And The Woman She Is

Translation of the song "Aurat Ne Janam Diya Mardon Ko", from the movie Sadhna (1958):

"Woman gave birth to man.
And he gave her the flesh-trade
Whenever they felt like it
They trampled on her or discarded her
Woman gave birth to man

She is weighed in dinars
Or sold in open markets
She’s stripped in the court of lustful men
She’s that ill-reputed thing
Which settles among the reputed
Woman gave birth to man

Man can commit every crime
But a woman can’t even weep
Man sleeps on a million soft beds
The woman gets the funeral pyre
Man has a right to every luxury
For a woman life itself is a punishment
And it was a woman who gave birth to man

The lips which declared love
Were traded for money
The womb [from] which they were born
Was used as a business
The very body they blossomed from
[Was] abused by them
Woman gave birth to man

Men made customs which were regarded as their rights
But a woman being burnt alive was looked upon as sacrifice
Even the food given to her was considered an obligation
And to think it was a woman who gave birth to man

Every act of shamelessness is rooted in poverty
What is passion in men is a sin to woman
Woman gave birth to man

A woman is destiny of the world
But she doesn’t have it herself
She bears prophets and lord incarnates
Even then she’s considered a devil’s child
This is that unfortunate mom
Who sleeps with her own sons

For woman is the mother of man
But they gave her the marketplace
Whenever they felt like it they accepted or discarded her
And it was a woman who gave birth to man"

A Note On Social Conflict

There has always been a Social Conflict existing in the society whether we like it or not and whether we accept it or not. The theme of such conflicts has changed ranging from ethnicity to racism to casteism to inter-casteism, and so on and so forth; yet the concept remains relevant in any given point of time taken for reference even sans par contra. The idea of citizen participation, is not a novel idea emerging out of fine technocratic efforts, though if claimed so, is only an indication of having reinvented a wheel, and can only  be rendered as necessity to complement the evolving political structure that is prevalent in the contemporary scenario.

The need to understand such complexities is necessary to prepare contingency plans when conflicts arise and to understand the dynamics of basic human behaviour, also already explained through various Social Sciences. To find relevance of such theories and philosophies to the socio-cultural and traditional context, any “meritorious technocrat” would need to break the mystery with proper understanding of the ingredient that adds a local flavour to the emerging issue in hand.

However, we are raising the concept of “citizen participation” standing in a developing country internally struggling to keep the states together, in a country where despite attempts made to show our need to contemplate strength required to advance by bringing forth the concept of ‘unity in diversity’, ‘diversity’ is more predominant than the expected unity in terms of the stratification witnessed in every step taken, even in an enlightening process of education where the need to fill the religion and caste is still mandatory despite disapproving the same in text book covers and incorporated into lessons; this pseudo advancement is only a complement to the lop-sided comparatively rapid advancement in science and technology seen along side rural development; villages still need electrification after over 6 decades of independence, our Prime Minister sinks while mentioning losing thousands of children every single day due to malnutrition as a national shame. Worse stories can be heard about the health sector, thanks to poor sanitation, water and hygiene and unreached health programs; inaccessible areas can still dream of doctors and health services reaching them with our doctor-population ratio misting away at 1:4000 and that too with most of the doctor cluster beaming with the pride of meritocracy taking their first flight out adding to our brain drain or settle in concentrated-cushioned urban carpets when 70% of India still lives in villages.

The programs we have to eradicate poverty and promote better standard of living et all, just like our IPC and constitution, are one of the best in the world yet only on paper. If only we had implemented them! We have done nothing about it. Apathy! We live in a world of marked differences; a huge wall separating the few rich and plenty poor; we live to prove the 80:20 theory, which says that 80% of the wealth rests with 20% of the people and vice versa. Unequal distribution of wealth and justice has always been an issue brushed underneath the carpet as we shine the floor for highlighting our land as one with a progressive prospect.

