Page 33 - Tehelka Issue 8&9

politics

• Agitations everywhere It’s more difficult
The politics of protests protest
to repair the damage caused by a riot or a

ment cost local businesses about half
and its repercussions a million dollars in a 2011 survey. Los
Angeles lost an estimated $4 billion in
taxable sales in the decade following
the 1992 Los Angeles Riots. One expert
has opined that part of the problem
The ways and methods of agitations have significantly metamorphosed in India over the decades. The emerging new is that it’s more difficult to repair the
social platforms have significantly transformed how people express their angst and get their grievances addressed photo: tehelka archives damage caused by a riot or a protest.
In a natural disaster, for example, peo-
again in March 2018 for Lokpal Bill and gradually getting disenchanted with ple tend to be more willing to help
ndia has witnessed in recent times have ranged from anger on ranging from protests for rape vic- for the farmers’ cause and recent pro- the old stereotyped and self-centered rebuild the community; whereas, after
years a spate of agitations assault of freedom of speech and tims, agitations for reservations and test by farmers from Tamil Nadu, etc. leadership. Social media has provided protests and riots, however, this is
wherein people in large num- expression, condemnation of ris- anti-reservations, screening of film August-September, 2016, witnessed the youth with a platform to come to- harder to do because the community
bers had banded together as ing incidents of atrocities on Dalits Padmavat, over Pakistani actors in Marathas, constituting 33 percent of gether and demand its adequate share has been divided.
one to voice their political, so- and Muslims, farmers’ woeful plight, Bollywood to atrocities on Dalits and Maharashtra’s population, coming in the society. Some experts don’t see
I cial and economic grievances. deaths and droughts, women safety, farmers’ miserable plight. out on the streets in force, demand- the emergence of these movements as Way Forward
Broadly speaking, agitations can be to student movements in the wake According to a study based on ing reservation for their community. a sort of conflict between societies and The recourse to agitational mode
construed as the collective articula- of state crackdown in educational the data compiled by the Bureau of In past two years (2016-2017), Gujarat communities. For them, it is not the resorted to either by the farmers or
tion of disenchantment or dissatis- institutions. Police Research and Development has witnessed the Patidar movement story of one community pitted against students or Dalits or other deprived
faction with government authori- (BPR&D), between 2009 and 2014, demanding reservations for the Pa- another, rather it’s still the story of one segments of the society occurs only
ties, social, political and economic Anatomy of Agitations 4,20,000 protests were held across tels under the youthful leadership of community asking for its rights. when all other channels of getting
establishments and these agitations Viewed in a broad spectrum, India India — an average of 200 protests Hardik Patel. Atrocities on Dalits in With regard to farmers’ agitations, their grievances redressed are closed.
could entail an array of issues — from has had a long tradition of agitations, every day nationwide. While report- Gujarat, especially in the aftermath of many experts opine that these agita- While asserting that the current agi-
farmers’ issues, education, essen- ing that nearly half of these protests the flogging of four Dalits in Una, led tions are not mere reflection of farm- tational mode is a distorted form of
tial services and transport facilities were led by political parties, the study to the emergence of Jignesh Mevani as ers’ frustration with the agricultural resistance against the model of de-
to wages, Dalit issues and rights of makes it discernible that the sharpest the new face for the Dalits who have policies of the government, as it ap- velopment which is followed by the
women, etc. Widening rise in unrest came from student-led rallied behind him. These movements pears prima facie; rather, it is a culmi- Indian state, one expert has suggested
Some experts opine that suste- rural-urban agitations (148%) between 2009 and have not been orchestrated or patron- nation of increasing disenchantment that it devolves on the political class
nance and evolution of agitations in 2014. It can also be discerned from ized by any political party at the out- with the state’s increasing obsession to understand the grievances of the
India has occurred amid an unequal gap has led this study that growth in unrest in set but the success of their agitations with the urban. It is also argued by aggrieved segments of the society
society, rampant poverty and crime, to an identity India during the period under review has spurred all political parties to vie these experts that there is a constant and address them more sensibly and
apathetic state and a slow moving could be attributed to varied rea- for their favour. Undoubtedly, all these concern with the rural in the develop- sympathetically.
legal system. It is further argued by crisis and these sons: communal (92%), government new movements are inherently politi- ment discourse in independent India. Widening rural-urban gap in con-
these experts that in the absence of employee grievances (71%), political cal; nevertheless, they go far beyond However, another fact is that the rural temporary India has led to an iden-
other avenues, agitations/protests agitations are a (42%) and labour (38%). Political par- the hands of even key players. has also witnessed increasing sense of tity crisis and these agitations are a
have become a means of grievance manifestation ties and their affiliates were report- In the wake of emergence of new marginalisation, negligence and above manifestation of this crisis situation.
redressal, a way of legitimizing the edly behind 32% of the protests re- movements led by young leaders on all a sense of inferiority vis-a-vis a new Instead of ‘walk the talk’ on tall prom-
demands, a function of multi-cultur- of this crisis corded in the country and additions the Indian political firmament, some urban India. ises, Prime Minister Modi said in
al democracy and a form of freedom situation of the student bodies and labour political pundits have raised pertinent March this year that hardcore politics
of speech and expression. Pointing unions could lead to the percentage questions like: Is the rise of these per- Economic Costs of agitation in India was not relevant.
out that such agitations can be con- going up to 50%. tinent movements the failure of poli- The state and public have to bear the He has been supported by RSS chief
strued in terms of the articulation dating back to independence move- Delhi, the country’s capital, has tics as has been in practice in the past? brunt of these agitations. Agitations who recently invoked Babasaheb
of the collective conscience of the ments when the consciousness of designated demonstration sites, the Have political parties failed to protect do lead to losses — both in terms of Ambedkar to advice the Dalits to go
nation, these experts also opine that a nation state started taking root best-known being Jantar Mantar, the interests of these communities? human casualties and damage to the to courts of law to redress their griev-
these agitations are organic and dy- among the people and these ranged Ramlila Maidan and India Gate. It Has one society begun to consider economy and businesses. According ances. The present dispensation still
namic, changing their forms, scale from the intense revolution of 1857, to witnessed nearly 23,000 protests in the other a threat? And is the political to media reports about economic im- seems to be in perpetual dream-mer-
and sometimes, agendas. Failure of peaceful pan-India Gandhian Satya- the period 2009 to 2014. The notable status quo changing? These political pact of agitations in the United States, chant mode, promising endless under-
judicial and state processes breeds graha. The post-independent India agitations and protests held in Delhi experts seldom expect immediate an- the New York protests in 2014 cost the takings without fulfilling a single one,
conflict, often forcing the people has witnessed evolution of novel and range from retired soldiers’ demand swers to these complex questions and city nearly $23 million in police over- without realising that its inability to
to take to the streets to administer powerful methods of agitations that for ‘one rank, one pension,’ protests in are in favour of ‘wait and watch.’ time. In the case of Charlotte, N.C., pro- deliver has now begun to catch up for
some form of vigilante justice and apart from generating attention also the wake of the Nirbhaya rape case in The youth of the day constitutes tests inflicted $122,000 worth of prop- the first time.
retribution. hold symbolic value. Agitations of all December 2012, Anna Hazare’s anti- a major chunk of the total popula - erty damage to city-owned buildings
Causes of agitations in recent kinds have come to co-exist in India, corruption movement in 2011 and tion and a large number of them are alone. The Occupy Wall Street move- letters@tehelka.com

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32-33 Politics Anil Singh.indd 2-3 02/05/18 5:36 PM