The India of my Dreams
Tuesday, 25 February 2014
Sunday, 2 February 2014
Theatre of the absurd
Sukumaran C. V.
A democratic discussion is going on on the topic of Progress. The delegates are the Development, the Politics, a Doctor, an Engineer, a Farmer, a Poor man, a Woman and a Tiger who represents the Environment.
Politics is presiding. In his inaugural address Politics said that he presides over the meeting because, of all the participants, he is the only one who stands to safeguard the interests of everybody. Then he called Development to speak.
Development: “Without developmental works, there will be no Progress. Environmentalists may argue that development is killing the planet. But they don’t see that the humans are able to eradicate poverty and live in prosperity only because there is development.” The poor man wanted to interfere, but he was not allowed by the president, and Development continued: “Now we want an airport in Aranmula. A feeder airstrip in Wayanad and the highway should be made four lane in Malappuram. People are agitating against land acquisition for these developmental projects that will change the face of the State.”
Doctor and Engineer: “Absolutely correct.”
The paddy-fields at Cheekalloor in Wayanad where the feeder airport is proposed
Farmer: “Development wants to acquire acres of paddy fields and wet lands known as Aranmula puncha to construct an airport. For an airstrip or feeder airport in Wayanad, Development is trying to acquire 337 acres of biodiversity rich land. Of this, 169 acres are fertile paddy fields and to fill these fertile fields, many surrounding hillocks will be bulldozed. What a trail of destruction in the name of Progress! However developed we have become or we may become, we have to take food to sustain life and the thing that helps us sustain life is paddy. If in the name of Progress you convert all our arable lands into roads and airports and rubber estates and concrete jungles what will we eat? If we bulldoze all hillocks and destroy all vegetation, how will we get fresh air and clean water? And for whom the airports are constru…” Development interfered and was allowed to speak.
Development: “Farmer is prejudiced against Progress. His argument is undemocratic.”
Doctor and Engineer: “Absolutely correct.”
Poor man: “I really don’t see how Farmer’s argument is undemocratic. He told the naked truth. Is speaking truth undemocratic? Do the farmers need airport? Do the poor need airport? Do the hillocks and plants and trees and rivers and the wildlife need airport?”
Woman: “As far as I am concerned, Progress means a peaceful atmosphere to live in without being harassed and molested. In the villages I feel safety and security while in the so called places of Progress and Development, I am being raped and harassed and molested and forced into prostitution. I am against converting the still remaining villages and forests into the concrete jungles in the name of Development or Progress. The Progress we have already had is more than enough. Let’s protect the still remaining villages, forests and the wildlife.”
Development: “I prefer the interests of the human beings to that of the forests and wildlife. My aim is to bring the fruits of Progress to each and every human being.”
Doctor and Engineer: “Absolutely correct.”
Poor man: “Dear Mr. Development, in 1998, $6 billion was spent on basic education across the world; $9 billion on water and sanitation for everyone in the world; $12 billion on reproductive health for all women in the world; $400 billion on narcotic drugs in the world and $780 billion on military spending in the world. As the compiler of this list notes: ‘It would seem ironic that the world spends more on things to destroy each other (military) and to destroy ourselves (drugs, alcohol and cigarettes) than on anything else.’ Is this the Progress you refer to?”
Politics: “We are talking about Kerala and India. Take care not to go off the point.”
Poor man: “Sorry for the deviation. I didn’t know that India is not in the world. (The politician was happy to see that the Poor man noted and respected his presiding comment. He is not intelligent enough to note the satire.) But in the words of a well-known writer, ‘while 350 million people go hungry in India, former granaries in the country export tulips and dog food to Europe. While these same hundreds of millions starve, “their” government attempts to dump sixty million tons of grain into the ocean, because it cannot find export markets for that grain, and because it will not distribute food to those who cannot pay.’ Is this the Progress Development and Politics refer to?”
Development whispers something to Politics. Politics shakes his head in approval and says: “Time is over and if the representative of the Environment has anything to say without bias and prejudice, he is allowed a few minutes.”
Tiger: “Dear president Politics, I have been caught and caged and kept in a zoo ever since. My condition aptly expresses the hapless plight of the Environment which I represent. The ways of your democracy are really strange. The president says that he represents the interests of everybody and yet he supports Development blindfold! I know the president’s affiliation to a ‘progressive’ party that observed a hartal to protest the inclusion of forest patches into ecologically sensitive areas under the EPA, 1986. Development says that he prefers the interests of the human beings to that of the forests and wildlife. I would like to say that he prefers the interests of the greedy rich to that of the farmers, the poor, the women, the Environment and the wildlife. Many of the ‘absolutely correct’ people belong to the category of the greedy. The real name of Development is Business.”
