The author is a psychotherapist and psychiatrist at Apollo Hospital, Delhi. He also heads Saarthak, a non-profit organisation for mental health.
Dear Utsav,
Manju has left us. Torn away from us in a manner most foul. How do we mourn our young? Do we let them pass away without reflection or do we begin a revolution? Can Manju's death be a revolution for us? For if it cannot, Manju died in vain. Will it be a revolution for us? Maybe not. Maybe not for most of us. Some of us will start our own little unheard battles and some of us may, like Manju, make a dent on people's consciousness. But most of us will shrug and live our lives.
Can one live in a vacuum where a young man with aspirations is shot to protect some partisan interests by two other young men, and where one does not even stop for a moment? How can a nation, which telecasts the lynching of a young man in an election rally, live? Where women are raped, so that their men can be controlled? Where communities get burnt alive, so that political ambitions can be fulfilled? Where life does not matter?
Are we a nation or a cauldron? How many more lives do we need to sacrifice to become free? How can we celebrate any success when we are witness to murders of our own daughters and sons? Do we cry enough? Do we remember enough? Unfortunately, no!
We have grown not to question. We have grown to accept exploitation. We have grown to see violence as the obvious. We have learned to co-exist in this world which we do not see as our reality. We see our reality within the four walls of our home or our organisation and we do not see beyond our goals.
Of course, this is not new. Some people suffer, so that others can live. Christ did, Gandhi did, Mandela did. Mankind has survived when ordinary people like Manju and Rosa Parks stand up to the tyranny of the few in society in which they live. There is always a need to watch, protect and fight for one's freedom and rights. But I fear that Manju and many like him are forgotten.
There is a conspiracy and all of us are part of it. If we let the pain of Manju touch us, then we cannot sleep quietly. We cannot let the reality of India be our reality, and so it will have to change. The reason Manju died is not because someone killed him; the reason he died was because those who killed him thought it was possible and reasonable to do so.
They have learnt this over the years. They have learnt this because Manju is an isolated phenomenon and others like him - all of us - do not speak up. Are we not too comfortable with our own goals without being affected by all that happens around us?
So where do we start and who must start it? How do we address this vacuum of ethics amidst us? How do we address the lack of hope and the cynicism that the young in India face everyday?
The beginning of a revolution is with a dream. If we are to be a nation that treats its people with dignity, each one of us has to cherish a dream of such a nation. The revolution doesn't run only on dreams; it runs through combat.
Each one of us has to combat what is within us and around us. We have to question ourselves and those around us. We have to question each action and ask ourselves: "Are we contributing to our dream or are we contributing to the vacuum that leads to murder?"
A revolution is successful if it questions and demolishes what exists. If we really believe that we have a right to be a sovereign nation, then we need to ensure that Manju does not die in vain. To ensure this revolution, we have to question our own methods. We have to question our opportunities, and we have to question our success.
If in our success, we find that we have unwittingly been supported by processes that undermine the dignity and rights of others, we need to walk away from that success and try again. Each decision that undermines our ethical stance makes us quieter and compromised when we question others. It is this silence that kills Manju, not a bullet.
If we reflect each time we act, we will build ourselves as human beings and we will build a nation of human beings, not some goal-directed, hunting-gathering species. A revolution is successful when it has a framework. We need to nurture a framework in ourselves and our young: of recognising people around us as people. The rest will follow.
Manju could have easily walked into the bubble of safety we all live in. But he chose to risk his life for something as intangible as the 'right thing'. We choose to walk into our bubbles and leave the Manjus of this world to fight their lonely battles and die. We need to look beyond the walls of our bubbles of safety if we have respect for Manju. We have to look beyond our bubbles to be human.
Come, let us start a revolution. Long Live Manju!
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