtless on the streets. Protesters setting fire over them. Hunger strike. Talking about milk and honeyed principles of “fairness, equality, and justice”. On the other side, millions, for whom the reservation is designed, went about with their usual miseries, little knowing about the policy much debated. Little knowing they have become a big question in the progress of democracy. They would not know the ways and means of protesting. Not even the right place and the right time. Not even their rights. What if the table turns and the section with the loudest voices wins, while the voiceless failed to address their slice of plights, forget their needs. What if the progress of democracy removes the bridge that links them to the big world outside? Is this the predicted game of the “Survival of the fittest”?
I was asked to imagine a picture of India. I managed to come up with a picture of a gap. A big wide gap. The evidence of this gap is even reflected in the manner and character of the daily protest that has almost become a staple diet for the medias. Flooding all headlines and valuable front page with their voices and expressions. As we wrestle with the issue, merely debating and negotiating on reservation as a subject will not answer our quest. It will not help us reason too. The need is to understand the undeniable existence of the gap evidences, which should be the context of the issue. Understanding the context of this gap ought to be the filter of any decision making process. Merely questioning and challenging the “validity” of the Constitution is not a logical approach in confronting the issue again. After seeing the water being tested, I won’t be surprised to see dancing on the streets and burning crackers if tomorrow reservation is scrapped in the name of “merit” and “quality”. We are facing difficulties in approaching the reality of India as a nation. And what I see is that we arrived with our baggage of stereotyped ideas, which we have received as absolutely certain, and never think of testing against the harsh reality, but only seek to confirm. In doing so the lines and boundaries of class become more obvious and clear. Expressions are bursting along those lines. Taking sides. Them and us. That’s when even the so-called intellectuals crucify reason. No matter how well defended ones side is, we ought to wake up to embrace and accommodate the majority of the marginalized lots which is a result of the evolution of social divisions that was validated ages ago. That evolution took many centuries. A burst of urban-bred citizens who are squeezed in small “cities” may take many other centuries to wake to that reality where people in their neighbours are still living with today. Those divisions were not just a classification. It was discriminating in all manners, which have actually catch up with the need for that package called “reservation”, when the nation has to walk that talk of equality, justice and fairness. The millions of people who are in need of reservation today were once victims of systemic denial and discrimination. The need for reservation is firmly rooted in our history. The current debate and discussion must draw its relations with history. The relation with history will certainly help us understand the relevance of reservation. The important thing is to go beyond imagining individual self. The package is not just an instrument to harmonize the gap but also to reconstruct the ruins of history.
It will enlighten us a lot if we knew that there still are pre-urban race of people living inside that gap who will take long time to hatch a new beginning. The staged expressions are the languages of dominion, in celebration of democracy, by enlightened citizens who recognized power inequalities as the foundation of social inequalities.
