India Has Won

It is fair to say that I am disoriented. Last night I did not sleep until the break of dawn. Sitting here in God's Own Country I am beginning to soak in the how India has changed in the past few days. We are a funny species. We get enormously affected by things that don't really affect us. We get stuck into ideas that don't exist and concepts that are expressed by the continuing conversations between our kind, between the dead and the alive. Step aside, Vijay Maliya, the new king of good times has arrived.

The results are out for the largest election ever conducted by humankind. And India, it seems, has won. An India which only represents the majority Hindu population that has been systematically homogenized for political gains. In this India, everyone who does not accept they Hindu way of life (whatever that means) is deemed to be a second class citizen and by that logic has lost. India has won. After a century of subjugation by the British and a few centuries of bowing before Mughals, Indians (Hindus) have won back its own territory. The Hindu Rashtra is finally here, with the right wing Bharatiya Janata Party, winning a massive mandate to rule the country.

The term Hindu is more a geographic expression than a religion, but with every passing day, it is taking the shape of a chauvinist religion. This is accompanied with a growing intolerance for anything that goes against Hindu pride. History is re-written everyday. India's 180 million Muslims, none of whom will be representing the winning party, have one choice in front of them. Accept the Hindu way of life, or resign yourself to being second class citizens. This is shown by how the supreme leader of the BJP, Narendra Modi has put the Muslims in their place in his home state of Gujarat.

End of Liberalism

India's liberals have to take blame for this. With plum placements and a good lifestyle, they had become lazy and thoroughly corrupt. They became the ruling class of India and had a symbiotic relationship with the Gandhi dynasty. The Gandhi dynasty which started with Indira Gandhi taking control of power by declaring an emergency is finally coming to an end and liberalism is out. The elaborate power structure has been rotten and dismantled with remarkable ease by the right wing.

The question for the liberals, or whatever remains, is how to regroup? There was one ray of hope. The Aam Aadmi Party. This party came out of the frustration with the ruling class and promised a new beginning. In a refreshingly brave move, its leader, after he was elected Chief Minister, decided to let go of the elaborate security apparatus that had become a trophy of power. He even declined to accept a palatial bungalow that comes with the post. He then went on to cement his liberal leanings by making lifeline water free for citizens of Delhi.

Sometimes things that appear too good to be true, really are. The honeymoon quickly ended and the media turned vicious against the Aam Aadmi Party. The party was quickly filled up with opportunists and self promoting leaders. With no yardstick to measure and no culture formed, it was doomed into disaster. The people rejected this motley groups of individuals without any ideology or organization. Even in this devastated state, it represents the best hope for liberals

What about the Muslims?

The Muslims of India have a very serious question in front of them. The oil that fills up the tanks of gas guzzlers in America has fueled a very conservative version of Islam in India. Poor Muslim children are lined up in Madrassas or religious schools in the margins of Indian cities to learn Arabic. Discriminated and disowned in their land, the only economic structure for vast number of Indian Muslims is this Arabic utopia. Their problem is compounded by the history of partition when Muslims had demanded a separate homeland for themselves. India's founding fathers on the other hand believed in a more inclusive and modern vision of the nation state, where all religions would be treated equally, and pleaded the Muslims to stay back. But the trust between communities had broken and Muslims were viewed with suspicion and xenophobia.

Liberal Muslims on the other hand have been unable to provide any leadership. Unlike the blacks of America, Muslims of India have not yet had their Martin Luther King moment, let alone an Obama moment. Even though they have excelled in some domains, they largely remain marginalized and poor. The future for them is even bleaker.

The Lie

A lie, that had been intricately kept in place by fate and a number of opposing and balancing forces has finally been shattered. India, the land of the Buddha, has never been an enlightened society. The forces of darkness that had always lurked under the hood are now in the open. India is a society that is governed by power and pragmatism not freedom and ideals. The pragmatism is often mistaken for pacifism. What shape will this new phase take will be clear in the coming days. But for those who have lived in denial, getting used to this reality will be difficult.

