She is no more but she is just not a name now. She is the
symbol to fight for dignity. She is the light inspiring people from every
section, irrespective of the caste and community affiliations, to rise and act.
And yes, people have taken up the call. Whosoever the
protesters are, they are fighting for cause with high emotional quotient. The
horror of the Delhi gangrape - if there had to be any message, it was the call
to fight, and people are there, taking up to the roads, to demand the system to
modify, to act.
Yes, the protests are mostly urban in nature but cannot
and should not be dismissed for this reason only.
The spontaneous protests against the Delhi gangrape and in solidarity with the
departed soul, the victim, are the best possible response to happen to the
Indian democracy in the recent history after the massive and spontaneous
support to the anti-corruption movement launched by Anna Hazare in 2011.
The major reason for failure of Anna Hazare’s movement was
not its urban nature as told by many, but was that the movement was derailed
soon after getting the initial breakthrough and so lost the scope to percolate
further.
The similar thing might happen here but the high emotional
quotient and a leaderless character would always be the high points to inspire
further.
We can say Anna Hazare’s movement showed us the way to
come forward and raise voice against the system. India needs change and increasing
public voice against the status-quo is the need of the day. That is the only
way forward given the widespread gloom at the political level of policymaking
and implementation.
And so here, it is not about the debate of being urban or
restricted in nature. This movement is more about:
- Being
such a massive and spontaneous movement so soon after the public uprising
of 2011, an encouraging sign;
- Being
more about a leaderless movement that was self-evolved and learnt to
organize soon in the process - remember major movements of the Arab Spring
were leaderless and self-evolved;
- Being
high on the emotional quotient – when emotions run high, the support to
the cause is ethically rooted, and that makes it inspiring to similar
other chain events – in Tunisia, it all started with a self-immolation
video of a commoner, Mohamed Bouazizi, going viral on the Facebook – in
Egypt, the ‘6 April Committee’ of the youth activists was one of the major
factors snowballing in a full-scale revolution;
- Being
made up of more of rational and committed minds than of mob elements –
every massive public protest has many mob elements. They are something
can’t be done away with. Yes, the greater share of the rational elements
effectively suppress them – the high point the Delhi gangrape protests is
the rational minds simply outdid the mob elements during the two weeks of the
protests and the protests are still going strong – without any leader
The gloom of the Indian democracy needs consistent,
massive and spontaneous public protests. It’s a process that will take time.
Anna Hazare’s movement was one such attempt on the path to
make India
a responsible democracy. The Delhi
gangrape protests are the next in the step. We can see it as a scaled-up
movement because it is sustaining for a long period without any leader.
Like the anti-corruption movement, the Delhi gangrape protests, too, might not get
much from the cunning politicians on the policy-change front, but, we, as a
society, are learning, and learning fast to raise voice effectively.
Sure, there would be more scaled-up movements in the days
ahead. Are the politicians ready?
©/IPR: Santosh Chaubey - http://severallyalone.blogspot.com/