Friday, January 27, 2017

Tamil Pride it should matter to every Indian ...

                     Legality is a matter of power, not justice this uncomfortable thought is gaining credence in the state of Tamil Nadu as each day is passing and this worries me, On the day when India was celebrating the Republic day Tamil Nadu was tense, because Tamil pride had been hurt and was left to lick its wounds with the kind of humiliation that it had only experienced at the hands of fascistic, religious and ethnic forces that did not share the Indian identity, this humiliation that was meted out to the Tamil pride was not by some fringe group but by the state itself which is what makes this incident a significant event in the history of Indian and Tamil Nadu politics. What happened during the last one week in the way of Lakhs of Tamils congregating at the historic Marina beach, before the dreadful violence that was unleashed by the police on the people protesting peacefully on 23rd was a celebration of the Tamil identity, an unanimous cry to the powers that be to do away with the malice's that very much stands in the way of the progress of our country as a whole, the protest wasn’t just about jallikattu it was also about much larger issues that we Indians have failed repeatedly to address with a firm stance, like doing away with corrupt political parties which have ceased to speak for the common man, that have ceased to represent the Tamil Pride, about the mindless exploitation of our environment by crony capitalists  for profit. “Tamil Pride”  do those words make you uncomfortable, I know it might make many who don’t speak the Tamil language, the problem lies in that uncomfortable feeling not in the people exhibiting their Tamil pride, Tamil pride is an aspect of the diverse India out of which arises our spirit to be united, and isn't that what which binds us all together as a nation and allows us to exude the exuberance of unity in diversity, in which we all take so much pride in ?, 
                   I have always wondered why people in Kashmir behave the way they do, why Kashmir is always on the boil?, I think as a person born and brought up here in Tamil Nadu, and having spoken the Tamil language all my life I understand their psyche now, because I have had a glimpse of what might be going through the minds of every kashmiri youth when Indian Policemen barge into their houses with guns in their hands and with a ferocious appetite to terrorize the living will out of their nimble and naive hearts. The Tamil Nadu police on 23rd went on a rampage and terrorized people who were seeking answers for questions which was in the interest of every Indian, those innocent harmless people did that as Tamil’s who take immense pride in the language they speak and the Tamil culture that they revere, the state has humiliated that feeling by employing a kind of unimaginable brutal force on those people calling them intolerant and anti-nationals, this unpardonable action by the state has left its mark on the pages of Indian political history. People who congregated at marina were being argumentative not intolerant, and we Indians have always celebrated that argumentative spirit that we all carry in us. This disrespect that has been meted out to the Tamil Pride has come as a shock not just to Tamilians living in the state of Tamil Nadu but to every Tamil speaking Indian living across the world.
                       A few in the media like to argue that anti-nationals had hijacked the protest conducted by students, well to me an anti national element is someone who doesn't care about the lives of people around him, someone who would cause harm to others knowingly, someone who would get into peoples houses to terrorize them by breaking things which forms the basis for their livelihood, someone who would set fire to public property, an auto a hut (You would know what i mean if you had seen those videos showing police men and women turning into arsonists ), to me an anti-national is not someone who raises slogans against Modi, Panee'selvam or Sasikala, or for that matter against Pepsi & coke, or peta.
                   Nothing can be as respectful an act towards democracy as showing ones dissent in the most peaceful way, if one argues that there were Anti-Modi slogans my question is SO WHAT ?, Modi is not INDIA, if one argues that there were Anti-India slogans then my response to that would have been to ask him or her whoever was raising such slogan's to do so in their homes, i wouldn't go around beating them nor should the police, all that the police should have done is to arrest such people and should have argued their case in the court, Why did the state employ such brutal force against honest harmless argumentative Indian's  who take immense pride in the language they speak and the culture they revere?.
                   Tamil Pride has been hurt, if the Government of India doesn't take steps to assuage the situation by taking strict action against those police men and others and whoever ordered those police men to behave the way they did on 23rd January 2017 things might become rather unruly for the state to handle and will give rise to the idea of democracy languishing at the feet of power, which is not what Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi would have wanted to happen after having given all his life to make an highly principled  Indian way of democracy a reality for every ordinary human being .....
                                                                                   
                                                       - An Argumentative Indian 

























Prasanna Kumar