Prologue
Revolution is not something fixed in ideology, nor is it something fashioned to a particular decade. It is a perpetual process embedded in the human spirit
-Abbie Hoffman
Our evolution had always been littered with multitude of challenges including those of social and cultural variety. Equally numerous have been, and to this day continue to be, the struggles to banish such ills and evils that - to any sane person - should not find place in our current modern world. This is inspite of we having arrived in a modern world, and most of the nations having become independent!
The underlinings of the fabric of an otherwise even a visibly free society strains because of various ills that political, societal and cultural defects and upheavals bring. Bloodying and bruising the destinies and shaking the faith and trusts of many a citizenry. And there is a constant struggle against these. The struggles take various forms and shapes. It could be class struggle, poor vs rich, struggle against apartheid, dalits v upper class, struggle of women for equal rights, or just for the right to be educated, and many such. At some point of time, the common struggles of many converge, sparking collective fury. This collective fury and angst has set off many a Revolution. Is it onset of a Revolution? A Renaissance? Is it a juggernaut in motion – the unstoppable juggernaut of Revolution?
1
The sadness of the women’s movement is that they don’t allow the necessity of love. See, I don’t personally trust any revolution where love is not allowed
-Maya Angelou
A few days back, rummaging through my mailbox, I clicked on the latest from my dear ‘overseas’ uncle, who seems to like following the big news and events of this country. It had a news article, long one actually. The 1st part dealt with the grave ills and challenges and crises facing the humanity, particularly of the social kind, in various forms and shapes, and ending on the excesses being committed by the men against the women. Particularly the incidents of rape and violations that have raised outcries in various parts of the world, including the recent one in India.
But it was the 2nd half of the article that caught my interest. Reportedly a billion people, from across the world, comprising of women, and men who love them, were planning to dance their day away on the Valentine’s Day, as part of raising awareness and protesting against the sexual assaults on women-kind. Now we could not have imagined a protest of this kind. Novel method indeed! I was intrigued – here was a Revolution being shaped in such a ‘loving’, ‘moving’ form. I could even draw parallel with the very different non-ahimsa movement several decades back led by a man in a loin cloth, our Father of the Nation. And it led to revolutionary change!
2
I began revolution with 82 men. If I had to do it again, I do it with 10 or 15 and absolute faith. It does not matter how small you are if you have faith and plan of action
-Fidel Castro
Is the Humanity caught in the cross fires and overflowing gushes of Revolution? A concept that seemed quaint, arcane and belonging to a different era and from bygone centuries, is suddenly upon us and around us. Everywhere. Engulfing us. A series of Revolutions have suddenly been sparked and lit, like the myriad sounds and lights of Diwali fire crackers.
The Arab Spring or the Jasmine Revolution is something that instantly flashes in the mind. Back in August 2012, unimaginable events happened in the societies of the Middle East and Mediterranean countries. Totally incredible, that such events could occur in such places. The flares first erupted in tiny nation of Tunisia. Overnight, hundreds of thousands of people – people who felt repressed and stifled over the ages - descended on the streets, demanding better governance and new government, and a bundle of rights. Rights which form, or rather should form, the bedrock of human society – free speech and expression, democratic process, and the like. The tidal waves of Revolution then swept several neighboring and nearby countries, and they continue to lash against their establishments. It has become darker, bloodier, more intense in some. And the Revolution is claiming lives, as it always does. But it is refusing to die down, as it does. It won’t be trampled and snuffed out. Till probably it has achieved what it wills to.
3
It is well enough that people of the nation do not understand our banking and monetary system, for if they did I believe there would be a revolution before tomorrow morning
-Henry Ford
But before the scent of Jasmine Spring started wafting through the bloodied streets and roads of those kingdoms and banana republics, another event proved to be the stones igniting the fire in the aftermath of Financial crisis. When the Capitalism almost tumbled deep into abyss, taking the World economy down on a tail spin. The sledge-hammer blow that Lehman and AIG inflicted. The weight of sub-prime that almost crushed the US economy. Spooked and shook the global financial system. It could have sunk the economies so deep that we would have returned to Stone Age of financial kind.
Revolution rose in the form of ‘Occupy Wall Street’, the 1st in the series of ‘Occupy’ing financial districts. Overnight huge swathes of people, the so called ‘we are 99%‘, arguably the victims of the Financial Crisis, rose in protest against the demi gods of capitalism, marquee financial services entities and investment bankers, and their allegedly greedy ways, corrupt practices, and last but not the least, fat wads of salaries and bonuses, earned selling – arguably - unsuitable and risky products. And, yet another fire kindled!
The OWS movement caught the imagination of populace across the middle and sub-middle class western world, and quickly spread across various other financial centres, within and outside of US of A. In London, it metamorphosed into ‘Occupy London’ under the banner of ‘The European Spring’. The incredible part seems that the citizens from beacons of democracy seem to be borrowing the idea of Revolution from the so un-democratic, Jasmine Revolution nations!
Is this another Revolution brewing here that is aiming to strike at the ‘abhorable’ practices of the capitalists?
