What바카라�s In, Or Not In, A Name

After they all went back, drenched in rain and the warm glow of togetherness eked out by strangers converging on a street, there was a jumble of feelings: exhilaration, doubt, acrimony. Born on social media, it retreated back to that space of polemics, endorsed and critiqued in turn. Was it really representative, it was asked. Was it not an elitist, liberal affectation entangled in caste and class, as always? Out there on the street, not without their own doubts, some had come carting their own freight of life바카라�s scars, looking tentatively for comfort in numbers. Nazia was there too on Wednesday, dressed in a salwar-kameez and black hijab, obvious markers of identity.

바카라�I thought there would be fewer people,바카라� says the 32-year-old, scanning the venue from her vantage point: a slushy pavement at Delhi바카라�s Jantar Mantar. The rain-soaked square was chock-a-block with people, hundreds of them, most carrying posters decrying mob violence. The spate of lynchings, which rumbled on even after 15-year-old Junaid바카라�s cold-blooded murder sparked this series of #NotInMyName protests across cities in India, had created a kind of shared horror. The young mother of two had come with low expectations. 바카라�I don바카라�t believe things will really change after this protest but still I came, if only to increase the number of attendees by one.바카라�

Nazia바카라�s brother Arslan, 23, is a tall engineer-to-be. They live in Noida, Delhi바카라�s annexe, once a hub of retired bureaucrats and armymen, now infiltrated by corporate honchos, petty traders and realtors바카라�and tend to feel news of this sort, of random violence, on their skin. The siblings say they have seen their city and its people change over the last few years,. 바카라�Earlier, I was never conscious of the way I dress; now I sense the people바카라�s gaze,바카라� Nazia says. 바카라�They stare at my dress. To them, I appear conspicuously Mus­lim바카라�someone not to be trusted fully.바카라�

Arslan concurs. The fear of violence is growing, he says, and not just in villages, where the most brutal lynchings have occurred. Even in cities, the vulnerable바카라�Muslims, Dalits, women바카라�are feeling more vulnerable. 바카라�Koi bhi kisi ko bhi maar raha hai (anybody is killing whoever they want),바카라� he says. Something baleful seems afoot in the air. His non-Muslim acqua­intances still treat him as before but their social media posts, often borderline, make him wonder: 바카라�Are they really the same people when I바카라�m not around?바카라� Chimes in Nazia, 바카라�People have been fed with violence and anger.바카라� And Arslan: 바카라�It is fear that we have come here to fight.바카라�

And so began the moment of protest in Delhi and 12 other cities: Allahabad, Bangalore, Chandigarh, Lucknow, Che­nnai, Kochi, Jaipur, Patna, Calcutta, Mumbai, Thiruvananthapuram, Kochi. To these, each attendee brought a unique sense of injustice and outrage, very often drawn from personal experience. An int­angible something was achieved in thus coming together, almost everyone felt. They also felt the next logical question: what next? Will this lead to a bigger movement or quietly fade?

바카라�What can a mere protest achieve,바카라� asks Saba Dewan, a Gurgaon filmmaker whose Facebook post sparked off the #NotInMyName protests, in India and abroad. 바카라�But we say society must not allow these horrible lynchings to be normalised. To people who say hote hi rehte hain바카라�lynching is not unusual바카라�these protests affirm the State바카라�s duty to protect every citizen.바카라� Dewan says the protests were kept deliberately non-partisan for exactly this reason: to stave off accusations of being led by political outfits. 바카라�The Congress either did not slam down on the communal card or it played that as well. These protests simply say any ruling party is duty-bound to protect people바카라�s lives,바카라� she says.

The class/caste critique came from various quarters. Some asked whether the hashtag 바카라�Not in My Name바카라�바카라�reminiscent of the self-exculpating #NotAllMen meme within feminist debates in the US바카라�itself did not imply a position of savarna privilege. For performance artist Sujoy Prosad Chatterjee, who read Sunil Gangopadhyay바카라�s poetry at the Calcutta event, it was simpler: for him the evening symbolised a common humanity against all violence. 바카라�Everybody is opposed to killings. That simple point has a moral force nobody can deny,바카라� he says.

There are others who responded to this essential theme. Shiv, a young professio­nal at Jantar Mantar, says he is from the LGBT movement and knows what it바카라�s like to be marginal and facing constant threat. 바카라�Whether Dalit or woman or Muslim or gay, I바카라�m here in solidarity against anyone hurt or killed by mobs,바카라� he adds.

Almost everyone has felt the growing impunity with which bizarre terms are imposed on people today. Diktats from different powers바카라�each the king of his anthill바카라�on what to wear, where to go and what not to eat, are slowly wearing them out. Recently, Chatterjee was denied entry at a Park Street restaurant for they thought he had come wearing a lungi, a garment loosely (and wrongly) considered a 바카라�Muslim attire바카라�. The restaurant was wrong on another count: Chatterjee had actually worn a sarong. 바카라�But what if I바카라�d happened to follow Islam and wore a namaz topi and applied kajal like a Musalman and worn a lungi with my shirt?바카라� he asks. 바카라�No restaurant can dictate someone바카라�s clothing this way.바카라�

There are, inevitably, charges that the events were peopled by the well-heeled and the 바카라�Left-liberal바카라� set. Undoubtedly, in Delhi, the near-absence of ordinary Muslims or the working class was apparent. This wasn바카라�t uniformly true of all cities. Nor did the mere look of the crowd reveal everything about it. 바카라�A very rare cross-sectarian, broad-based coalition came tog­ether,바카라� says Ali Khan Mahmudabad, who teaches history and political science at Ashoka University. 바카라�Shia, Sunni, Sufi, Barelvi or Deobandi didn바카라�t matter. What mattered is uniting against mob violence.바카라� He also links this to a parallel protest that cut through class바카라�when Muslims wore black armbands on Eid across Uttar Pradesh, including in villages.

