A Retrogressive Society

I live in a society, where religious matters have overtaken various core issues such as poverty, education and health. I live in a society, where rational sections are harassed and heckled, whereas  staunch communal elements are praised. I live in a society, where people are fed with hate messages, imparted by their dearest communal leaders, and thus these communally beefed up minds take up to the streets to commit violence, while their dearest communal leaders enjoy in AC rooms. I live in a society, which has forgotten to question ill-faiths and ill-traditions and continue to suppress the voices of the downtrodden.
Yes, it took a long struggle by our social reformers like Raja Ramohan Roy, Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar and M.G. Ranade to fight for the rationalist cause in our society, which somewhat bore fruits, but with the recent events, we as a society are returning to our pathetic states once again. Our society has, right from the ancient times, stood against any reforms with the Brahminical hegemony contributing for the major part of the period. Even though, with the emergence of Indian National Congress, we saw a rise of its social wing called as the Indian National Social Conference, it lost its steam after few years because of the lack of support and the upper class interest within the Congress. We were gifted with great minds but very few had rational minds with scientific temper embedded inside it.
Where we boast about our traditional advancements in science and technology, we have completely lagged in bringing about an equal society, as most of our technological and scientific upper hand was with the Upper Class. Manusmriti was injected into every individual and the sense of inequality was never thought as an inequality, as it was considered as the "Law of the Land".
Today, when we witness some of the landmark judgements standing for equality in our society, major sections are creating a blockade on this road leading to an equal society. Upper Class hegemony, or more precisely Brahminical hegemony, intermixed with Patriarchal thinking has been on the forefront for creating an unjust system. Today, when I switch on to a news channel, I witness nothing but religious news everywhere. On one side, there is instability over the Sabarimala issue, on the other side, I see news dedicated to the visit of our PM to Shirdi on account of 100th birth anniversary of Sai Baba or RSS chief calling on for building Ram Mandir at Ayodhya or Shiv Sena calling for the same. Whole media space is being conquered by these matters, as a result, people who are watching these channels forget about the main issues faced by our country and tend to get diverted. The stiff opposition to the Sabarimala verdict is nothing but a mixture of the above mentioned mixture of Brahminical hegemony and patriarchal behaviour of the society.
Society always forgets that we are all born from the same so called "menstruating impure woman" (term used by these groups) and continue to target women on the basis of their menstrual cycle. If menstruation was impure, then we all are impure as well, and hence we do not have any right to claim for us to be pure. All these protesting saints must keep all these in their minds before protesting.
But alas! this is not their sole main motive.
The other motive is nothing but to have a grab at the vote banks in the name of Saving Sabarimala They have not left any stone unturned in creating a ruckus over this issue. I can confidently say, that if the State Government of Kerala would have filed a review petition over the Sabarimala verdict, these right wing groups would have stood against the review petition and would have created an issue supporting the cause for women's entry.
With days going by, I, as a human being, am becoming more human, by getting disenchanted with religious philosophies and in this way, I have broadened my mind to create more space for core issues.

Village Rockstars

Shot in the backdrop of Assam, this movie is in itself a representation of the day-to-day life of a tiny village with true blend of all the rural colours to the movie. The movie brings about how can we stay positive even in difficult times. Director Rima Das has been successful in depicting the true lives with minimal budget but with maximum quality. 10 year old Dhunu is always a livewire who likes to hang around and play with boys, but is often opposed and bullied by the age old thinking of the male-dominated society. After the death of her father, Dhunu and his elder brother are brought up by their mother (Basanti), who despite all the odds, toils hard to make both the ends meet. The movie also showcases the neglected part of the rural Assam, which gets devastated by floods  every year, the same flood which took the life of Dhunu's father. Dhunu and her friends are always longing to form a band, but due to their financial situations they had to get contented with guitars made of thermocol. Out of eagerness, Dhunu conveys her wish, of buying a guitar, to her mother and interestingly, she doesn't scold Dhunu for making such huge wish, but instead goes around the market to find a musical instrument repair shop for inquiring about the cost of a guitar. Basanti wholeheartedly supports and defends her daughter, going against the traditional thinking of the society, by allowing her to fly freely. It was when Dhunu comes across a newspaper article, which speaks about staying positive to get your wishes fulfilled in life, she starts to think more positively. She goes from house to house of the village to harvest betel nuts and saves every rupee inside a bamboo to fulfill her dream. The movie sends a strong message ,when laments on seeing all the crops drowned in the flood waters and her mother in reply says that work is worship and hard work is what they can do. After  Dhunu enters womanhood, she is being plucked from her free world to a world of restrictions. In all the rituals celebrating her entry into womanhood, she is seen sitting without her wish and her eyes showing desire to return to her carefree world. The movie ends with a sudden note, when Basanti gifts Dhunu a guitar, and she starts playing with it with all her friends. This end clearly shows the out of the box thinking shown by Rima Das, otherwise it would had been a cliched Bollywood movie. The gifting of guitar becomes a positive note to sign off, as it shows the love of a mother and true optimism filled inside their hearts. "Richest person is the one who has no greed" - Rima Das puts forward this concept in an awesome manner. 