Development whispers to Politics and he tries to stop Tiger, but his attempts are drowned in the roar and eloquence of Tiger: “The vast majority of the poor and the farmers need fresh air and clean water. To have both of these, pristine forest cover is needed and to preserve the forests, the wildlife is essential. The forest cover together with the wildlife is a prerequisite to provide a healthy atmosphere for the humans and other forms of life to survive. Development together with Politics has been destroying it long since. They have been destroying our habitats and killing us for centuries and they have been displacing the poor and the farmers, they have been annihilating the biodiversity of Mother Nature, they have been killing the planet our Mother for 30 pieces of silver….”
Again Development whispers to Politics and he shouts: “Guards.”
Guards of Democracy arrive with machine guns and are asked to take the animal away.
Development: (aside) “Brute, you are going to pay dearly for your guts and for revealing my real name.”
Farmer, Woman and Poor man: “It is undemocratic...”
Politics: “The discussion is over. Let’s put the resolution for voting.”
Development, Doctor and Engineer voted for Progress. Farmer, Woman and Poor man voted against. Tiger was not allowed to vote. Politics used his casting vote in favour of Progress. (Thus the interest of the majority of the people and the Environment was crushed democratically). Development hands over a suitcase to Politics. Politics grins with happiness. Development scribbles something on a piece of paper and hands it over to Politics and after perusing it, Politics calls the Head Guard and orders: “Open the cage and when the brute is out, shoot and kill it for trying to escape.”
Politics and Development and Doctor and Engineer go hand in hand to the air-conditioned car of Development with the escort of the Guards of Democracy. A gun shot is heard in the distance.
Woman, Farmer and Poor man: “Democracy has successfully dealt with the Environment , ours is the next turn.”
A view of the vast expanse of paddy land (Aranmula Puncha) that has been converted to set up a private airport company at Aranmula. Photo: Leju Kamal (The Hindu)
Saturday, 4 January 2014
Thursday, 2 January 2014
Saturday, 14 December 2013
Friday, 29 November 2013
Culture of silence and the masked and unmasked atrocities
Sukumaran C. V.
If you are the high profile boss and you allegedly lure a young woman employed by you into the lift of the hotel in which you stay and make the lift stay in circuit mode, we can guess what your intention is. The ‘encounter’ can never be considered as banter, it can’t be consensual too. It is sexual harassment, it’s rape.
You yourself know that you have forced upon her. And, as she is a bold girl, you fear that even if you have warned her that ‘this is the easiest way to keep’ her job she may complain. You are desperate to keep your ‘Valley of Masks’ unmasked. First you try to convince the victim that you have done it only because of her consent, texting her that she ‘misconstrued a drunken banter’. Again you fear that your ‘Valley of Masks’ is going to be unmasked, but you want to keep the masks at any costs because if the masks are gone, you are lost.
You send emails to your managing editor explaining that the incident is a bad lapse of judgment and you must do the penance that lacerates you. You think that this would certainly keep your ‘Valley of Masks’ away from being unmasked. When you realized that neither your vile threat nor your ‘lacerating penance’ is going to save your ‘Valley of Masks’, you say that the encounter is consensual and ask the police to “obtain, examine and release the CCTV footage so that the accurate version of events stands clearly revealed”. You have put the lift stay in circuit mode only after ascertaining that there is no CCTV camera inside it. Have you decided to ‘do the penance that lacerates’ you without knowing the ‘accurate version of the events’? The way of your lacerating penance is really wonderful.
Do you think that the rapists need only self imposed ‘lacerating penances’ as punishment? Whom does your penance lacerate? Does it lacerate you or your victim? Do you think that the female will be ready to keep her job even at the cost of her dignity and pride? You must have many such ‘encounters’ before you have ‘encountered’ this 23 year old girl whom you couldn’t silence as you might have done with your other victims. Do you know that those who harass women and tell them that it is the easiest way to keep their job are the most dangerous representatives of our misogynistic culture and male chauvinism?
Don’t you know that the very culture of sexual harassment originates from our culture of silence? Our society teaches the female to be silent and she is silenced always. And you have tried to silence your victim through many sublime ways to keep your ‘Valley of Masks’ unmasked. People like you and the retired judge who allegedly harassed a law intern commit your atrocities against the female within the safety and security of your valleys of masks. And the female is subjected to unmasked atrocities in the public space as the Delhi girl who was gang raped and killed and the Mumbai girl who was gang raped and traumatized. If both the so called ‘educated and civilized’ and the illiterate and the ruffians share the same attitude—the female is a sexual object created for the entertainment of the male— that makes life a burden to the females in our country, can our laws and law enforcement agencies provide safety and security to the hapless lot?
Those who harass women and tell them that it is the easiest way to keep their job are the most dangerous representatives of our misogynistic culture and male chauvinism. They think that the female will be ready to keep her job even at the cost of her dignity and pride. As long as we can’t break this culture of silence or ‘valley of masks’ that perpetrates manifold atrocities against the female, women will continue to suffer harassment from the ‘educated and masked’ people like Tejpal and the retired judge; and the illiterate and unmasked ruffians who committed heinous crimes inside the running bus in Delhi and inside the deserted Shakti Mill compound in Mumbai.
Tuesday, 17 September 2013
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