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1500 people, 20000 leaflets, six days. A relay-fast for peace and communal harmony concluded on Mar 28 at Jantar Mantar, New Delhi. Nivedita Menon on the defense of democracy.
April 2002: In late March, People for Peace and Secularism, a loose coalition of groups and individuals, sat on a six-day relay fast at Jantar Mantar in Delhi, with the twin objectives of reaching out to the public and focusing attention on the communal genocide in Gujarat. Over the six days, 300 people were on fast from 8am to 8pm (the police did not allow a 24 hour fast) and nearly 1500 people came for a few hours through the day in solidarity. Every day saw about fifty people on fast and about 200 coming to express support. The third day was Muharram. At one point, when Swami Agnivesh's distinctive saffron-clad straight-backed figure was addressing us, three vehicles with colourful tazias, a few young boys in each, passed us on their way to Karbala near Jor Bagh. On seeing the Swami's figure, the first vehicle approaching us raised a cry of naara-e-taqbir, but the cry tailed off as they passed our flags and Aman Ekta Manch banners. We watched them go by, the traffic light was green, they drove through. It was a moment that took a long time to pass. Did they know that Agnivesh began his speech by saying "Bismillah-ur Rahman Ar Rahim"? Did they know that the Kashmiri Sufi who walked off the road to join us sang a bhajan to Vishnu? That it was a young Hindu boy who rendered Bulle Shah with such feeling? Did they feel angry, afraid, confused? On different days different groups have mobilised - women's groups on the first day, environmental groups the second, and University teachers on the third and so on. The shamiana is colourful and eye-catching, with banners and flags and placards - the passing traffic cranes its neck to catch the words (some of our placards are gentle and humanitarian, others sharply political). We are strategically located near a traffic light, so at every red light, we run with our leaflets, which are eagerly taken from us by hands reaching down from bus windows. One or two are thrown out at us angrily - crumpled or torn. But many more are read seriously. Close to twenty thousand leaflets have been distributed in the last three days. They have been carefully drafted, our leaflets, to reflect the minimum consensus painfully arrived at by the large range of opinions we represent. So there is a call for harmony and living together pacefully, but there is also incisive criticism of the VHP and Narendra Modi's government. Some passers by have stopped, joining us in solidarity. A few have come back the next day to sit with us again, and even to sing for us. Throughout the day on all three days there have been songs of hope and harmony and revolution. Some others passing by have engaged us in discussion and argument - politely, sometimes aggressively, but we have been talking and talking to everyone who would listen. Every discussion has had a ring of silent spectators collecting - surely they have gone away with at least an alternative view point to think about? Sometimes we have been supported by one or two among the listeners. That has filled our hearts. Many of those who joined us have asked in perplexity - But why is such a large and significant event not in the media? Why are we not reading about it, or seeing it on TV? We don't have an answer. Later in the evening of Muharram, a large tazia procession came down Jantar Mantar just as one of us was singing Tagore. This time we went among them and gave out our leaflets, hundreds and hundreds of them, to the young boys flourishing their green leafy branches, girls and women on tongas, young men suspicious at first, but reading as they walked, our leaflets that were in Hindi, Urdu and English. Our singer stopped singing as they passed, and we listened instead, to the music from their procession, to their shouts of religious fervour. Then they were through, and we returned to Tagore. Each evening, we closed by lighting candles and lining the length of the road - still and reflective, the candle-light glowing on our faces, defeating even the harsh glare of the sodium vapour street lights. On the last day we ended with close to a thousand people marching to present a memorandum to the President. We walked together, people of all religious faiths and non-believers, leftists and Gandhians and dalit groups, teachers and workers, housewives and students. We walked with our hearts breaking, but drawing strength and support from one another, in the firm belief that we have to act now, in whatever way we can, and wherever we can, to defend our democracy. Nivedita Menon
April 2002 Nivedita Menon teaches Political Science at Delhi University and has been active for over a decade in the anti-nuclear movement and with various citizens' initiatives in Delhi for secularism and democratic rights. She can be reached at XB7 Sah Vikas, 68 Patparganj, Delhi 110092. Jagori, one of the constituent groups of People For Peace and Secularism, is based at C54, New Delhi South Extension II, New Delhi, tel: 6253629, 6257015