The Great Long March

180 kilometres in 6 days from rural areas to the financial capital is indeed one of the greatest marches by our kisans. Swelled foot, bleeding toes, wrinkled faces and dusty hands marched all their way towards the Maharashtra Vidhan Bhavan. Wrapped in red under the banner of All India Kisan Sabha, all are determined to make their demands get accepted from the ruling RSS-BJP government.
             I was pretty upset after the Left's humiliating defeat in Tripura and was seeing it as one of the worst electoral scenarios for the Left after Independence. But even though, there was a weakening feeling in Tripura, the AIKS strengthened me and showed all of us the strength of Left. It is only through these types of grassroot movements can India's Left get into the hearts of the citizens.
            Agrarian distress has been continuously haunting our country and with years passing by, there has been a steep increase in the case of farmer suicides especially in the states such as Maharashtra and Karnataka. Farmers have been facing the wrath of the lack of supporting and adequate policies from successive governments on the issues such as increasing the MSP, immediate implementation of the recommendations of the Swaminathan Commission, waivering of farm loans and compensation for crop losses due to unfavourable climatic conditions. All these distressing circumstances forced the farmers of Maharashtra to act, regardless of the losses which they would suffer on losing a day's farming. They have set aside all their losses and marched along collectively with their bare feet braving the scorching heat. This March can be termed as one of the historical movements on the part of our farmers.
             As I had said earlier, that for the present situation in our country, India's Left is the only viable alternative and it is only if the Left organizes such mass movements, will they reach the hearts of every common man. These are the so called grassroot level activities which will never be seen from the RSS which has been working in the grassroot level to spread hatred among various communities using the age old method of "Divide and Rule" used by the Europeans. Right through its history, there has never been any instance when the RSS has played a pivotal role in any peasant movements.
            Witnessing the massive support which our farmers have got from the Mumbai residents, one thing is sure - that there is a farmer inside every Indian as most of the "Urbaners" are the harvest of the rural seeds sown years ago.

Apathy of India's Left !!!!

It was yet another setback for India's Left with yesterday's verdict in Tripura. The left which had been ruling Tripura uninterruptedly for the last 25 years was decimated to a mere 16 seats by the saffron party. Being a left supporter, it was heartbreaking for me to digest this verdict. In the morning, when I saw Left leading (though with meagre seats) I was somewhat satisfied thinking that party may retain the power, but when as time went by the seat share started falling rapidly and I was awestruck. I kept on looking at the screen hoping that some miracle might happen and hoped for any final twist in the tale. Some may say that, BJP ate Congress's vote share but it is not as simple as that. Yes, it is a factor that the BJP ate into the Congress's vote share, but if we take into consideration the scale of campaigning which the BJP did, a  handsome part of left's vote share has gone into BJP's kitty also. Simply, going with the first factor, can be seen as an utter ignorance of the true situation.

Yesterday's verdict was a repetition of what was done by the Trinamool in West Bengal in 2011. Yet, there is a lack of introspection inside the left. Being a leftist, I feel deeply sad at the rapid dwindling of supporters in the country. A party which was once regarded as the party for the masses, is now reduced to mere conferences, meeting halls and plenums. Lack of interaction with the common man has been the main factor behind the fall. A gap has been created between the thinkers of the party and the grass root level workers which will ever widen if we will not look into the mistakes. In the era, where the fascist forces are on the rise, instead of joining hands with the like minded secular parties, the party has decided to go alone in the national level. Votes can only be bagged by constant work at the grass root levels for a considerable period of time. Unless and until, this disconnect between the party and the common man is removed, the party will keep on facing such setbacks and will become vulnerable of getting stripped off the national party status.

The present situation is clearly depicted in a malayalam movie "Sandesham" where the party members are introspecting on the loss which they suffered in an election. In the scene, when asked about an opinion regarding the loss, one member stood and spoke the truth of this same disconnect between the party and the mass. Even though, the whole scene was shot in a humorous manner, it was/is the hard truth behind the present status. Left was once known for its mass movements be it, for the labour class or for the downtrodden. It created a viable alternative in the Indian politics for the people. But now it has been reduced to only opinions which its leaders give on various issues. Majority of people in the country do not have any idea about what does the left ideology stand for. They don't know, that it is only the left ideology which is utmost required for the present situation of our country. A time in which major part of the wealth is in the hands of a few billionaires, a time in which many fascist forces are gaining strength, a time in which industrialist absconders are absconding from the country without paying huge sums of loans and a time in which more than half of our country is still kept in the dark, it is during these times that left ideology will become the best alternative. But, time and again, if the same mistakes are committed by the left, the gap or the disconnect will continue to widen.