4
For a successful revolution, it is not enough that there is discontent. What is required is a profound and thorough conviction of the justice, necessity and importance of political and social rights
-BR Ambedkar
Revolution hit our home shores last year like advancing forces of gale wind. In our own backyard, the issue of corruption came to acquire the centre stage with ferocity, suddenly out of nowhere. And how? A frail aged Gandhian, belonging to an era people hardly remember anymore, electrified and catalysed the entire nation, both India and Bharat, capturing the imagination of young and not-so-young-anymore. People from yester-generation, those with their greys, having grown up on a heavy corrosive diet of ‘chalta hai’ and having accepted corruption as perfectly legit, couldn’t have ever imagined witnessing making of history right in front of their eyes. The Cause struck the chord, and the Generation gaps bridged. Gen ‘no letter’ bonded with Gen ‘letter’. They infused and entwined into each other! At the altar of a Revolution!
The tidal wave of protests swept the country. It shook the political class. And rocked the establishment. They could have almost come-off unhinged. We suddenly became so much more sensitive of the cancer of corruption, and the way it is mauling the Nation. We badly want it eradicated. Like by yesterday. Unfortunately, the Revolution petered out, losing steam. The politicos and the establishment, who were almost engulfed in its Tsunami, went back to their business as usual. So much so that an anti-corruption law still seems moon miles away.
But I believe the Revolution has ignited enough thoughts and fires, and its flames could start leaping out again. I believe the embers are smoldering still, even if not visible. And it wont’t stop. Just won’t.
5
Those who make peaceful revolution impossible, will make violent revolution inevitable
-John F Kennedy
Revolution in other forms too is on our doors. Looking at the history of Revolutions, the oppressed, the exploited, the deprived, and the enslaved rose in unison. Against the rich, dictators, czars, feudal lords, ruling class and the powerful. They wrested their right - right to speak, to possess, to earn, to live. And the right to be free. Just free!
Unfortunately, billions of us are organized in a humongous ‘matrix’ way – by gender, class, caste, economic status, social status, geography, and many more. Revolution of one such class or segment of population not necessarily makes the Revolution of or for the other.
But this Revolution that hit us in the nearest past stood out – it pitted one half of the population of this nation against the other, cleaving it right down the middle. It’s the Revolution of Women against the men. Against atrocities towards them over aeons, exploitation of them in many ways, assault on them of various types - violating them, their feminity and their woman-ness, constantly chipping away at their dignity, shoving them deeper and deeper into the corner.
And it all seemingly culminated on that chilly Delhi night. It is unimaginable that that woman – christened by the media as Nirbhaya and Asmita – when she screamed against her violation, the scream was so intense that it coursed through the entire Nation, shaking up its administration and governance. Kick-starting a massive outpour of anger. Demonstrations made, protests registered, paths walked, candles lit. Shouted on, water-cannoned, caned, manhandled, shoved around, pushed around. But the revolutionary spirit did not flap and did not yield. None and nothing could dampen the frustration and fury that erupted volcanically. This Revolution has come to symbolize everything that the female gender wants. And what they are being denied.
6
This revolution, the information revolution, is a revolution of free energy, as well, but of another kind: free intellectual energy. It’s very crude today, yet our Macintosh computer take less power than a 100-watt bulb to run it and it can save you hours a day. What will it be able to do ten or 20 years from now, or 50 years from now?
-Steve Jobs
In the swansong of Revolutions, paying homage to Technology’s crucial and central role is essential…its like these massive jet engines strapped on to the fuselage propelling the plane ahead. Much in the same way, the Technology is propelling the Revolutions. It has become the causative force and fabricating force in some, binding force and driving force in some. Organizing a demonstration, raising protest, registering your angst, venting your ire, spewing fire on any act of injustice – all those are just a click away. The digital devices, that first empowered us for incoming information highway, suddenly have also become the platform for our cathartic outwards communication.
The power of the bits and bytes are spraying high octane energy to the fires of the Revolutions. I guess we have still not understood, what has been unleashed in the form of breathtaking progress of Technology. It is seeding the germs of the Revolution wider and deeper. Aiding the expanding arc of Revolution’s progression.
Epilogue
In a revolution, as in a novel, the most difficult part to invent is the end
-Alexis de Tocqueville
The naissance and renaissance of Revolution keeps occurring at an un-regular regularity, without giving so much of a dash of hint that it is round the corner. It just erupts once the tectonic plates of emotions have clashed enough, releasing revolutionary energy radiating outwards.
At the heart of each of these Revolutions, the people seem to be still fighting for those same things that ignited and drove Revolutions upon Revolutions of the past – freedom of speech and expression, recognition of democratic rights of an individual, participation in political process, and, and recognizing the basic human right to itself, to things he owns, and to his freedom. In short, seek liberation of soul, mind and body. And allowing him to live. In a just social and equitable manner. With dignity.
So wait and watch. We seem to have stepped through the inflexion point. And the Revolution is set on a fully strained catapult. It WILL fire!
--La fin--
