When we have the political maturity to listen to the dissent of the deprived

In India both the sanctity of public space and individual freedom co-exist with the attempt to curtail it. But the danger is in the lack of protest when there is a deliberate attempt to limit these spaces.

We get into narrow sectarian debates and forget that in the denial of other’s democratic rights lie the beginnings of the end to our freedom. We also want to put our heads into the sand and not see the deprivation, poverty, and oppression that exists all around us.

The demolition of urban slums, driving away the urban poor, the continuing oppression and marginalization of women, Dalits, the ghettoisation of minorities, are not merely the denial of a visual presence. They are the festering sores of our body politic which will turn into our Frankenstein.

The biggest horror for any individual or community is exclusion. In the consequent spread of alienation and intolerance we sow the seeds of our own destruction. We must make and protect the spaces for dissent, even of the most poor, alienated, and marginalized. We must ask ourselves what we can do to change those conditions. It requires confidence and political maturity to listen to these voices. When we do so, we will have an involved and empowered India.

In a sense democracy is at its best when it is kept simple, and straightforward. The vote is only an affirmation of the people being the sovereign in a democratic framework. The challenge in one sense has been to return in more meaningful ways to having a system of governance ‘‘of, by, and for the people’’ in a practical manner.

Public Action has come out of these basic and cherished ideals. Action which connects a concern for oneself, with a concern for others, eventually strengthens one’s own sense of well being and peace. Democracy gives us all a right to act. Many of us are in fact denied the right to act, because of caste, class, religious and gender prejudices. Others who can, do not act. They neither perceive their role nor even think of a social agenda.

We have an obligation to enable those who are denied access to shrinking public spaces. Also push those who can, but do not, into some sort of limited public action. Imagine one per cent of Indians in intelligent public action—it is a crore of people who can change this country. We could be a part of the process of change and feel immensely empowered.

Important moments of my content have come out of collective action. Whether it was in 1,000 women protesting against rape, innovating in methods of expressing their emotions, or in a dharna, where after struggling together for months and years, a change is acceded to. Campaigns have repeatedly demonstrated the power of collective participation to change the direction of governance.

My own involvement with many campaigns show that even laws with far reaching consequences like the Right to Information Act and the Employment Guarantee Act can come about through the involvement of ordinary people in the conception, formulation and implementation law and policy. They also result in simple practical entitlements for democratic action.

I do not see empowerment in the disappearance of problems, but in the strength and ability to deal with them. As you reach the end of a campaign and achieve something, in the seeds of that achievement lie the problems of the future: maybe even of the present. Democracy primarily needs common sense. Ordinary Indians have it in plenty. Provided we perceive it, give it respect, respectability and credence.

We need to nurture a social ethos where religion means compassion, kindness and acceptance of another’s faith. Where plurality is respected and success brings humility and not arrogance, appreciation and not rejection.

If the national movement was one massive act of concerted public action, it cannot peter away into a memory of recalled glory. What a million small and big efforts have shown in post-independence India is that this continues to exist. Unfortunately, it is no longer central to public, political concern. Politics has been narrowed to its most limited definition, and allowed the justification for inaction.

In a democracy, politics is everybody’s business. Our political lives only begin with a casting of the vote. The damning of ‘‘politics’’, and making it a bad word in our lexicon, has given us the luxury of cynicism and inaction.

For too long we have only blamed others. We cannot rely on one leader, ensconced in an artificial halo (of electric lights), to bring about change. Empowerment is the recognition of our collective political responsibility. We need to use the power we have, with intelligence and courage.