Skip to main content

High hopes from young Gandhians as 'goli maro' atmosphere grips Delhi, India

Bharati being felicitated by Ela Bhatt
Founded by Mahatma Gandhi a hundred years ago, Gujarat Vidyapeeth was in news recently for allowing police to enter the campus for the first time ever. The occasion was, some Vidyapeeth students were identified flying objectionable kites on the Makarsankranti day, January 14. The ire was against those who were flying kites printed with anti-Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), anti-National Register of Citizenship (NRC) slogans – a “seditious act” from current standards!
Ever since this incident took place, I had not visited Vidyapeeth, which has long been regarded by those identified as “left-liberals” as the only island left in Ahmedabad where they could express themselves freely. Indeed, Vidyapeeth was one institute where they could openly hold meetings, criticize the saffron rulers currently ruling the roost in India, though, surely, more recently, pressure had begun being exerted on those who are at the helm of affairs of Vidyapeeth not to allow them in.
Vidyapeeth authorities now are known to deny space to human rights activists, though it all began exactly a year ago, when civil society activists held a meeting in Vidyapeeth on the theme “erosion of Gandhian values.” Organized by Delhi-based India Inclusive, and called India Unites Convention on Nonviolence and Harmony, someone in Prime Minister’s Office is said to have rung up to Vidyapeeth top brass not to allow the meeting. The meeting took place, as the PMO was a little late in conveying the message. People had already gathered, and couldn’t be asked to go away.
When my dear friend Sanjay Dave, who runs an NGO communications network called Charkha in Ahmedabad, sent across a WhatsApp message on February 28 to come over on the next day and participate in a press conference following the award giving ceremony to 15 young Gandhians at Gujarat Vidyapeeth, I got interested. I wasn’t interested in the event itself, but instead wished to see and feel how much the atmosphere in the Gandhian institute had changed.
Gujarat governor Acharya Devvrat, a former Arya Samaj pracharak-turned-politician, was called to felicitate the Gandhians whose “hair hadn’t yet greyed”. But he didn’t turn up. Perhaps he thought the function wasn’t up to his level. The job fell upon the shoulders of a humble Ela Bhatt, veteran Gandhian activist and founder of one of India’s biggest, though “purely” non-political, poor self-employed women’s trade union, Self-Employed Women’s Association (SEWA). 
Bhadra Butala
Following the function, all young Gandhians, including a couple of Sarvodayists, were “displayed” before the media to tell the reason why they were being felicitated. Chosen by the US-based organization, Gandhian Society, run by a 76-year-old non-resident Indian (NRI), Bhadra Butala, who, I overheard, also handed over an award of Rs 51,000 each, the person who helped make the choice was, Hasmukh Patel, known for his excellent grassroots-level work among Dalits and tribals of North Gujarat.
A businessman, Butala said, he “enjoys” doing this type of activity because he “loves” Gandhi, that instead of offering help to the “babas” and “bapus” who had flourished across India, as many NRIs do, he decided to do whatever he could to encourage young Gandhians in their activity. Flanked by the 15 awardees, he said, all of them have been working to improve the difficult conditions in villages, where the situation remains “terrible.”
Hasmukh Patel, a veteran activist working in North Gujarat, was more forthright. He said, the reason why he made the choice of these young, dedicated Gandhians was because of the gruesome times we live in. Without directly referring to the violent hate campaign on in Delhi, which is witness to the worst communal clashes in the national capital since 1984, he said, it is most unfortunate that those who give slogans like “desh ke ghaddaron ko, goli maro saalon ko” (traitors should be shot) are becoming increasingly aggressive today.
“Not they, but we, who don the Gandhian mettle, are responsible for this. We have not been able to do our work properly, one reason why this atmosphere of hate has come to stay”, he asserted, adding, “There are a large number of Gandhian volunteers who are doing excellent work across India. They are all scattered. Our attempt is to bring them together. These are all crazy people, unsung heroes. There is a need for a Gandhian peace corps, which could work as an alternative in today’s atmosphere.”
Each of the 15 activists introduced themselves, giving details of their activities. The activities include helping poor tribal children in inaccessible hilly tracks of North Gujarat’s Banakantha district to go to school, working among orphaned children of rural areas of Valsad district in South Gujarat, venturing into milk cooperatives, sanitation and toilet construction for the weaker sections, promoting self-help groups, campaigning for making rural areas plastic free, promoting organic agriculture and reviving water bodies.
Hasmukh Patel
There was one who stood out, though she spoke the least. She was Bharati, a young woman from Junagadh, who is currently working in a Naxal-infested area of Chhattisgarh, where people are “caught” between police violence and extremist violence. She wondered how to apply non-violence here or how to spread Gandhian principles of truth and violence, to which she has no answer, even as she continues in the forest areas persuading people to send children to schools. 
Exactly a month ago, well-known Gandhi expert Ramchandra Guha was in Ahmedabad. Even as each of the young Gandhians was introducing themselves, I recalled what Guha had said while addressing an august audience: That Gandhi defined swaraj in 1921 as standing on four basic pillars: Removal of untouchability, promotion of khaddar, Hindu-Muslim unity, and non-violence. You remove one, and the entire edifice falls. These four pillars, to Guha, had a wider meaning in today: Social justice and gender equality, environmental sustainability, unity in diversity of religion, language and region, and non-violent struggle, respectively. 
As the young Gandhians were introducing themselves, one of the few socially aware journalists of Gujarat, Rathin Das, sitting next to me, murmured to me: Who among them are working to fight untouchability? This prompted me to pose a question to the organisers of the function, Bhadra Butala and Hasmukh Patel, whether the four Gandhi pillars were taken into account while selecting the award winners. I had to repeat the question twice to a visibly puzzled Butala. He replied, he didn’t know about these pillars, that times have changed, and that he chooses progressive thought while rejecting regressing thinking.
Hasmukh Patel, who has been to jail for a year during the Emergency, where he got married, immediately came to the rescue of Butala, reminding me that “those of us whose hair have gone grey” have to pass on the mettle to the younger generation in order to fight for social justice in a Gandhian framework. “The 15 persons whom we have chosen are all very dedicated. Some of them have left their lucrative jobs in US in order to work in villages, where caste structures are extremely sensitive, which is not the case in urban areas”, he said, adding, “Dedicated as they are, they will surely take up Gandhian values in their struggle… We will have to work in this direction.”
For some strange reason, more questions were not allowed, the media meet split, and journalists were asked to talk “one to one” with young Gandhian activists, who had to be rushed for lunch!