Mahmudabad points to a generalised tendency to mob violence: recent victims include Ayub Pandith in Kashmir, Hin­dus in Dadri and Rae Bareli, and Dalits across the map. 바카라�Each of these is shocking,바카라� he says. 바카라�But each is different too바카라�with Muslims, media the world over has created a perception that they could be terrorists, thus creating a key reason for their being targeted.바카라�

Clinical psychologist Rajat Mitra says the protests managed to gather a wider resonance because recurrent mob violence has touched a 바카라�raw chord바카라� among people. 바카라�Fear does not make people go out and protest바카라�it makes them shrink. I think people have felt an assault at a primal level, on their identity, on who they are and what they believe. That has spurred them.바카라� There바카라�s another, related aspect: psychologists call it 바카라�grief reaction바카라�, which is akin to fear. 바카라�Sometimes a nation as a whole no longer knows who it is, what it stands for. This happens when its people feel their identity is being subtly changed. Then they respond in this manner.바카라�

Wearing black armbands and/or showing up for these protests were no simple matter for many Muslims too. Many imams discouraged them. The protests took off only because they became impossible to stop, as if answering an inner need.

Nor did it stop serious soul-searching. Loose talk of beef, for one, which is what had accompanied Junaid바카라�s killing. 바카라�People don바카라�t realise that beef, unfortunately, is a very contentious issue in West Bengal today,바카라� says Sarmistha Dutta Gupta, a researcher-activist in Calcutta. 바카라�Maybe it바카라�s not as dire as it is in Haryana or Rajasthan but it바카라�s beginning to matter a lot. People need to watch out,바카라� she says. The news of three Muslims killed on cattle-­smuggling 바카라�charges바카라� in Dinajpur had just broke on June 27. 바카라�Calcutta바카라�s beef-sellers are now scared of selling meat openly. They no longer trust unkn­own buyers,바카라� Sarmistha adds.

Other truths are being driven home. In Bangalore, a city now dominated by imm­igrants, many are confronting the deep-seated passivity and indifference of peers. 바카라�It바카라�s rare for Bangalore to awaken to an incident that occurred so far away. So that바카라�s a big plus,바카라� says Shreyashi, an IT professional. She tried involving friends and colleagues, but only 바카라�two out of twenty바카라� were remotely interested or aware of the event. 바카라�People here usually don바카라�t want to take anybody on,바카라� she says.

On June 27 night, writer Karthik Venka­tesh, who helped organise the protest in Bangalore, was hesitant to predict the turnout. But things changed the next evening. 바카라�Over 500 people eventually showed up,바카라� he says. 바카라�We also got support from prominent intellectuals like Ram Guha and Girish Karnad. A good start.바카라�

Inevitably, comparisons are also being drawn to the protests sparked by the 2012 Nirbhaya gang-rape and, a year preceding it, the India Against Corruption (IAC) movement. Both spontaneous, both initially apolitical, both rising to a crescendo from within social media spaces (and falling prey to doubts that set in post facto). 바카라�Yet another template comparison is possible바카라�with the Bhim Sena, which has organised two well-attended events at Jantar Mantar since May,바카라� says commentator Satish Prakash.

바카라�These days there바카라�s plenty of hype, one wonders if it will lead to something concrete,바카라� says Dr Prem Singh, a Socialist Party leader on hunger strike for a week against violent mobs at Jantar Mantar. For him, hunger strikes are a 바카라�form of contemplation바카라�, a chance for both sides to try and find resolution. 바카라�Such contemplation does not arise out of hype,바카라� he says. His hunger strike, he says, is to spur society to take 바카라�suo motu notice바카라� of violent mobs and their disastrous impact. 바카라�People should decide바카라�do we want a constitutional, civilised society or not?바카라�

Gaurav, an accountant from Gurgaon who attended the protest, has similar thoughts. He came out of sheer solidarity with Junaid and his kin but has a larger framework that flows from a personal space. 바카라�I too am a Hindu, from Bijnor in UP, where Hindu-versus-Mus­lim is a big thing. This divide has absolutely no relevance to me. Just like I try to spread that message in my family, I came here.바카라�

But the most fitting sight of resistance바카라�and one unafraid to acknowledge the dark echoes the idea of mob violence generates within her바카라�was of Nirmal Luthra, 92. The Lahore-born retired lecturer, who migrated to India as the horrors of Partition unfolded before her, has strongly supported #NotInMyName. 바카라�Not just religion, anybody being targeted for their caste, creed and gender is unacceptable,바카라� she says. 바카라�This is not the India we know바카라�we want an India where everybody is happy, no matter what religion, caste or way of life.바카라