Tilting at Windmills is an English idiom which means “attacking imaginary enemies”. It originated from Miguel de Cervantes’ early 17th century novel Don Quixote. Thanks to my school curriculum I was exposed to excerpts of this classic as a 12-year-old, although , if yours truly may sheepishly admit, at that point, the full realization of its significance was to yet to dawn upon the then young impressionable mind.
In the passage that I am alluding to, mounting his skinny horse, the protagonist of Don Quixote , charges an army of giants. In his eyes, it is his duty to vanquish these behemoths in the name of his beloved lady, Dulcinea. However, this act of valour is ill conceived. As his squire Sancho Panza explains to him time and again, these aren’t giants; they are merely windmills. Don Quixote is undeterred, but his piercing lance is soon caught in their sails. Never discouraged, the knight stands proudly, and becomes even more convinced of his mission.
So why do I invoke the delusions of a literary character on a day when my nation celebrates the 73rd anniversary of the august occasion of the adopting the Indian constitution and officially transition into a Republic – a Sovereign , Secular, Socialist, Democratic Republic. Because I feel that I need to mark my protest , maybe , a futile attempt, denouncing whatever is transpiring right now in the name of New India. I am a nobody in the larger scheme of things but if maybe 50 years from now, someone is reading my blog (unlikely), they will know that with a clear conscience, I refused to be a mute spectator to the nightmare that is unfolding right in front of my eyes. And this is my way of speaking up …
The attacks on India’s democratic and secular fabric have been relentless in the past few years but events from the past few weeks , seem to point to an even more sinister future. Very recently, I came across the disturbing news of women ( prominent liberal faces who are embodiments of this nation’s Ganga-Jamuni Tehzeeb ) being apparently auctioned via a mobile application. My horror was further compounded by the fact, that this app targeted two prominent faces with whom I am connected on social media. One of them is an eminent Indian writer, critic, and literary historian. The other person is an extremely popular Radio Jockey. And the common thread binding them is the fact that they both represent the liberal progressive voice which runs counter to the narrative of hate and propaganda that is now all pervasive. The other incident that shook me to the core was the news of a so-called “religious” congregation where in broad daylight oaths were taken to eradicate members of a certain minority community. If you are part of the silent majority that thinks “ this is not my concern”, I assure you , this fire will singe you and your near and dear ones shortly, before you know it. It is a familiar playbook that has been repeated too often in the annals of history , so whether you stand for the majority or minority voice , it will not matter !!
Ananta Dey was my great grandfather from maternal side. He was a freedom fighter who had been imprisoned for 14 years in the Cellular Jail. His name is inscribed in the white marble plaque list of freedom fighters incarcerated by the British at the Cellular Jail (refer to the picture shared above ), where 6 of these 14 years are officially documented. Unlike Savarkar, he didn’t write mercy petitions to the British seeking an early release. Born into wealth, he was a socialist and immersed himself in the cause of freedom struggle in the prime of his youth , renouncing the comforts of a secure life. If I must write about him, one paragraph or even an essay might not do justice. He passed away one year before I was born. Sometimes I imagine how would he (or men of his ilk) have felt about the India they had envisioned and the India that is slowly unravelling before us right now, transforming into an illiberal, majoritarian and intolerant nation.
The state of Indian democracy is very perilous: Parliament has become a rubber stamp, as most of the significant pieces of legislation are passed as laws without discussion; the supreme court’s abdication has been the most spectacular and disappointing. I think, in some senses, it is even worse than the Emergency, because now it stretches across a whole range of judicial issues, where the Supreme Court is simply not willing to challenge the government on constitutional basics. The present ruling dispensation is openly giving dog whistles to communalism which is, you know, a kind of poison that is permeating across our civil society in ways that are quite unprecedented in recent years.
This would not be, for example, possible without the support of Indian capital and the organised and systematic way in which the flow of information is controlled and manipulated, without in a sense the complicity of India’s professional and middle classes. Meaningful Discussions and deliberations have ceased in the public discourse, parliament barely functions, select committees don’t even operate. So, India’s democracy has diminished and shrunk. What feels more disturbing and insidious is the fact that the Indian media openly legitimises and disseminates hate and prejudice. Whether it is print or electronic, most of the media-houses and publications are propagating hatred against minorities in covert or overt forms.
Civil Society is the new frontier of war. The ruling class essentially brands any dissenting voice or stream of thought as an “Enemy of the State” OR in other words like I had mentioned in the beginning of this write-up , “the windmills” are being falsely masqueraded as the principal adversary. I think it was the current Supreme Court Chief Justice who observed the other day that investigative journalism has virtually ceased to exist in India as he says, “everything in our garden appears to be rosy”. Here I am tempted to quote from Shakespeare’s Hamlet “Something is rotten in the state of Denmark” !!
We have already been reliably informed that Abide with Me will not be played in this year’s Beating Retreat Ceremony because it feels less Indian. This should not come as a surprise. Discarding a wonderful hymn with a universal and humanist message ( and a decades old military tradition) fits in with what New India wants to be. I am afraid that we have moved beyond the inflection point and the shift away from pluralism , secularism and multi-culturalism is now perceptible, decisive, and permanent. It would be naïve to think few election outcomes will change this. However, there will be no one happier than myself to be proved wrong.
Recently Netflix released the Meryl Streep starrer “Don’t Look up”, a doomsday dark comedy / satire on everything that is wrong with our democracies where two scientists are desperate to get the public and political classes to react to a planet-killing comet. With the hope of snapping the masses from their stupor, Jennifer Lawrence’s character, a young scientist with a Greta Thunberg-like disdain for the apathetic, screams into the camera during a live TV appearance: “You should stay up all night every night crying when we’re all, 100 percent, for sure, going to [expletive] die!” She’s swiftly dismissed as hysterical, and an image of her face is gleefully seized on for the full meme treatment.
Maybe, just maybe, if we as a nation collectively decide to wake up from our willful slumber and apathy , LOOK UP and start pushing back , there is still a glimmer of hope , albeit a faint one…
Let me end by tracing the etymological roots of the word REPUBLIC, derived from the Latin expression res publica (“the public thing”). Oxford provides two definitions. The modern interpretation is “ a state in which supreme power is held by the people and their elected representatives, and which has an elected or nominated president rather than a monarch.” The archaic definition is “a group with a certain equality between its members.” I cherish the sentiment echoed in the archaic version, what about you !!
In the picture (L-R) : Preamble to the Constitution Of India, An artist’s depiction of Don Quixote , Names of freedom fighters inscribed in marble plaque who were incarcerated at the Cellular Jail pre-independence.
Calcutta Chromosome 