The concept of e-governance is attempted with just 4% of internet users in the country, with a population exceeding 1.19 billion and a growth rate of 1.5%, our BPL index hitting a 22% and illiteracy level at 39%. What needs to be our priority?! Do we see all this before speaking the technocratic language or is it an accumulation of Ignorance with Apathy?

multi-disciplinary interventions juggling Politics, Sociology, Philosophy, Psychology and Economics, need to be deliberated to widen the horizon of limitless solutions; beginning with the understanding of issues. Each branch deals with the issue within its certain boundaries and an attempt needs to be made to converge these in case a vision incorporating all needs to be envisaged.

The ‘body’ as a metaphor used in earlier philosophies to explain stratification needs to be looked into with a new perspective and may be attempted to be seen as a wholesome unit while contemplating utopian ideals such as Citizen Participation. This is only a representation of our movement from a barbaric world into a more civilized world; sans enduring will only negate endeavours especially with more need-based missions that need to be initiated and socio-political-economic barriers that stagnate the growth process that need to be crossed in the development process by inculcating values along with (un)commonsense to realize sustainable development. Priorities need to change, apathy and ignorance curbed, further redtapism nullified and dreams hastened into action. Till then, “Citizen Participation” will be forged in pain; as pain is the only commodity available sans disparity. At the moment, we are at the crossroads.  

Painting by M.F Hussain

The Indian In Imagination

If I were to draw blindfolded an image of an Indian from what I hear from what people have heard or seen about India and its people from outside its borders, perhaps I would be drawing a dark, skinny and dusty person with a grim face and a turban wrapped several times around the head, amidst dark, gloomy clouds of lust and violence, corruption and scams, pollution and population hovering in the backdrop. Much of this imaginary imagery has been seeded long before and has been systematically imprinted in the minds; and we, from within the borders, have relentlessly watered and nurtured this image to keep it intact. Yet, it is only an illusion and the deeds and characteristics of a minority present (as in any other country) and presented cannot be generalized and held true and applicable to the majority.

A few decades back, this is how we too played a part in painting the whole of Africa as a country with sick, poor, bony, dusty, dark children; that we expect every child of Africa to fit into the very same picture of our imagination. To a certain extent we have achieved in seeding this thought into our minds that so stubbornly refuses to go; so much so that we cannot stop seeing Africa and its citizens without sympathy; even if they don't ask for it.  

How is this image drawn so conveniently? 

Who frames these images? 

What benefit is derived by giving and taking up such an identity?

There are perhaps reasons for allowing this unclean and skewed image to be maintained to arrive at a win-win situation for both the perceiver and the perceived in many ways.

India has always been seen as a field full of harvest. As we try to think that gone are those days, when they reached our shores to mine us off our riches and sell it in their coasts, it is equally pertinent to watch carefully that today those we believed to be gone, are back in our shores and this time, to mine us off our poverty and sell it in their coasts. Their first stop often as they reach our land is to reach slums, pavements and areas of underdevelopment, poverty and hunger-their choicest destinations (often with good connectivity through air), where they pull out their point and shoot cameras, to do exactly what it is meant to do-point and shoot megapixel after megapixel of great whites amidst the poor, vulnerable and unprotected lot in an impoverished nation that will soon get uploaded, downloaded and hoisted in racks and presented in slides during fund raising campaigns amongst mesmerized audiences who can’t stop but give in to their compassionate side on seeing the marginalized blown up to unimaginable proportions to fit into their own imagination of a community of victims, they provide with deep-seated hope that this situation might change and render themselves as agents of such a change. Thus emerges a breeding ground for forced-need-based communities and strategic-greed-based organizations and the marriage of these two groups have become complementary for each others survival.

Over six decades of freedom later and after millions of dollars raised outside our borders in promised lands by compassionate people and those living off that money raised in the name of the poor, with a stage set for provider-receiver drama to happen with lakhs of organizations to act as actors, traitors and betrayers (from within and out) breeding with their eyes on the share of the morsel than anything else-with many who come by day and fly by night, nothing much has changed; we are still burdened. The only thing gained is that we have been able to maintain this image of an always poor and needy still “developing” nation... and with this attitude of ours to supply to the demand of other nations with our poverty, we will always be this way and will remain and be kept this way for a very long long time to come and our image too, just like that of Africa, will be a story of never ending poverty and sorry endings and we shall soon be dressed in rags in the imagination of the world. Keep contributing. Jai Hind!

