‘Just Keep On Living’

Humra Quraishi

The haze is still around, in and around the capital city, New Delhi and even far beyond. Affecting lives and livelihoods. Tell me how many amongst can sit indoors, day after day. Can the daily wagers and the mazdoors and the coolies, and the sellers and buyers afford to sit indoors! Can free meals and clothing and medicines be delivered to those forced to sit indoors for weeks at a stretch! Is there any scheme to take care of families and clans affected by the dangerous levels of air pollution and pollutants hitting the fragile humans!

The system is failing to such an extent that hundreds are perishing with severe malnutrition and infections and lack of even the basic facilities, yet there’s no one out there to even listen to their woes! Dead or the dying seems to make little difference to the alive! Such is the level of apathy. At best there come up of announcements of enquiry committees to look into a this or that mishap but human lives are already gone… lost… departed and perished!

Instead of trying to find a way out from this deadly mess, the political rulers have been coming up with hate speeches! Yes, amidst the haze, looms large the political pollution. The hate speeches of the political rulers of the day are only accelerating. In fact, a couple of months back, mid-August, the Human Rights Watch had brought out a detailed report focusing on this. To quote, “Human Rights Watch analysed all 173 campaign speeches by Modi after the election code of conduct took effect on March 16. The code forbids appealing to “communal feelings for securing votes.” In at least 110 speeches, Modi made Islamophobic remarks apparently intended to undermine the political opposition, which he said only promoted Muslim rights, and to foster fear among the majority Hindu community through disinformation…”

The report gives not just details to those provocative hate speeches but also mentions the particular place and the date when those speeches were made. It also highlights this factor: “Modi regularly raised fears among Hindus through false claims that their faith and their places of worship, their wealth, their land, and the safety of girls and women in their community would be under threat from Muslims if the opposition parties came to power.”

As I mentioned this report was released mid-August, and since then the hate speeches of the political rulers have only accelerated. Several of those speeches dripping with communal taunts and provocations and slants. Yet no forum or commission halting them. Leaving one completely and thoroughly disillusioned with the system; on how it works and functions.

Disillusionment has come about in these recent years after one has seen and witnessed disasters taking place. Right from 2014, human tragedies have only been going up the graph yet there seems no halting. Displacements and forced shifts together with targeted lynch killings and assaults. To top it all, the hapless poor could be arrested for stealing a roti or two to settle hunger pangs, but the mighty stealing millions and even publicly accused of dubious bribe-plots are treated as the privileged citizens of the country. Why? Because they are close to those in power. Such is the reality of the day.

Also, it’s time to broaden the very sphere of the very terms- terror and terrorists and terrorising! Ask the vulnerable communities and the targeted citizens who sit terrorised by Hindutva goon brigades unleashed all around. Their partners in crime are the political handlers; sitting at a distance but monitoring each single attack and whatever else goes along with the dubious, well-planned plots. And though on many occasions there were more than pointers to the particular Hindutva outfits responsible for the arson and violence and targeted attacks yet they seem to be moving about freely …unleashed and on the prowl. Taking you somewhat backwards, to the gruesome attack and killing of Graham Staines and his two young boys it was more than confirmed that the murders were done by a particular Hindutva brigade yet till date it is not banned! This is just one of those examples from hundreds of communal attacks but then nothing really happens …not only compounding the outreach of these goon brigades but also relaying immense fear amongst the vulnerable communities.

And though civil war rages in Manipur yet there seems no way out. Lives and properties devastated yet we sit un-moved. Coming up with just those typical synthetic speeches. As though that’s remedy enough to settle bruises and scars and killings and loot. Immediate focus on the ground realities and the wants of the civilian population, sitting much too affected by the ongoing disasters.

Leaving you with this verse of NidaFazli whose own life was somewhat affected at least in those initial years because of the Partition upheavals. These lines from NidaFazli’s ‘Just keep on Living’ (Translated from Urdu by BaidarBakht and LesilieLavigne).

‘Just keep on living/
Just keep on living like this /
Say nothing /
When you get up in the morning/
Take a head count of the family/
Slouch in the chair and read the paper /
There was a famine there /
And a war raged somewhere else /
Be thankful that you are safe/
Switch on the radio and listen to the new pop songs /
When you leave the house /
Paste a smile on your face/
Pack handshakes in your hands /
Keep a few meaningless phrases on your lips /
Be passed through different hands like a coin/
Say nothing /
A white -collar /
Social respect /
A few drinks everyday/
What else do you need /
Just keep on like this /
Say nothing.’

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Frontier
Vol 57, No. 24, Dec 8 - 14, 2024