In Solidarity with Ramjas College
Sometimes, when I try to talk about a social or political issue that I believe is extremely important, there is this unshakable feeling that I am too young to be talking so seriously and definitely too young to be taken so seriously. Irrespective of how much the issue might affect what I value or believe in, the truth is that I remain untouched by it. My everyday life, is unaffected and it’s someone else’s issue.
The word protest itself is a strong one, and the words associated with it are even stronger. I ‘fight’ for this, I ‘stand’ for that, I am ‘not afraid’, I will ‘not give in’, I ‘demand’ this, I ‘challenge’ that. Words that call upon the strongest of beliefs and the hardest of struggles. To write these words or shout them out, you need anger. And when all I have learnt about an issue is through ‘reading up’ about it online, it’s difficult to summon up that anger without it feeling fake.
But I’ll tell you what does make me angry. When a ex-army commander comes home for dinner and talks with pride about how he ‘dealt’ with women (too bold for their own good) in Sri Lanka. When a 9 year old cousin announces that she’ll never ever marry a Pakistani. When someone from our trek team poses with an Indian flag at the peak in Kashmir. When a classmate furiously bathes in sanitiser when we return from our SUPW hour of teaching in a kannada medium government school. When a friend’s father needs to be reminded by his wife to feed the kids, when someone in college tells a girl in NCC to stay away from the guns and stick with the broom, when a teacher in class refuses to screen a movie because “it might upset the management”, when an uncle says we owe it all to the British Raj, when we discover that the leak in our building has been traced to a neighbour who built a toilet in their balcony just so that they won’t have to share their other four with the maid who has been with them since the kid was born eight years ago.
On 21 February 2017, students in Ramjas college were attacked by the all too familiar members of the ABVP simply because they invited Umar Khalid (the “anti-national” from JNU) to speak at an ongoing cultural event. About 20 people were actually physically injured. It’s unreal but at the same time, wasn’t this what all the censorship and sedition charges were leading up to? When issues seem larger and more serious than me, I compare them to smaller ones that I can relate to and this one is a family WhatsApp group where some people can forward what they like because it’s all just a joke, but others have to keep in mind delicate sentiments for fear of upsetting or offending those older than them.
I will forward what I want to forward.
And the students at Ramjas college will discuss what they want to discuss.
#StudentsAgainstABVP # DUFightsBack
