We placed a double burden on the students of Jamia Millia Islamia and of Aligarh Muslim University that not only are you expected to be students, but you must bear the burden of State repression, you must bear the burden of proving your own innocence and you must bear the burden of police violence on you.” says activist Farah Naqvi as she speaks out against the police brutality faced by the students of Jamia Millia Islamia on December 15, 2019 That night in the police station, it was the longest night of many people’s memories.
“There is only one time in history when a State has said to its people, that we will decide who is a citizen, depending on a set of documents that we will approve. And that was in 1935, Nazi Germany – the Nuremberg Citizenship Laws.” says author Arundhati Roy, at an event at the Press Club saw students and others uniting in recalling the trauma of December 15, 2019.
“True bravery lies in standing up to violence,” says Harsh Mander, “not in being violent towards the weak…The Karwan e Mohabbat will talk, write, make films…so no one can claim later that they did not know how minorities were being marginalised.” “They should not need to say it, yet Muslims feel compelled to reiterate that they have chosen India not by chance but by choice. Why should minorities be forced to prove their nationalism,” asks Navsharan Singh “It is impossible to forget the faces of elderly parents of lynching victims…as they fight for crumbs of justice,” says Natasha Badhwar. “It should no longer be possible for us to allow these atrocities.”
“Caste sits at the centre of all oppression, be it sexism, homophobia, xenophobia. All forms of discrimination emanate from this,” says @SurajYengde “Crimes against Dalits is an everyday genocide in India.”
Is India a dream deferred? What did we really win when India became independent on 15 August, 1947? Where do we find ourselves on 15 August, 2020? Naseeruddin Shah recites Faiz Ahmed Faiz’s iconic poem, The Dawn Of Freedom – Subh‐e Azadi
“I refuse injustice because refusing to accept injustice is the first step towards Revolution.” says Aamir Aziz, echoing the sentiment of the freedom fighters who stood up against the colonial regime of the British to win India’s freedom on 15 August, 1947. Aamir Aziz, the poet-songwriter-actor from the city of Patna, who has revolutionised the voice of dissent.
“If Mahatma Gandhi was alive today, he would have been regarded as the greatest anti-national”, says Swara Bhasker as she explains why Gandhi is relevant forever. “Mahatma Gandhi represents the moral and ethical core of our nation. His language of non-violence and civil disobedience made it possible for people of all castes and classes to be a part of the freedom struggle. He always taught us to seek independence not from British particularly, but from the idea of being discriminated against on the basis of caste, class, religion, gender, etc.”
“Every time someone says anything negative about India, we all show up in a crowd and prove them right!” “I have no illusions that comedy is going to save the country,” says Aditi Mittal, “but our vote is our voice, and we must all exercise it. The time is now.”.
Where Varun Grover compares Narendra Modi to an authoritarian father and shares that poetry is the weapon of the vulnerable. “Poetry is a cry for help,” he says. Poetry empowers the self to say, “I have not lost yet…” At Azad Maidan, Mumbai and in conversation with Karwan e Mohabbat
मैं ज़िन्दा रहना चाहता हूँ …
Poet and author, Vinod Kumar Shukla recites a powerful, chilling re-imagination of curfew in the city.
One man’s defiance of curfew could lead to his death, or give him the gift of a life.
I feel anxious for my children because tomorrow if mob surrounds them and asks, “Are you a Hindu or a Muslim?” …they will have no answer, says actor Naseeruddin Shah. The poison has already spread in society. There is complete impunity for those who take the law into their own hands. We have already witnessed that the death of a cow has more significance than that of a police officer in today’s India.
A certain section of Hindu fundamentalists have started thinking exactly like “Muslim mullas”. They want to give the Hindu community a Kaaba (sacred place of worship), they want to give them some rituals… they want to state that this one thing is right and everything else is wrong. Just like in Islam you have to accept the word of a Wali, Caliph or Prophet, now if you don’t worship Modi-ji, then you’re not a true Hindu. The majority community has no reason to feel insecure, says poet and screenwriter, Javed Akhtar
“Because so much of the hatred that is now being spawned in our society is associated with religion, with communities, and to some extent with caste, we forget that there is also a very strong patriarchal dimension to this,” says Prof. Jayati Ghosh of JNU. “This is an ideology that is deeply anti-women, that seek to suppress, subjugate and repress women, and that uses so-called tradition and culture and all of that to do so.”
“It is the success of the British and our failure, that we have allowed our culture and history to be divided in terms of Hindu and Muslim,” says historian Sohail Hashmi. “If Indian history is to be divided into periods based on the religion of rulers, then why is the Hindu period and the Islamic period not followed by the Christian period,” he asks in the next episode of #Tathya on the communalisation of Indian history and culture. A clear-eyed takedown by Sohail Hashmi @Dilliwal of the anatomy of divide and rule as it was practiced by the British.
What does mutual co-existence mean? Not that we live next to each other. It means a part of me exists in you and a part of you exists in me. A part of my wajood (existence) is in you and yours in me. Maulana Rumi, Kabir, Baba Bulleh Shah, John Lennon – all artists have expressed the same sentiments throughout centuries. Those who propagate hate and violence have neither poetry nor thought in them. Their poison won’t last long. Art is alive and it will neutralize the poison of hate, says musician and academic, Madan Gopal Singh.