Young & Proudly Not Woke!

It was on August 5, 2019 that it struck me. The day was when the Narendra Modi government abrogated Articles 370 and 35A in Jammu and Kashmir. The world sat up and took note of everything that was being said in India.

The run up to the D-day meant an increase in the security apparatus of the region, the government remaining tight-lipped about it and the media, as usual, speculating. On one hand, as a 90s kid, I just couldn’t understand the hullabaloo surrounding it. What’s this whole fuss about, I would ask myself. On the other hand, as a journalist, I wanted to explore the subject comprehensively. Finally when the Home Minister made the announcement, reasoning it out in detail on the floor of the Parliament, one of the points hit me — as an Indian, I only knew of the ‘terrorizing 90s’ in the Valley, while being completely ignorant of the suffering that Kashmiri Pandits had to go through that time, and all these years. And then I rewound all the way back to each change that this government has intended to bring in. Whether it was the revival of Sanskrit, the re-naming of places or the emphasis on wearing one’s Indian-ness with pride, I mentally enumerated why I, and many of my generation, have been blind to the necessity of this ‘revamping’ spree. Or was it a ‘going back’ journey as was being reiterated?

1. Our childhood very rarely had conversations regarding the exodus of Pandits. Brought up in metropolitan cities, we were largely products of the urban, middle-class, protected environs that focused only on roti-kapda-makan of life. And, Kashmir always meant terrorism, danger and the unknown.
2. Talking of terrorism, it was a poisonous weed, nurtured by Pakistan and it was unwantedly spread among a few local boys here. Nobody ever told us about the number of boys who turn up for Army recruitment in the Valley or those that join the police forces. The media was busy telling us stories of the “boy who was misled” and the race that “our security forces are losing”.
3. Social media had not emerged then, and internet meant using MS Paint. Newspapers, TV, magazines and literature did not tell us the ‘other’. Or to be fair, perhaps a single column story somewhere in the inside pages. So like everyone we gulped down the popular narrative and believed it as the only truth. Because the media was a champion of human rights anyway, wasn’t it?
4. School books and college academics also told us some things. That those who read Premchand and spoke in his language wouldn’t get jobs; that those who wrote long articles with difficult vocabulary on why Charlotte Bronte wrote what she did would hold a respectable place in society; and that those who think like the Left ideologues are intellectual and cool and vibrant — the youth strength which any democracy needs. Nobody told us that Sanskrit is the mother of languages, a vast universe of wisdom and not just a “scoring subject” in Board exams. We weren’t told that West Bengal is way behind other states in development, that China is malignantly controlled by one-party only and that the Soviet Union is history best forgotten.
5. Mughals invaded this country. Why were we not taught about them as part of our history, and not as the entire bit? Nomenclature was never questioned — whether of places, buildings or roads. It was taken for granted because anyway, who really cared about it, except those who name it after themselves?
6. Liberalization opened the world to India. An India which was already struggling to be the sone ki chidiya that it was before the Brits looted her, was now suddenly eating burgers at McDonalds, using American cosmetics and carrying leopard-print hand bags, whether it made sense or not. So the Britishers ruled Indians by brainwashing them through religion, culture and law. And then we mindlessly inculcated the bad western influences, conveniently forgetting our own ancient wisdom. Moreover, the kids of the 90s were hanging somewhere between the fascination of “settling abroad” and behaving more ‘Indian-ly’ in other countries.
7. The alleged Hindu-Muslim repulsion is not new to our generation. Being friendly with a neighbourhood Muslim family was acceptable, marrying into it was not. Biryani and Eid stereotypes would glaze the entire community. Likewise Hindus were put in a box too, whether on the number of gods that followers have faith in or the alleged suppression done by the community. Nobody questioned themselves that time, leave alone the government.
8. We women always had to control our bladder during travel. Wasn’t it the norm that men can urinate anywhere in this country but women have to wait till they reach the washroom? We’d all seen it around us. So obviously it surprised us when the Prime Minister spoke on toilets for women from the ramparts of Red Fort! Or when he went a step further and talked of sanitary napkins from the same monument a few years later on the same day. Really? Can an old bearded man, brought up in the 1950s and 60s in the same environment as our fathers, talk about these ‘hush-hush’ topics publicly? Or was it just the prerogative of the modern, metrosexual man?

These are just a couple of examples which baffled me. I understood the importance of being vocal about one’s nationalism in a world that has evolved into a global village yet boasts of myriad cultures and traditions. I realized why a young adult like me needs to voice her opinion on certain matters at a time when colonial and convenient narratives are still being pushed. Facts are being misconstrued and primitive mentalities are hungover on labelling anyone who supports this government as a bhakt, sanghi or brainwashed.

In 2018, when PM Narendra Modi followed me (@Shreya235), along with 54 other women from various fields, on Twitter as part of marking Raksha Bandhan, it came as quite a surprise. Many said it was my saffron transition. In 2019, when I covered the pro-CAA gatherings, I was told by woke ex-classmates that they were “disappointed” with me, and that they were “shocked” to see me do that. The whole group ganged up against me on my Facebook timeline to show me their despair at my sinking journalistic standards. That’s what most liberals or how they’d like to call themselves ‘open-minded, unbiased, balanced’ people do anyway — be intolerant towards anyone who doesn’t think, speak or act like them while sitting in their privileged spaces, getting their existential validation from social media feedback and/or a New York Times post.

That is why it is time for the young to speak up more and more. Just as India exists as a multi-party, federal nation, our country must also embrace diverging narratives and proven facts that enrich, nurture and strengthen our democracy as well as enlighten the present and next generations as to what Sindhustan was and is all about.