Aug 12: Day 1 of my fast, day 898 of our chain.
Today, I am deeply saddened by the attack on Salman Rushdie, one of my most beloved writers. I’m relieved he will not lose his life, and appalled that he has had to be put on a ventilator and may lose an eye. Salman Rushdie is the same age as my parents. His attacker is a 24 year old man. Can a mindset that justifies such brutality against a man old enough to be your grandfather really be equated with religion?
Hadi Matar is no Muslim, just as Nathuram Godse was no Hindu, and Yigal Amir (Yitzhak Rabin‘s assassin) was no Jew. They are mere examples of the evil human beings in general are capable of when they give in to hateful and intolerant brainwashing masquerading as religion.
Let us rise beyond dogma, selfishness and easy offensibility, to appreciate the nuance and complexity that is needed to accept that we are all incomplete, imperfect works in progress. Life would be dull and pointless if this were not so.
#ChainFastingForPeace
#FastingAgainstFascism
#ResignAmitShah
#FreeSanjivBhatt
#ResignModi
Aug 13: Day 2 of my fast, day 899 of our chain.
Civil disobedience is the active, professed refusal of a citizen to obey certain laws, demands, orders or commands of a government (or any other authority). By some definitions, civil disobedience has to be nonviolent to be called “civil”. Hence, civil disobedience is sometimes equated with peaceful protests or nonviolent resistance.
(Source: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Civil_disobedience)
In 1849, David Thoreau argued that individuals should not permit governments to overrule or atrophy their consciences, and that they have a duty to avoid allowing such acquiescence to enable the government to make them the agents of injustice. Thoreau was motivated in part by his disgust with slavery and the Mexican–American War (1846–1848).
(Source: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Civil_Disobedience_(Thoreau))
Satyagraha, or “holding firmly to truth”, or “truth force”, was a particular form of nonviolent resistance or civil resistance developed by Gandhi, who practiced it in the Indian independence movement and also during his earlier struggles in South Africa for Indian rights.
Satyagraha theory influenced Martin Luther King Jr.’s and James Bevel’s campaigns during the Civil Rights Movement in the United States, as well as Nelson Mandela’s struggle against apartheid in South Africa and many other social justice and similar movements.
(Source: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Satyagraha)
I mention civil disobedience today, because it has to do with two important things:
- The ability to find the inner strength to stand up against figures of authority for truth and justice, even when one knows it will offend those in power, and
- The honing of the ability to exercise restraint when one IS in a position of power over another, to be able to listen with empathy even when their words are offensive.
When the above two behaviors are not practiced, we start seeing the immediate spread of abuse. This happens
- in a family setting (e.g. with dominating fathers who expect absolute obedience from their children), or
- in places of education (e.g. teachers who abuse their authority so much that they quash their students’ budding interest), or
- at work, where a domineering boss makes life miserable for their employees, or
- at state levels, where a dictator/authoritarian leader attempts to suppress dissent and surround themselves with only yes-men and -women.
This all happens with much greater likelihood in places where obedience to authority has become a rule in the absence of people who regularly stand up to it, question it, keep it humble and modest, keep it in check. This is the vacuum we get, when we stop valuing the art of people like Rushdie, who insightfully and adeptly are able to tread the boundaries of what is acceptable. We lose so much more than we realize, when we let the inborn faculties that equip us to deal gracefully with conflicting ideas wither away, just so that no one offends us…
“I don’t dictate to anyone what to believe and what not to. And I don’t want that to be dictated to me either.”
— Salman Rushdie
#ChainFastingForPeace
#FastingAgainstFascism
#ResignAmitShah
#FreeSanjivBhatt
#ResignModi
Aug 14:
Day 3 of my fast, day 900 of our chain.
I visited the profile of PM Narendra Modi today, and all I found were exhortations to put up the Indian flag in every home to celebrate 75 years of Indian independence.
Sorry, Mr Modi, but the only time I feel comfortable holding an Indian flag these days is in protest against your fascist regime that is bent on undoing everything that makes (made?) India a special place in this world.
Tomorrow, Aug 15, is going to be a day of unbearable shame. It is the day we will have to contend with the fact that, 75 years after independence, a 9-year old boy in India can die at the hands of his teacher! This is the quality of education in India 75 years after independence. Where your teacher can be your murderer.
What did that teacher teach little Indra and his classmates? That caste still reigns supreme in India, 75 years after independence? That independent Indians have no respect for the budding child’s mind, where the greatest lesson children like Indra can learn in school is to know “their place”? That a 9 year old’s thirst for water on a hot summer day has no place against an upper caste man’s thirst for dominance and subjugation of those weaker than him? What could be going on in the minds of other kids in his classroom today? Aren’t the upper caste children going to cling with all their might to their caste privileges now that they know that to be the difference between life and death? And the Dalit kids? They’ll go to school knowing their teachers can be their murderers. Their classmates will be their future murderers. I wouldn’t want to go to a school that was such a source of terror. But do they have a choice?
All this 75 years after independence. And so inconsequential, so normalized, that you, Narendra Modi, don’t even see it fit to condole Indra Meghwal. Last year we saw 9-year old Dalit girl Diksha raped, murdered and forcibly cremated by a temple priest, and the year before that saw 19-year old Asha turn into the Hathras victim.
This is why we protest, Mr Modi. Because with the RSS in power – remember, Indra’s school was run by the RSS – we cannot but anticipate even worse in 2023 and beyond.
Indra’s story: https://thewire.in/caste/rajasthan-nine-yr-old-dalit-boy-passes-away-after-alleged-assault-by-schoolteacher
Diksha’s story: https://thewire.in/caste/delhi-dalit-girl-rape-murder-priest-admitted
Asha’s story: https://www.newslaundry.com/amp/story/2022%2F08%2F12%2Fyogi-adityanath-is-backtracking-on-his-promises-to-hathras-rape-victims-family
#ChainFastingForPeace
#FastingAgainstFascism
#ResignAmitShah
#FreeSanjivBhatt
#ResignModi
Chain Fasting For Peace 