A couple of days ago, I watched, transfixed, a video of a young woman, perhaps in her early 20s, responding to the questions of a journalist asking her why she¡¯s there at the venue of a protest against the contentious Citizen Amendment Bill (CAB) and National Register of Citizens (NRC), with what can only be described as pure, cold anger.?
¡°Apna haq hum chheenna jante hai, aap humein daraiye dhamkaiye mat,¡± she said, alluding to questions from policemen posted in large numbers at protest venues. ¡°Yahan pe jo khade hai woh nagrik, camera ke peechhe jo khade hai wo nagrik, mere peechhe jo khade hai wo nagrik, stage pe jo khade hokay bol rahe hai woh nagrik, jo taali baja rahe hai woh nagrik, jo students waha protest kar rahe hai woh nagrik, jo parliament ke samne khade hokar pit rahe hai woh nagrik, jo Assam mein jalaye jaa rahe hai, woh nagrik, hum sab nagrik, Hindustan ke nagrik¡.¡±?
I watched this young woman bitingly articulate these words, the pink silk bow in her hair perfectly in place, tearing through the polite aloofness that¡¯s normally part of a journalistic question and answer exchange, to draw in the country into her private fury ¡ª we¡¯re all citizens and we will fight for our right to inherit a country undivided by communal politics. Surrounding her were her comrades, neck-deep in slogans. I remember thinking, if these fierce ones show us the way to shake up the collective somnolence and moral degradation that has led us here, we¡¯ll be alright. Only the young can and should blast to hell the processes of obsolescence of the old and politically shrewd, with their uncorrupted moral clarity and bright optimism
This morning as citizens, led by students angry at police brutality at the Aligarh Muslim University and Jamia Milia Islamia, planned peaceful solidarity marches, flash protests and congregations to organise, educate and agitate across India, the police detained many, including public intellectuals Ram Chandra Guha and Yogendra Yadav. But what was most interesting to observe was the casual disdain and the patronizing tone of those in high places with which they addressed the youth of the country. Well, to be precise, they didn¡¯t exactly speak to the youth. They spoke to their parents. The Director General of Police in Uttar Pradesh while advising citizens not to participate in protests in lieu of Section 144, also asked parents to ¡°counsel their children¡± who wanted to show up at these marches.?
Beside the point that peaceful assembly without arms is a fundamental right guaranteed by the Indian Constitution and a senior police officer should know that, this infantilising of young adult citizens who are exercising their democratic right to dissent, is a hallmark of the Indian way of controlling, emotionally stunting and smothering our children. It¡¯s reflective of the way the state undermines our intelligence, dictates, and controls us. And like parents, often ¡°for our own good.¡± The ¡°children¡± the DGP wanted to be held back in their houses are above 18, of legal voting age.?
When Sana, cricketer Sourav Ganguly¡¯s 18-year-old daughter simply quoted a few lines on how fascism propagates from writer Khuswant Singh¡¯s ¡®The End of India¡¯ in an Instagram story, Ganguly had the classic reaction of a panicked father.?
¡°Please keep Sana out of all this issues. This post is not true. She is too young a girl to know about anything in politics,¡± he tweeted to a volley of angry responses from people who accused him of patronizing his adult daughter. I was among them. How often do we complain of uneducated, uncouth, crude, ill-informed, bigoted and racist political leadership at the topmost level??
How often do we sit around in our idle conversation spaces complaining of lack of morally upright leadership? Have you wondered why we don¡¯t have that? Because in our overprotective, elitist, privileged homes with politically dubious leanings we do not bother to nurture a culture of understanding discrimination and divisiveness which are deeply rooted in politics of religion, identity, caste and economics. Because we think the risky job of intervention best be left to someone else. And all it takes is one person to break rank.?
The youth, and especially womxn among them, have a better grip on the politics of othering in this country than anyone else. Crores of them are either direct products or victims of that discrimination ¡ª growing up experiencing caste-based violence and othering, sexual discrimination, gender violence, and economic disparity born from a combination of all of these. When people like Sana and other young people of India stand up to express anguish, we should cede our spaces to them, listen, guide, and help them lead.?
This very freedom that we want to ration for our youths, we owe to the blood of the young people who delivered the country from British.?
Mangal Pandey died at the age of 30. Bhagat Singh was 23 when he was executed by the British. Khudiram Bose was 19. Chandrashekhar Azad died at the age of 25. Ram Prasad Bismil was 30. Ashfaqullah Khan was 27. When a nation is under siege, it¡¯s the moral duty of every parent to teach their children to find their spine. It¡¯s their duty to create safe spaces so that these fierce ones can flourish.?
Rituparna Chatterjee is a Delhi-based independent journalist and #MeToo activist. She's currently the India Correspondent for international press freedom watchdog Reporters Without Borders. She writes on press freedom and gender rights and tweets from the handles @masalabai and @indiametoo. Views expressed are author's own.