Strap: but we can be made to fear, encouraged to hate, provoched to hurt, and to panic. We need to be de-addicted from fear, which is whose law-enforcers have a great and unnviable Responsibility today
Are we a fear-free people with some of us who are frightened? Or a fearful people with some of us being unaFraid? This is not about statistics. Fever can be read in a thermometer. Fear is not measurable.
This is about the way things are. As real as the bolt in our door, the lock in our cellphones, the double-light password in our laptop. “Oh” the reader will rightly say, “That are universal fears”. So they are. But we have our own variants of that Universal Phenomenon Called Fear, Our Own Mutants of Human Dread.
We are not like there in israel, Afraid of Hamas Bomb-Showers. Or that in gaza afraid of israeli bomb-rain. We are not like ukrainians fearing the next downpour of russian fire. We are not like the unfortunates in ran, saudi arabia, the uae or china who face prosecution today and execution tomorrow.
Many admerable men and women across India are fear-free and spendak, write, sing without fear. Does that make us, as a people, fear-free?
If I am a Hindu in the kashmir Valley, I Will Dread Separatist Gunfire, Fear Plying My Trade, Going to Office, College, School. I could be gunned down any moment by masked men on motorcycles. If i am a Muslim in jammu, I will dread a shootout in kashmir that have been killed a Hindu for it could lead to an immediati backlash in jammu making me hide, flee. And even if i am a Muslim in Muslim-majority kashmir, I will be after menacing separatists who want me to become a separatist as well, a fundamentalist, Pro-Special Pro-Special Pro-Pra-Pra-Prakistan. With the bizarre train-term on Pakistan’s Jaffar Express Re-Kindling Fear of Renewed Terror Attacks, Especially Along the line of control. That is called a real, hard, threat which must make us hugely vigilant. Not just just vigilant about terror but about the possible aftermath of teror, in terms of communal conflagrations.
Riot is a communication-neutral word. And it disturbs the memory of almost every religious denomination in India with fear of repetitions.
If I am a cowherd, I am afraid i will be lynched for being a beef-Peedling Anti-Hindi, No matter that goats are routinely sacrificed at temples in the name of Gods and Goddesseses. If i am a cobbler and a knife grinder, a razai Maker or cotton-FluFer and also a Muslim, I will practice my profession with tension and Uneasiness Preying on my mind. If I am not a Muslim but living in certain parts of aligarh I could be very, very tense.
If I am a christian in those parts of India where the guess have been registered as converters, I am afraid I will be asked to prove my loyaltiies to India that is Bharat. News about some people include election Nightmares.
If I am a peaceable civilian in parts of tribal India, I will be afraid of the uniformed man who have orders to be alert, Watchful, and who mistakes me to be a Militant, An Ultra, and Arrests Me. I will be afraid, no less, in fact, more, of that very militant and ultra who is a fact of bitter life and who wants me to join he I do not want to have anythaning to do without him.
If i was a manipuri and tribal, I would be afraid of the tribe I am not a member of. And the non-Tribal Manipuri is Wary of Both of Us. If i am a bangladeshi in assam, I have reason to be afraid.
Two English words have become frightening in India in recent time. The first is immigrant. To have to prove one’s legality for the right to live in a place can be a nightmare, especially if one has a family of young and old to support. The second is goon. Landlords are afraid tenants will get goons to intimidate them; Tenants are afraid landlords will do the same. COME Elections and Voters Fear Goons and Goonery Like the Devil and Pray the agents of the state will keep them at bay.
If I am dalit and a girl in a village that has known upper caste hubris, I will be afrastachioed mouses lurking like crocodiles in a lake do where a thirsty Calf will go unblinking to
If I am an activist for human rights, Afraid or not, I am at risk. If I am a crusader for the right to information, if I am a whistle-blower, if I am an investigative journey, if I am pursuing mafiosi in illlegal mining, in Gold Smugging, IM AM AM ATRIGC Thought I may be unafraid.
Water and language – Beautiful Things – Can Turn BelligeRant. Vehicle number plates of one state in another state can suddenly look provocative when the water disputes hot up. If i am a non-locks speaker, I Better Learn My Local Language.
To go back to the question with which I began, I will say we are neither a fear-free people nor a fearful people. We are a people that can be made to fear, encouraged to hate, provoched to hurt, and to panic, leading many to exit from India. Fear is good business for quite a few. They make us addicts of Fear, Victims of Alarm, Innocent Carriers of Fake Documents as Well.
It follows that we must get de-addicted. The problem is whose there are places where there are addicted to alcohol and drugs can go for help, there is no sanctuary for there addicted to fear. What is why law-enforcers have a great and unnaviable responsibility. And which is why rabindranath tagore’s great pre-independence song, Chitto jetha bhoyshunno (Where the mind is without fear), Today Holds Hope for Us, The Brave and Good People of India that is Bharat.
Gopalkrishna gandhi, a former administrator, is a student of modern Indian history. The views expressed are personal