Romance of the (street) protest

To say that I led a fairly insulated life until I reached college in 1985 is to understate it. Of course I went out with friends, had had a stalker, etc, etc, which is all par for the course for an Indian girl. But when it came to politics, I knew very little. The politics of the drawing room conversations of a defence officer’s home is more often restricted to defence budgets, bosses and colleagues. True, there were two newspapers at home, but i obviously must have paid cursory glances. It had little bearing until the third week of joining college, when a senior pointed to a guy loping past and whispered, “he is actually five years ahead of us, took two years off to join the PWG and is back to do his MA and take the Civil Services Exam”. PW what? I had no clue but had no desire to let my ignorance be known. On reflection, the lack of a long debate on the subject following the disclosure may have meant that the others around also knew very little about it. This of course led to some research in the college library and possibly my first introduction to the concepts of socialism, violence to gain rights etc. I knew enough about myself to know, my sympathy was superficial and there was no way i felt strongly enough to give up my worldly pleasures to handle guns in unknown forests.But thus began my interest in politics and the machinations behind everything. Needless to say by end of the three years i was a cynic who looked for the “other meaning” and “what’s in it for him” in every word and action. The world reinforces the advantage of such an outlook again and again, so no need to change on that front.

My own experience of yelling in the streets came in 1987 . A girl had got, what else but, molested in a U- Special (a set of special buses that the DTC runs in Delhi to take students from different parts of the city to the North Delhi Campus of the Delhi University). These buses were reserved for students and as such everybody knew the regulars but on odd occasions, “strangers” would use the bus. One such guy(s) had done something of which i dont remember the details of and indeed am not sure that i ever knew.

So by 10 the message came around that “all” students were leaving classes to protest and give a petition to the Vice Chancellor. Many may have left for other “errands” but i was determined to participate. I heard for the first time ever pithy lines like “Ham honge Kaamyab” and ” Ho Ho Ho Chi Minh” ( honestly) and “Halla Bol” and soon enough was even leading the slogans to give breaks to the others. After a hour of meandering past colleges and accumulating more students, we reached the V C’s office where (surprise, surprise) he was not there. After another 10 minutes of yelling and demanding, the petition asking for punishment to the offenders and greater security for girls, we all returned home after a good day’s rest. The next couple of days, all greetings with acquaintances began with “were you there that day?”

A fortnight later, i asked around about what happened to the petition….no body had a clue and not a soul knew where to find out. What can be done, had been and no one i knew had any interest beyond that. Thus ended my career as a protester.

But now it is hard not to notice the “trending” street protest through the globe. From North Africa to USA to India to Pakistan to Bangladesh, people especially the youth are out in hordes, letting the governments know of their displeasure. Sometimes they meet with success (whatever that means) and sometimes not. But there is no doubt that the allure of reaching the streets and getting the administration to bend to your demands is very seductive. People who were born after 1940, often talk of how they were waiting to go on a protest march when they turned 13 or 14, when the declaration of independence cheated them of that opportunity.

Wikipedia actually lists protests by years : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:2012_protests with some 40 plus listed for 2012 down from 70 plus in 2011. But as i run my eyes down the list, it is hard to find one that has led to a positive mood in the short term. How long term one would need to wait is anybody’s guess.

One of the most successful protest in recent times to my mind was the ouster of Ferdinand Marcos after 8 years in power, in 1986. It is estimated that Marcos alone stole at least $5 billion from the Filipino treasury, that of his cronies seperate. The Swiss government, ever reluctant to respond to allegations that stolen funds were held in Swiss accounts, had only returned US$684 million of Marcos’ wealth by 2008. So good luck to India in getting back whatever is being estimated here.