I have heard many people say that Arundhati Roy should focus on what she knows best: Literature. Politics isn’t her field, and she should restrict her opinions to books and writing. Okay, here is my question: As a citizen of democratic India, doesn’t she have the right to her opinion just like any of us, including the people who made this ludicrous suggestion? She didn’t instigate a criminal act. Are folks so generous with their dislike because she is a writer who knows her words and can articulate her thoughts better than most of the nation’s uneducated, biased, and corrupt politicians who have only their personal agendas at stake? Or is it because the majority fears a thinker will nudge the populace out of their comfort zones?
My mother has always said, “It’s your thoughts that make you modern, not your clothes.” Today when I look at the Indian middle class, I understand exactly what she means. News headlines all over the globe predict that the Indian middle class is expected to lead the world economy by 2025. Impressive, right? I too was proud about all this growth until I realized that some changes are only superficial. And growth is a loaded word. It seems modernism is equated with the brands stocked in wardrobes, or the cars driven, or the vacations taken. What about thinking?
I have met socialites in Pune who confessed they wanted non-Maharashtrians to move out of their state. Of course, they admitted their feelings in a drunken state of stupor; they were courteous to the *outsiders* while sober. It makes me wonder if all this exposure has taught this ever-expanding segment to camouflage their dislikes better. They pretend to be liberal, but are closeted conservatives who want to censor and ban anything that they don’t have an appetite for.
Aditya Thackeray made sure Rohinton Mistry’s book, Such a Long Journey, was banned from the syllabus of University of Mumbai because he thought the book reflected poorly on his state and family. A twenty-two year-old boy, not professors, decides what the entire second year students at the university should read because he’s related to a powerhouse? Are we so self-centered that we have no room for respecting an opinion when we don’t agree with it? Is nationalism confused with patriotism and leads to a display of vandalism?
We have made a mockery of ourselves in front of the world by calling ourselves the world’s largest democracy. Again, no one is saying that you have to agree with Arundhati. I don’t for sure. But vandalizing her home because you don’t appreciate her thought process reflects small-mindedness. Or excluding Mistry’s book is a gross display of ignorance and abuse of power. Because people didn’t get what the two writers had to say, they tried to silence them! God, is this world a high school and all the players delinquents who want their egos petted?
My father worries about my provocative and cynical writing (Click here to see the latest). Don’t for a moment think that he’s isn’t proud of me. But as a father of an Indian woman, he fears for my safety. I didn’t quite understand his “warnings” until the whole Arundhati Roy episode happened. I can no longer blame him. In a country where the majority doesn’t like to be intellectually challenged or defend the right to freedom of speech, democracy will always go to the highest bidder. The super hit goon movie, “Dabangg” and record sales of badly written books are a testimony to the infallible taste of the Indian middle class.
On Tuesday evening, I attended Terror-Stricken: Benefit Against Islamophobia. It was an intimate evening with words and wine, to say the least. Amitava Kumar, finalist for the biggest literary prize in India, and Hari Kunzru, one of Granta's top 20 writers under 40 had a compelling discussion with Faiza Patel, Counsel in the Liberty and National Security Project at the Brennan Center for Justice. I can’t even begin to explain how much I learnt in one evening. Did I agree with everything that was said? Maybe not. But that’s not a reflection on the panelists or the audience. They were all brilliant! But it was enlightening to hear different stances on the same issue. Disagreeing while respecting someone else’s viewpoint. Reaffirming Voltaire’s words: “I do not agree with what you have to say, but I'll defend to the death your right to say it.”
At dinner that evening, a writer and a new friend said to me: “As writers it is our responsibility to stand up for our beliefs, express our opinion, and fearlessly raise questions. Cynicism might be a shield to protect ourselves.” I agree with her. We offer what the world lacks most: Perspective. It might not always be easy. And often, owning a spine might involve risk (Sorry, Papa). But you know what, we owe it to the human race which is simmering inside a broth of prejudice. Honestly, I can’t imagine some one else doing a better job, especially when politicians around the world are very happy to milk ignorance and create rifts for their bloody benefits!
More until next time,
Xoxo
Copyright © 11.04.2010
“I write entirely to find out what I'm thinking, what I'm looking at, what I see and what it means. What I want and what I fear.” Joan Didion
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