Skip to main content

Commentary. Rights activist's experience of an unreserved compartment: India in diversity, pluralism

By Fr Cedric Prakash*
It has been a long and eventful day for me, culminating in a train journey. Although I still have a fever and feel rather exhausted, here I am putting this down as I promised a lady on the train that I would write and tell the world of her magnanimous gesture...
A rally had been organised by SOUL (Save Our Land) at the Azad Maidan in Mumbai to protest the Church land acquisitions. I was one of the speakers invited to address the people gathered. The crowds were much more than the organisers had expected. Speaker after speaker came down heavily on the Local Government, lambasting it for its nexus with the builders lobby and other vested interests. “You can no longer take Christians for granted!” “We want Justice!” “Enough is enough!” rent the air! It was truly a moving experience and I was touched that more and more Christians today come out for the cause of Justice.
However, I could not remain to the end of the programme, as I had to catch the 1710 Deccan Queen to Pune. I hurried to the CST Station and was looking forward to a relaxing 3-plus hour’s journey in the cool comfort of a Chair Car compartment. With a fever and a headache, I really needed it. I was relieved when I arrived at my “seat”. I showed my ticket to a guy who was seated on it. He checked it and very coolly told me, “Sir, your train has left this morning…your ticket is of the Deccan Express and NOT of Deccan Queen”. I couldn’t believe what he was saying, but on checking my ticket, realised he was right! A kind friend had helped me buy the ticket. I had clearly told him, “Deccan Queen” as I was scheduled to speak at the rally around 1530. I presumed he had got the ticket for the train I requested and did not bother to check it!!!
So what do I do now? It was almost 1655…..just fifteen minutes before the train’s departure. I ran out of the train…almost the full length of the platform to the ticket counter, only to be faced with a huge line. Some guys however had “mercy” on a Senior Citizen and in no time I had my ticket and ran back to the train (baggage and all) and entered an UNRESERVED compartment with just three minutes to spare!
To say that the compartment was like a “tin of sardines” is an understatement. It was jam-packed, with practically no room to even stand. I resigned myself to an uncomfortable trip. But the greatness of an Indian train journey is that once it begins, most of the travellers easily adjust and adapt. In no time I was asked to move ahead and some youth very generously beckoned me to sit at the edge of their seat. Not comfortable at all, but I was not complaining since the alternative was to stand for most part of the journey.
There were all kinds of people around me; of different faiths, languages and cultures! It was the beginning of HOLI (the Festival of Spring) and many seemed to be excited to be going back home or to spend the festival with friends and relatives. Several young ‘uns got down at Lonavla, perhaps for a great Holi revelry!
Suddenly a burqa-clad Muslim lady began pushing her way through; her three-year-old son desperately needed to use the toilet. All helped to make way and in no time they had reached the destination. Most did not know that the lady had left her baby daughter on the seat asking the neighbours to keep an eye on her. On realising that her mother was not around, the baby started bawling and shrieking to high heavens. Nobody knew what to do although the cries were deafening. Then from across my seat a young lady got up and spontaneously went to the baby and began cuddling and pacifying her. ‘The lady must surely be a friend of the family’, I thought to myself. The rocking calmed the baby who felt very soothed in the warm and loving hands. In awhile, the mother returned with her little son, took her baby from the arms of the lady and settled down. It was only then that I realised that this lady was a total stranger to the other and a Hindu!
My heart leapt with JOY! This is MY INDIA, I thought to myself! The India in which the stranger is just a friend we do not know; the India of diversity and pluralism; the India where we can transcend the narrow confines of religion and sectarianism. I could not help think of the trains in Nazi Germany…where people were pulled out and sent to concentration camps because they were “not one of us”. This INDIA I told myself should never die! We should not in any way allow the fascist and fundamentalist forces to destroy what is so precious to us! Let us not be fooled by their empty rhetoric of “development” (Hitler did the same) but let us be WARNED and ACT NOW before it is too late!
The Hindu lady was to alight at Shivajinagar. Before that, I plucked up courage and asked if I could speak to her. I told her that I would never forget her wonderful gesture! In great humility she replied, “Sir, I too have little children and I know what it means to be a mother.” Thanking her, I just told her to never let her concern and love, especially for the “the other”, to ever die. I asked her if she had seen the movie ‘DHARM’ in which Pankaj Kapur is the main actor.She had not.I requested her to see it if she could.And I promised that I would write about her great deed tonight itself….I do not know her name and who she is but I have just christened her BHARATMATA – women like her, are the soul of India!
I reached Pune, very tired and still with fever….but what an unforgettable journey it has been!I can’t help but hum to myself the JOURNEY song of Lea Salonga and specially these words:
“What a journey it has been
And the end is not in sight
But those stars are out tonight
And they're bound to guide my way”
---
* Written on 15th March, 2014. Fr. Cedric Prakash sj is the Director of PRASHANT, the Ahmedabad based Jesuit Centre for Human Rights, Justice and Peace

Comments

Post a Comment

TRENDING

Whither space for the marginalised in Kerala's privately-driven townships after landslides?

