At a time when being apolitical simply means to be a silent collaborator in the worst crimes committed by a political class that hates democracy and thinks it is born to rule; can get away with any crime from the planned impoverishment of the masses, and the irresponsible exploitation of the public exchequer to lynching of the helpless, murder of writers and thinkers and even genocide, aversion to politics is no less than deliberate evasion of one’s duty as a citizen and a human being.
We’re living a nightmare. Our country is eroding, its people suffering and dying. To restore the India that is infinitely creative in its cultural, linguistic, racial, religious and gender diversity, we must speak up.
With paintings by SH Raza, this week for Bol, Daniya reads Audre Lorde’s poem, ‘A Litany for Survival’, for there are times when a few lines of poetry can speak volumes about oppression and rising up against it.
…when we speak we are afraid
our words will not be heard
nor welcomed
but when we are silent
we are still afraid
So it is better to speak
remembering
we were never meant to survive.
