In my early years in school, we once had Uncle Tom’s Cabin (an anti-slavery novel by American author Harriet Beecher Stowe) as the prescribed text in Reading Comprehension. Then I was too young to comprehend the significance of this prose in its entirety. But the characters like Uncle Tom and Eliza did leave a mark on an impressionable mind.
Today I watched 12 Years a Slave on the big screen. Ironically this comes in the aftermath of the merciless killing of my brother and fellow Indian Nido Tania in the nation’s capital just because he looked Different. I couldn’t but help wonder about the eerie similarity between what happened in Lajpat Nagar the other day and what happened to Solomon Northup in 1850s America. Both the incidents stemmed from a deeply prejudiced and racist society.
America had just come out of a bloody civil war and ABE LINCOLN had finally succeeded in granting the “Niggers” their freedom. But racial discrimination still continued as New York embraced all as equal but states like Washington D.C. and Georgia didn’t. This disparity continued till the Civil Rights Movement led by Dr. Martin Luther King finally helped America get rid of this racial bias. But as the popular serial Mad Men and The Help Movie show, bias was still prevalent and the process of abolishing this was painfully slow. Some might argue that this movement has come full circle with the U.S electing its first African-American president Barack Obama.
Well this movie tells the true story of Solomon, an erudite free citizen of Saratoga, New York , who is kidnapped and forced into slavery. What follows is an agonizing tale of indescribable suffering and ruthless oppression that these “slaves” were subjected to as Solomon becomes Platt, someone who is forced into believing that he is only meant to “serve”. When he finally attains freedom after 12 long years, Solomon decides to write a book on his ordeal and names it, “12 Years A Slave”.
I haven’t come across such a gritty and gut-wrenching cinematic depiction for a long time ( Schindler’s List maybe). But all through the film , my mind continued to veer towards that ghastly Delhi incident.
The time has come when we Indians should introspect. Something somewhere has gone terribly wrong. When someone ridicules the physicality of a fellow national, he is actually mocking the very idea of our nationhood which is (as much cliched that might sound) still “Unity in Diversity”. So the death of Nido is actually a body blow to the Idea of India.
The Economic Times did a front page article as recently as 25th Jan recounting the ordeal that Kim Barrington Narisetti, an African-American professional, who lived in New Delhi for nearly four years, had to experience. If we cannot confront this menace, we have no right to point fingers at other nations.
Solomon Northup and his legal counsel were unable to prosecute or have convicted the men responsible for his being sold into slavery. But America at least partially corrected its course when Dr.King’s (We have a) Dream was finally given the legislative push and segregation was abolished once and for all. The time has come when we Indians should stand up for our brothers and sisters in the North-East and say “Enough is Enough” before it is too late.
Say NO to RACISM, Say NO to PREJUDICE, Say NO to BIGOTRY and Say YES to the idea that is INDIA.
Mann se Ravan jo nikale, Ram uske mann mein hai ..
Calcutta Chromosome 