By Ipshita Basu, Sudheesh R.C.  In the early hours of July 30 2024, a landslide in the Wayanad district of Kerala state, India, killed 400 people. The Punjirimattom, Mundakkai, Vellarimala and Chooralmala villages in the Western Ghats mountain range turned into a dystopian rubble of uprooted trees and debris.
Post a Comment
»

Advocacy group decries 'hyper-centralization' as States’ share of health funds plummets

By A Representative   In a major pre-budget mobilization, the Jan Swasthya Abhiyan (JSA), India’s leading public health advocacy network, has issued a sharp critique of the Union government’s health spending and demanded a doubling of the health budget for the upcoming 2026-27 fiscal year. 
Post a Comment
»

Iswar Chandra Vidyasagar’s views on religion as Tagore’s saw them

By Harasankar Adhikari   Religion has become a visible subject in India’s public discourse, particularly where it intersects with political debate. Recent events, including a mass Gita chanting programme in Kolkata and other incidents involving public expressions of faith, have drawn attention to how religion features in everyday life. These developments have raised questions about the relationship between modern technological progress and traditional religious practice.
Post a Comment
»

Election bells ringing in Nepal: Can ousted premier Oli return to power?

By Nava Thakuria*  Nepal is preparing for a national election necessitated by the collapse of KP Sharma Oli’s government at the height of a Gen Z rebellion (youth uprising) in September 2025. The polls are scheduled for 5 March. The Himalayan nation last conducted a general election in 2022, with the next polls originally due in 2027.  However, following the dissolution of Nepal’s lower house of Parliament last year by President Ram Chandra Poudel, the electoral process began under the patronage of an interim government installed on 12 September under the leadership of retired Supreme Court judge Sushila Karki. The Hindu-majority nation of over 29 million people will witness more than 3,400 electoral candidates, including 390 women, representing 68 political parties as well as independents, vying for 165 seats in the 275-member House of Representatives.
Post a Comment
»

Jayanthi Natarajan "never stood by tribals' rights" in MNC Vedanta's move to mine Niyamigiri Hills in Odisha

By A Representative The Odisha Chapter of the Campaign for Survival and Dignity (CSD), which played a vital role in the struggle for the enactment of historic Forest Rights Act, 2006 has blamed former Union environment minister Jaynaynthi Natarjan for failing to play any vital role to defend the tribals' rights in the forest areas during her tenure under the former UPA government. Countering her recent statement that she rejected environmental clearance to Vendanta, the top UK-based NMC, despite tremendous pressure from her colleagues in Cabinet and huge criticism from industry, and the claim that her decision was “upheld by the Supreme Court”, the CSD said this is simply not true, and actually she "disrespected" FRA.
Post a Comment
»

With infant mortality rate of 5, better than US, guarantee to live is 'alive' in Kerala

By Nabil Abdul Majeed, Nitheesh Narayanan   In 1945, two years prior to India's independence, the current Chief Minister of Kerala, Pinarayi Vijayan, was born into a working-class family in northern Kerala. He was his mother’s fourteenth child; of the thirteen siblings born before him, only two survived. His mother was an agricultural labourer and his father a toddy tapper. They belonged to a downtrodden caste, deemed untouchable under the Indian caste system.
Post a Comment
»

Stands 'exposed': Cavalier attitude towards rushed construction of Char Dham project

By Bharat Dogra*  The nation heaved a big sigh of relief when the 41 workers trapped in the under-construction Silkyara-Barkot tunnel (Uttarkashi district of Uttarakhand) were finally rescued on November 28 after a 17-day rescue effort. All those involved in the rescue effort deserve a big thanks of the entire country. The government deserves appreciation for providing all-round support.
Post a Comment
»

Ganga-Jamuni Tehzeeb: Akbar to Shivaji -- the cross-cultural alliances that built India

​ By Ram Puniyani   ​What is Indian culture? Is it purely Hindu, or a blend of many influences? Today, Hindu right-wing advocates of Hindutva claim that Indian culture is synonymous with Hindu culture, which supposedly resisted "Muslim invaders" for centuries. This debate resurfaced recently in Kolkata at a seminar titled "The Need to Protect Hinduism from Hindutva."
Post a Comment
»

Drowning or conspiracy? Singapore findings deepen questions over Zubeen Garg’s death

By Nava Thakuria*  For millions of fans of Zubeen Garg, who died under unexplained circumstances in Singapore on 19 September last year, disturbing news has emerged from the island nation. Its police authorities have stated that the iconic Assamese singer died while intoxicated and swimming in the sea without a mandatory life jacket. 
Post a Comment
»