The Question On Indian Identity

“Where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way,

into the dreary desert sand of dead habit,

where the mind is led forward by thee into

ever widening thought and action,

into that heaven of freedom, my father, let my country awake”

From Gitanjali by Rabindranath Tagore

If I were to draw blindfolded an image of an Indian from what I hear from what people have heard or seen about India and its people from outside its borders, perhaps I would be drawing a dark, skinny and dusty person with a grim face and a turban wrapped several times around the head, amidst dark, gloomy clouds of lust and violence, corruption and scams, pollution and population hovering in the backdrop. Much of this imaginary imagery has been seeded long before and has been systematically imprinted in the minds; and we, from within the borders, have relentlessly watered and nurtured this image to keep it intact. Yet, it is only an illusion and the deeds and characteristics of a minority present (as in any other country) and presented cannot be generalized and held true and applicable to the majority.

Amidst that white-faced, faith-based pseudo-justice born out of intentions conceived through the marriage of hypocrisy and greed, it would be as revealing as a naked butt on a freezy, cold day if the following questions are pondered over: How is this image drawn so conveniently? Who frames these images? What benefit is derived by giving and taking up such an identity? 

There is perhaps a reason for allowing this unclean and skewed image to be maintained to arrive at a win-win situation to both the perceiver and the perceived in many ways as we ponder over the issue of identity and the concept of being identified. Much of the damage, if any, has been partly due to an identity thrust upon us and much more attributed to us for accepting the identity thrust without defending our own. 

Could it be blamed on ignorance? or perhaps apathy? Or maybe because many of us were busy with other things in life to survive and to be less bothered about these things. What if a few of us are really bothered and would like to defend? and what if some dare to uncover the masks of those who paint us black or rather brown?! Would the tables turn then?  

In the pic: is the painting of M.F. Hussain, titled 'the rape of mother India, which portrays the image of a woman caught in a struggle to escape from the strangling force of two wild bulls. This painting was heavily criticized for the imagery as well as the titling. Revisit the painting and see the relevance it has today, when you see the Indian identity suffer a similar accord torn apart by the betrayer from outside and the traitor from within... 

The Isolation Chamber

The history behind this actuating, rusting, rotten metal sheath is that this is through which you would have been fed just enough to keep you alive if you were a brown Man caught fighting for freedom. It was hard not to feel the pain while there thinking that when thrown into one such cell, the movement of this solid iron piece was the only thing one could see or hear besides one's very own movement (if any) as the rest of the people roamed outside, shamelessly unmindful of their slave-like condition, living a life as ever-obedient slaves to their masters and traitors to their very own. 

Looking from where I stand today, I realize that this dreamy freedom that some of our so called "brown dogs" got us in exchange for their lives they gave up with a smile when the last tight noose smeared with shrapnel tightened around their hearts, they perhaps hoped that we and the generations to follow, might be able to experience the joy of such a freedom they could only dream of then.

If we peruse on those lines, that dream of theirs was better than the reality today. The aliens who were here to mine our wealth in the name of a company, are back and this time, from several quarters and cleverly disguised, to mine our poverty in the name of corporate, multinational companies and other foreign and international organizations and institutions to capitalize and optimize on our vulnerability-the basis on which MoUs and contracts are signed. These are neo-capitalists, who see us nothing more than a Return on Investment (RoI) and our lives, our communities and the problems we deal with as their Unique Selling Point (USP) to reap, pack and sell outside our borders to nurture profits and dividends back in their homes out of which a portion found fitting for us to keep us alive is thrown at us for which we are busy fighting among ourselves to take a grab of the morsel. Oh! didn't they know well and perhaps too well that when divided, they rule?!...

We are being silently and systematically plundered, ruined and tagged and we are carrying these imprints yet it is not such a rarity that these isolation chambers are what many walk into these days willfully and voluntarily giving up pride, respect and dignity which some of our earlier brown dogs refused to exchange for the rationed morsels of life thrown at them. Slaves, traitors and betrayers still live on and long amongst us. Yet it moves...