The Country likes to Know:
’Why are people on the Streets?

Bhaskar Majumder

This is a question of the hour – a long hour more than physical time that expresses despair-suffocation-strangulation. The country seems to have a binary division now – state and non-state, the latter includes nation-civil society-JNU and all that. I find people on the road – men (also women) on the street. It has a British sense also – Aam Admi or common man who can be ignored by the deciders. The men standing (or sitting) on the road are not traffic constables on duty or street beggars. Then, who they are? 

They are the people of Bharat – some of them contributed their precise votes for the political parties of their choice for long five years. If one hour now seems a long hour, imagine hours in five years. But initial condition matters in India that is Bharat more than the processes – for at the end of five long years a new initial condition will arrive or will be projected to the innocent people. In between, there are in processes – guided or unguided, depending on the angle of vision of the deciders.

In spite of warning by the wise, people talk about events rather than going into ideas-ideologies; they talk naming-shaming catalysts. I know that is not to be done – but who cares? So people are on the road. The question is not answered: Why?

But, is asking ‘’Why’’ authorized? I understand the unbridgeable time-distance by a century when people died but hardly protested – the latest was British-sponsored Bengal Famine (1943) well documented by Dreze, J. & Sen, A. among others. Also one remembers civil disobedience movement by Mahaprabhu Chaitanya – it is unknown however where did his physical body disappear – Bharat was/is so vast. Also one remembers Dandy march and others by Mahatma. So, authorization was hardly required in the past. But now it is different – state has accumulated power, if comparable with the corporate, much more than the cumulative power of the cartel-corporate. One simple reason is, state is the custodian of natural resources within the geographic boundary as internationally defined and also custodian of the innocent people. If people do not know who the authority is, the state reminds them. There may be alternative ways of reminding.

Let me come to the core question now: why are people on the road – in this winter or extreme cold? What inspired them? Is it a kind of street-picnic at the cost of the state? Then, damaging public property (that is much more valuable than intellectual property or human value): Why? The representatives of the custodian of natural resources are asking this question breathlessly – Kaakasya parivedana (in Sanskrit, who cares)?

Most of the people, with due respect to their humanity – do not know the institutions in India like RBI, CBI, NITI Ayog, ED, PMO and all that. Some of them know the existence of Lok Sabha and hardly understand the wisdom of Rajya Sabha. Most of these people – men, women and children, remain self-engaged much more than engaged by the institutional system. Most of them are very innocent – live hand to mouth without bothering much about demonetization and all that. I do not agree with those who opine absence of patience in Bharat. Many of them die without questioning – who to question? They use hammer and sickle – they do not use pen. Even I have stopped using pen (for keyboard, of course!). Many of them make sound that does not carry much meaning in civilization in ascending order where silence and not sound is appreciated. Innocent people however are far distanced from civilization in ascending or descending order – they were/are integral component of the civilization without much caring about its abstraction or theoretical articulation. 

But the question is not answered – why are these innocent people on the road. Home is where peace is – home is where safety is – home is where love is. Grihini Grihamuchyete – but many of these home-makers are also on road. Is it the end of home-making?

Though I am not standing on the street, I have been observing these through electronic media mostly since last November 2019 for the Jamia (J) episode. Another J (JNU) followed soon on January 5, 2020. So, it might be because of Jamia or JNU. But how come only two Universities are deciding the assembly of people on the road? There are state Assemblies, there is Parliament of India and above all, there is PMO. It might be that the outcome from these super-institutions did not satisfy the people. But are people always to be satisfied? Innocent people think so – some of them think they fixed the political outcome.

I did not go for any primary survey. But it seems to me more than J-J. It may be because of identity of the individual. If yes, is this identity based on religion? Caste? Gender? Place of birth? The state as the authority may be the most competent to answer these questions that I link with the core question why people are on the streets. But democratic circumference has become so vast that all these questions cannot be answered to all the people on the roads at different corners of the country.

If the people are not there standing on the streets, the responsibility of answering also disappears. One strategy for the deciders could be to wait – people would disappear on their own – how long will they starve in chill weather? The other could be to impose Section 144. The alternative could be to entangle some of them into ‘’videos’’ as an image of anti-national (for they are blocking roads and uncaring for the lovable cities!).

What happens if all these fail? For what I understood, these people on the streets failed to understand the intricacies in CAB-CAA-NPR and all that. And there are Leftists – always wrong. The right has the only right to guide the innocent people.

One wise spiritual (sic) person has already proposed to guide a reputed actor in film industry for her offence to meting students in one premier J – come the day! 

Bhaskar Majumder, Professor of Economics, G. B. Pant Social Science Institute, Allahabad - 211019

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Jan 17, 2020