Article/Link:― India erupts in protest following Anna’s arrest by Unknown.
Published: Aug. 16, 2011; Accessed: Oct. 16, 2011
“Never before, and never again,” the freedom fighters of our country must have thought to themselves, “Will we see another Gandhi.” How naïve. Never mind that Gandhiji lead the entire nation to freedom, never mind that he sacrificed his freedom, health, and life so that we might gain ours – any man who gets himself arrested for a ‘noble’ cause is a martyr on the same scale.
Political agitator Anna Hazare, India’s ‘New Gandhi’ according to his legion of supporters in the public, was arrested on 16th August for a violation of the Indian Penal Code. Hazare, known for his non-violent war against corruption and as the proprietor of the infamous Jan Lokpal Bill, has been advocating the establishment of a committee to investigate charges against government officials. After a series of debates and riots, a modified version of the Bill has been taken to Parliament – Hazare and his supporters are not exactly thrilled with this, and Hazare announced, "Our Prime Minister said that Lokpal Bill will be sent to Parliament and we will have to abide by whatever Parliament decides. We have full confidence in Parliament but bring the right bill before Parliament.” Accordingly, these noble warriors of justice protested, and were arrested for “defying prohibitory [sic] orders.”
Hazare has joined that grand society of martyrdom, of freedom fighters who took up a cause and used it to set the skies on fire: Jesus, Hitler, Gandhiji, and my personal favourite, the larger-than-life character of RP McMurphy in Ken Kesey’s One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. In the novel, McMurphy rises up to repeatedly challenge the system. He is, of course, punished for it. He is locked up in a mental hospital (and I am absolutely not drawing any parallels here), and in spite of the support he gets from the other in-patients, he is still ultimately unable to defeat the system. Sure, he wins a few battles along the way. But does he win the war? No, of course not. Eventually, things will relapse to the way they were before.
Could someone let Hazare know?
The point is, life follows a predictable, if not entirely delightful, pattern. Someone or the other will always tire of the way things are being run. If they have the guts and the support, they will rally people to their cause. Perhaps they will achieve momentary success, and perhaps they won’t. Who can tell? Of course, some successes are of far greater magnitude than others, such as Gandhiji leading our country into freedom. Not all causes are equally important…but who am I to distinguish between them?
Hazare has been quoted as saying, "My Dear Countrymen, the second freedom struggle has begun. I have been arrested as well. Will this struggle stop with my arrest? Absolutely not. You should not let that happen." Hazare has declared himself a firm supporter of democracy, and has accused the government of suppressing people’s voices. Now, I am certain that Hazare’s proposed committee is a brilliant idea from a democratic standpoint: giving a small group of people untold power over thousands. Others may protest. However, his point still stands. Cut off the head of a hydra, and…well, frankly, you’re just an idiot. Who would want to go that near a mythical fire-breathing dragon? Remove a martyr, however, and you’re creating a martyr. A cause needs a martyr more often than a leader. McMurphy’s death inspires most of the men in the hospital to seize their own freedom. Hazare’s arrest has sent thousands into the streets, where they are waving slogans and giant banners protesting the injustice of the system.
Who can argue that Randle Patrick McMurphy and Hazare both stood up and shook their fists at the system – and that the system in turn tried to hammer them down for it? Whatever the cause, whatever the scale, whoever the man…in a never-ending cycle, systems and rebellions create each other. Gandhiji is known as the ‘Father of our Nation.’ And perhaps a hundred years from now, in a future that I am glad I will not live to see, people will say the same of our very own Anna Hazare. I suppose this is history’s rather unsubtle way of telling us that yes, it does indeed repeat itself.
Vocabulary:
·
- Courted
- “Support for Team Anna on the ground is growing as Hazare's supporters courted arrest throughout the country after the activist called for mass arrests.”
- to court: to risk incurring (misfortune) because of the way one behaves. From "woo, offer homage," as one does at court, 1570s.
- In sneaking out of the unending chapel service to entertain themselves elsewhere, the students courted danger.
- Slogans
- “In Delhi, supporters were seen shouting slogans outside the Rajouri Garden PS.”
- slogan: A motto associated with a political party or movement or other group. From 1510s, "battle cry," from Gaelic sluagh-ghairm: "battle cry used by Scottish Highland or Irish clans," from sluagh, "army, host, slew" + gairm"a cry."
- After a series of entirely depressing speeches, students posted up slogans advocating bullying.
- Thronged
- “Earlier, people thronged Anna Hazare's residence to pledge their support for his protest demanding a strong Lokpal, even as police deployed a large number of personnel to ensure law and order in the city.”
- to throng: to go in a crowd. From c.1300, probably shortened from Old English geþrang "crowd, tumult" (related to verb þringan "to push, crowd, press"). First use as a verb recorded in 1530s.
- Desperate to get a glimpse of the celebrity, students thronged in the corridors outside of their classrooms – of course, they could have just been trying to cut class.