Good days are here.

New Beginnings

Kavya was sticking close to me. We were sitting in a circle. The teacher and nine three year olds, eight mothers and me. The teacher was trying to get the younger ones involved in some rhymes. Voice was barely cracking out of my mouth and Kavya, sensing my discomfort, was quiet. She was watching the unfolding drama of bewildered toddlers and awkward adults trying make sense of it all. We were in Kavya's new school, Shishuvan and it was first day of the new school.

Only a couple of years back, to the collective horror of our parents and friends, we were thinking of home schooling Kavya. School, we realized did not really work for us. We spent years in numb classrooms, day dreaming and dreading the teachers index finder when it did the Russian roulette, hoping that it did not stop at us. Slowly and steadily we were institutionalised and domesticated. We learnt not to trust our instinct and in return were made to feel mildly competent to be slaves to a modern society. But our big hopes started evaporating when the commitment of raising a child 24x7 started staring in our face coupled with the complete resistance from our families. We would not send her to a regular school for sure. Alternative schools are not a rage in Mumbai and when we started looking, there were only two choices, Tridha or Shishuvan. It was easier to get into Tridha, but we did not want Kavya to spend her afternoons sleeping in a school bus so it left us with Shishuvan. The other schools, we decided were too commercial or too academic to be of any consideration.

And Shishuvan did not disappoint us. I liked the more traditional sounding name of the school and the classes and the uniforms with Indian prints, fusing the modern and the ancient. The school seemed to have a very strong and clear philosophy (with a bias for Powerpoint presentations). Even though I went to a catholic school, I have grown to have a post-colonial world-view. Fed by a range of recent writing on the Asian awakening and my family's Gandhian background (my grand parents wore khadi), I have learnt to ask uncomfortable questions about our complete cultural submission to the West. In that sense, Shishuvan did not seem to be a sell out.

But the English rhymes were still a bit hard to swallow. English was still the oppressors' tongue and a language of exclusion for the masses. Politics had entered early into Kavya life and I could only watch helplessly as she was getting prepared to get groomed into an elitist class, just like me. She might grow up thinking in English too, I sighed, slightly afraid of being a radical and yet unwilling to submit fully. Ending up, like many others, resigning to the fact that I had the ability to do neither.

Kavya was still taking time to settle down and was not fully buying into the rhymes either. Not that I minded it. A bit of scepticism for institutions was a healthy sign. The teachers were getting a bit worried though, so were other parents, who were sympathetic since I was clearly struggling to get her comfortable in class. Soon the other parents started dropping out. We spent one full class sitting against the wall, watching other kids do the rhymes. It was only when our chance came to paint, we participated with others. I could see Kavya big round eyes absorbing the new surroundings, only occasionally wanting to poke into the proceedings, fearful of what reactions that might have.

The worst was yet to come. The next day, Kavya would not come out on her own. So Rajitha decided to join us with her big tummy carrying another tiny baby. As soon as we reached the class, Kavya decided to give her best and most ferocious howl. She was not going in. Unfortunately on the day before, she had to be dragged into the classroom and today she was making sure that there was no way she would be dragged. So we had a deal. We would stand outside and only "check out" what was happening. Since I was the only parent, I decided I would not go in. So I picked her on my hip and we stood outside the class, watching through the glass door. The teacher was doing a neat trick. She conjured up a water melon from under a napkin and sliced it into small pieces for the kids. Thankfully, one small piece was sent outside for us. Kavya seemed to like that.

Then came the opening.

We will go in tomorrow, she told me. I could hardly believe my luck. I was preparing for another day of standing out, so I made her repeat it. And she said it alright, she would go in tomorrow. So we happily stood out for the rest of the hour watching other kids go through the motions. We were now prepared for what was to come. And we had done pre-school too and this seemed more of the same - rhymes and some fun. The next day, she did make some noises before going in, but they were very feeble. The day after, she was annoyed that the door was closed (since we were a bit late). 

Now she is fully settled in. It was a tough balancing act, but I think we did okay.