India – Ethnicity or freedom?

                                         Akhil Sood

“The world has gone to shut, there is no way around it.   Donald Trump is busy trying to bully a 16 year old climate change activist with Asperger’s on Twitter.  The U. K. is run by a man who hides inside refrigerators (literally) to evade tough questions from reporters.  One Amazone is on fire, the other one is laughing all the way to the bank, covered in layers of cardboard and bubble wrap, not letting its employees take pee breaks. This is barely even the tip.

Closer home, the lovely people in power are locked in a bitter feud with past leaders who died a minimum of 35 years ago.  During breaks, they put in place aggressive policies widely criticized for being unconstitutional, leading to democratic dissent, which is subsequently crushed, followed by predictable dog whistles attacking “anti-national elements” or, more recently, people’s attire.  As I’m writing this, students at public  universities across the country are bravely protesting the Citizenship (Amendment) Act in the face of aggression and force by the police and little to no support by the political elite.  In such bleak times, humour can, for many, be a means of both relief and resistance.

The time is ripe, one feels, for creating bitter satire.  And to spread it far and wide through  the internet (till it gets shut down).  Except that there is a slight hitch.

                                        Rimple  Mehta

The raging debate and protests around the citizenship  (Amendment) Act (CAA), race important questions around identity.  With a protectionist approach, CAA claims to correct a historical wrong and rescue specific religious minorities from Afghanistan, Pakistan and Bangladesh by offering them a possibility of Indian citizenship….

Through CAA, we have limited the understanding of  cross boarder mobility only as a result of religious persecutions.  What about linguistic, political, environmental or cultural persecution ?  India has awarded the question of refugees for a long time, primarily due to its own large population, economic burden, and lack of welfare services to offer to those seeking refugee.  It has, however, taken ad-hoc decisions to give refugee to Afghanistan, Tibatans and other such refugees from time to time…..

India shares international boarders with seven countries, and the people in many of these boarder lands live in close proximity and have deeply shared histories and everyday practices.   If history were to be invoked lmpartially, it would involve their shared histories and identities,  which were divided because of the political boarders created over different time periods.

These shared histories and identities remain etched in the everyday lives of a number of communities living on either side of national boarders.  It promotes cross boarder mobility of various kinds -  some legal, some extra legal.  

.                         Sandeep Roy

Why has Shah Rukh Khan been silent about the violence at Jamia Millia Islamia, his old university?  Why has he not stood up for his alma matter?  What does Amitabh Bachan make of the new generation of angry young men and women taking to the streets across the country?  What do all the Khans think about CAA and NRC?  As protests spread across the country, the silence of the big guns of Bollywood  has been the subject of much debate. 

But all this breast beating is pointless.  They are Bollywood stars.  If we mistake them for lodestars, it is our problem.  Conscience keeper of the nation, champion of the underdog are just roles they sometimes play on screen.  Off screen everyone knows the secret to success and longevity has always been not rocking the boat.  Journalist Rasheed Kidwai wrote about Amitabh Bachan. “He has a history of preferring discretion to valor in public and political affairs.”

And it has served him well.  Once Bachan was asked what he thought of Maharashtra’s beef ban.  He replied “Is there a law?  Is there a law that has been passed?”  When he learned that indeed there was, he replied  “I am vegetarian”, a variation of what is called NIrmala Sitharaman Onion Defence these days.  Now it is Rajinikanth’s turn.  As he promoted his new film Darbar, he was asked about  police attacking  student protestors.  He dodged it saying it wasn’t the “right platform” to talk about such things. Incidentally, Rajinikanth will play a police officer in his new film."