Return of the Satyagraha- When a people’s movement gains momentum, history has taught us, rulers can’t just mock and grin.-8/4/11

Return of the Satyagraha

Arun Ram

07 April 2011, 11:46 PM IST


Since Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi took three bullets from Nathuram Godse on January 30, 1948, many have gone on Satyagraha. Most of them were shams.

Only a few of them, like Irom Sharmila who is on an 11-year fast against the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act, 1958 in Manipur, show conviction. For the others, it has been so much a political pastime that the average Indian has come to see the Gandhian form of protest as a comic stunt.

Now, an Army truck driver of the 1960s is changing all that. Type ‘A’ on Google search and the system throws up the name Anna Hazare, with more than a million results that correlate with the name. Twitter, Facebook and petition sites are replete with the name. If you think that is but a ‘virtual’ support, go to Jantar Mantar, Delhi, where crowds swell around the 72-year-old crusader on a Satyagraha, sending shivers down the spines of politicians.

And the spineless, who said Hazare was being instigated by some vested interests, are crawling. "Politicians who come to the Satyagraha pandal are being taught how to be modest," said a friend fasting with Hazare, referring to the Uma Bharti incident. Politicians Bharti and Om Prakash Chautala, who apparently tried to take political mileage by paying a visit to Hazare were booed and sent back by the people.

Hazare later apologised to Bharti, saying any politician was welcome to join the fight against corruption, but they can’t find a place on the dais as it was a people’s movement, not be politicised.

The statement, like the man, is an honest one. The spontaneity of public support to his demand for the Jan Lokpal Bill is a testament to that. It’s that fine quality of honesty that turned Kisan Bapat Baburao Hazare into Anna Hazare. It is that simple virtue so scarce in today’s society which propelled the school dropout from Ahmednagar, to a shramdaan pioneer of Ralegan Siddhi, the champion of the right to information and now the crusader for a law to curb corruption.

It is that integrity that sets him apart from the rest who have tried Satyagraha as a drama for political stakes. Chennaiites saw two such one-act plays in 2009 when the war in Lanka was peaking. On March 9, AIADMK leader J Jayalalithaa sat on a fast near the MA Chidambaram cricket stadium demanding immediate ceasefire in Sri Lanka. The same evening, she accepted a glass of fruit juice from no less that Tamil Nadu’s own tiger clone Vaiko to end the fast as air strikes continued to flatten Tamil settlements in the island nation.

Not to be outdone in the tamasha, DMK leader M Karunanidhi went on a ‘surprise fast’ on April 27, when the Eelam Tigers were virtually decimated, raising the same demand. Arriving at dawn, Karunanidhi’s set-makers put in place a cot, two air-coolers and other paraphernalia. The city woke up to the news of the chief minister on a fast. Those who woke up late, however, missed the show, as it got over soon after noon. "Sri Lanka has put an end to hostilities," Karunanidhi proclaimed after the six-hour fast.

Surviving such entertainments, Satyagraha has shown its power through Anna Hazare. Hazare started his fast on Tuesday and the very next day Pawar "dissociated" himself from the group of ministers on corruption.

On Thursday, the Prime Minister agreed to set up a panel with civil society representatives to draft the Lokpal Bill. When a people’s movement gains momentum, history has taught us, rulers can’t just mock and grin. If they do, there could be other forms of protest, some quite contrarian to the Gandhian method, but quite complementary for the cause.

After all, Independence was not a glucose drip the British offered as Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi went on a Satyagraha. There was much blood in the streets. There were Tantya Topes, Chandra Sekhar Azads and Bhagat Singhs who laid down their lives for the Indian Freedom Struggle when the British were grappling with a non-violent fakir who shook the Empire by just going on a fast.

After throwing out the British, India is beginning to battle collectively to root out corruption. If the new age Bapu is insulted, the rulers may well see a few Bhagat Singhs.