Comments

TRENDING

Dalit rights and political tensions: Why is Mevani at odds with Congress leadership?

While I have known Jignesh Mevani, one of the dozen-odd Congress MLAs from Gujarat, ever since my Gandhinagar days—when he was a young activist aligned with well-known human rights lawyer Mukul Sinha’s organisation, Jan Sangharsh Manch—he became famous following the July 2016 Una Dalit atrocity, in which seven members of a family were brutally assaulted by self-proclaimed cow vigilantes while skinning a dead cow, a traditional occupation among Dalits.  

Powering pollution, heating homes: Why are Delhi residents opposing incineration-based waste management

While going through the 50-odd-page report Burning Waste, Warming Cities? Waste-to-Energy (WTE) Incineration and Urban Heat in Delhi , authored by Chythenyen Devika Kulasekaran of the well-known advocacy group Centre for Financial Accountability, I came across a reference to Sukhdev Vihar — a place where I lived for almost a decade before moving to Moscow in 1986 as the foreign correspondent of the daily Patriot and weekly Link .

Boeing 787 under scrutiny again after Ahmedabad crash: Whistleblower warnings resurface

A heart-wrenching tragedy has taken place in Ahmedabad. As widely reported, a Boeing 787 Dreamliner plane crashed shortly after taking off from the city’s airport, currently operated by India’s top tycoon, Gautam Adani. The aircraft was carrying 230 passengers and 12 crew members.  As expected, the crash has led to an outpouring of grief across the country. At the same time, there have been demands for the resignation of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Home Minister Amit Shah, and the Civil Aviation Minister.

Global NGO slams India for media clampdown during conflict, downplays Pakistan

A global civil rights group, Civicus has taken strong exception to how critical commentaries during the “recent conflict” with Pakistan were censored in India, with journalists getting “targeted”. I have no quarrel with the Civicus view, as the facts mentioned in it are all true.

Whither SCOPE? Twelve years on, Gujarat’s official English remains frozen in time

While writing my previous blog on how and why Narendra Modi went out of his way to promote English when he was Gujarat chief minister — despite opposition from people in the Sangh Parivar — I came across an interesting write-up by Aakar Patel, a well-known name among journalists and civil society circles.

Remembering Vijay Rupani: A quiet BJP leader who listened beyond party lines

Late evening on June 12, a senior sociologist of Indian origin, who lives in Vienna, asked me a pointed question: Of the 241 persons who died as a result of the devastating plane crash in Ahmedabad the other day, did I know anyone? I had no hesitation in telling her: former Gujarat chief minister Vijay Rupani, whom I described to her as "one of the more sensible persons in the BJP leadership."

Why India’s renewable energy sector struggles under 2,735 compliance hurdles

Recently, during a conversation with an industry representative, I was told how easy it is to set up a startup in Singapore compared to India. This gentleman, who had recently visited Singapore, explained that one of the key reasons Indians living in the Southeast Asian nation prefer establishing startups there is because the government is “extremely supportive” when it comes to obtaining clearances. “They don’t want to shift operations to India due to the large number of bureaucratic hurdles,” he remarked.

Guha plans book to counter Dalit, Marxist, and right-wing critics of Gandhi, recalls Modi’s 'pernicious lie' on Patel

Let me first confess: writing about an event three weeks after it has taken place is no good, especially for a newsperson. However, ever since I attended the public lecture by well-known historian Ramachandra Guha on May 18, organised by Sarthak Prakashan for the release of the Gujarati edition of his book monumental book "India After Gandhi", frankly, I kept wondering if he had said anything newsworthy apart from what had already appeared in the media ever since the book's first edition came out in 2007. Call it my inertia or whatever.

A conman, a demolition man: How 'prominent' scribes are defending Pritish Nandy

How to defend Pritish Nandy? That’s the big question some of his so-called fans seem to ponder, especially amidst sharp criticism of his alleged insensitivity during his journalistic career. One such incident involved the theft and publication of the birth certificate of Masaba Gupta, daughter of actor Neena Gupta, in the Illustrated Weekly of India, which Nandy was editing at the time. He reportedly did this to uncover the identity of Masaba’s father.