Is this the India we want?
A country in which citizens are murdered or attacked for being rational; for being critical, for raising a voice of dissent; for just being themselves, Muslim or Dalit or women. Intimidation, threats. Hatred. Lynching. Sickening violence. Students and teachers given the choice between being leashed in thought and word, or being hounded as seditious. Institutions built over the years weakened. The economy and development turned into exercises that mock the needs and aspirations of most people. The secularism, the scientific temper and the rights promised in our Constitution subverted every day. Our democracy, our India, frayed.
But this is our country. It belongs to us, and we belong to it. We have each other for support. We have our poems and songs and films and essays and fiction and art. Our diverse voices.
What is the India we want?
Listen to our fellow citizens speak of the country they don’t want and the India they want on the series India 2019 on the Indian Cultural Forum and Guftugu.
Image Courtesy: Habe Ikasbil | Guernica: Pablo Picasso
In Modern India
Intellectuals resident
in India today
are anointed
with strange new titles
The paltry amount left
in the common man’s wallet
and the coins put away
by thrifty women have turned
invalid tender overnight
A pseudonym of love
these days is jihad
Steam-propelled trains are fuelled
by the blood of teenager Junaid
Cash-filled trunks of tycoons
are seen off with ceremonies
held in our airports
Contracts exchanged
in stealth are denounced
by the president of a foreign country
Hunting for surplus
beef from exports,
they make the blood
of the minorities run cold.
While Akhlaq’s widow
is house-bound,
cows hung with ID cards
amble with dignity
on our streets.
The locks that could not
close up writers’ mouths
were turned into bullets,
then pumped
into their hearts
These murders were approved
by the silence
of our prime minister
The prime minister of India
introduced mob lynching
and vigilance over
one’s neigbours’ food
as job opportunities
for our youth
New phrases such as:
Anti-National,
Urban Naxal and
Terrorist, along with
empty slogans like
Bharat Mata ki Jai,
Acche Din,
Swacch Bharat,
Beti Bachao and
Mann ki Baat
are now ours
to intone and chant
They have made history
by gangraping a child
inside the sanctum sanctorum
of a temple
Murderers are
routinely glorified
with garlands,
honours
and high office too
Those born on this soil
are dubbed refugees
and lectured on why
they must
leave this country.
After Ghar Wapsi
wealth is pouring down
on everyone’s life
They’ve hired
mediapersons and
judicial officers
to speak on their behalf
They’ve appointed
painters to draw
their portraits
The hues of our universities
have been changed entirely
Najeeb has not
returned home yet
Tears have not ceased
flowing from the eyes
of Rohit Vemula’s mother
It’s a long time since
I betrayed my privacy
to the government
through an Aadhar card
Like my basic human rights,
the Indian currency, too,
is in steep decline
They’ve toiled without relent
to eliminate
an immanent justice
They’ve arranged for judges to die
The times when we lay
curled up in imaginary fear
are now long past
The traces of genuine panic
lie trapped
In our throats
A day when we wake
to the sound of
bloated images crumbling
and falling could arrive
very soon
Gauri
Kalburgi
Junaid
Asifa —
May their souls
rest in peace
May the karma
of their own deeds
haunt our rulers
May the darkness
that’s engulfed this land lift
May the earth shine bright
May the light scatter its magic all over
Why should air and light
defer to anyone?
Salma is a well-known name to readers of contemporary Tamil literature. She has written two volumes of poetry, Oru Maalaiyum Innoru Maalaiyum and Pacchai Devadai and a novel, Irandaam Jaamangalin Kadhaiv – all of which have been translated in several languages.
N Kalyan Raman is a Chennai-based translator of contemporary Tamil fiction and poetry into English. He has published eleven volumes of Tamil fiction in translation, the latest being Poonachi: The Story of a Black Goat by Perumal Murugan published earlier this year. He has also translated over 200 poems by leading contemporary Tamil poets, published in journals and anthologies in India and abroad.
