Bombay, The “Neutral City”

I am sure everyone read the newspaper this morning. What was your reaction at the news about the RSS and BJP disagreement about a dead Congress Prime Minister….or your reaction about Mr. Advani’s resignation over a statement he made in Pakistan ….. or what was your reaction at the relief expressed by everyone at the “peaceful settlement” of the Great Ambani family drama!….
Did u smile and leave the paper aside and leave for office wondering what is wrong with the world?.... did u turn to page 3 and read about the very interesting sex scandal of a famous model?.......did u turn to another page and solve the crossword?.....did u turn to a far away page inside the newspaper to read about a few hundred dead children in central Maharashtra?........did u smile and leave for office wondering why the world seems so odd?
I hope to hell, I hope to heaven and I hope to every other place that I can hope to, that u were shocked, disgusted, angry, outraged, frustrated and ready to scream at the level of immaturity (for the lack of another word that I can use here) of our “elected representatives” and those we call the “leading industrialists” of our country!...... If this is how u felt than I am sure u didn’t wonder why the world seemed lopsided…. U knew that it is lopsided!
What is difficult to understand today in our society is the total indifference with which we lead our lives. We, the “middle class”, although I forget why we are called so, wake up in the morning, read the newspapers…..( I remember my mother telling me how important it is to read the newspapers and be well informed of the world that we are living in)…. get ourselves “well informed about the world we are living in”….. set aside that information and go on with our lives like we did yesterday.
What difference did that news make in u’r life today? How was yesterday’s news different from today’s? did the fact that the number of farmers dead in Andhra Pradesh is now a 100 more than it was yesterday make any difference to u? did u know yesterday that there were farmers dying in Andhra Pradesh?.... or did u decide to skip directly to page 3 yesterday..... are u screaming at me and saying …Yes!..it made a difference!.....
What then did u do about the difference it made?
We all know what has happened to the country because we have been quiet for so long but we are still quiet because what has happened has not broken our home, has not taken our land, our water, our food and our dignity(I am not so sure about this one) from us…..not yet!
We the middle class, living in Bombay …oops! Mumbai…. are “neutral” about the SSP’s cruel annihilation of the people living in the Narmada Valley, (mind u there are some who are for it….) but the majority are “neutral”… although I am absolutely amazed as to how one can be!....
We the people of Mumbai, are “neutral” about what Chandrababu Naidu helped Monsanto, Cargil and the likes of them do to the hundreds and thousands of farmers in Andhra Pradesh who committed suicide, I continue to remain amazed!
We the people of Mumbai continue to drink Coke when our “fellow countrymen” (I am sure all of us felt proud when we read this term in our school history textbooks), continue to fight for their rights over water in their own village!
How can u be “neutral” to mass murder?.... how can u be “neutral” when u know that someone is dying when u are sitting in your air conditioned office, sipping on coke I might add, singing praises of privatization and globalization?
Does that not make u feel like a murderer yourself? Does that not make you feel guilty at the terrible life absolutely devoid of any empathy that you, me, we all lead?

I remember August 25th 2003 when Mumbai went through the kind of tension it went through in 1993. The twin Bomb blasts sent a shiver down everyones spine!....
I remember how everyone, from the politicians to the media were applauding Mumbai. They applauded Mumbai for returning to work the very next day. They patted Mumbai on the back for showing rare courage and bravery. Never mind the political parties which used these events to forward their Hindutva agends, never mind that Bihari Muslims were being deemed outsiders at that very time in this very city, never mind that Muslims had to come out on the streets and demonstrate against the bomb blasts, to prove their patriotism in their own country to their “fellow countrymen”, who as usual were “neutral”.
Mumbai was not brave, not courageous, and absolutely not, returning to work the very next day as a challenge to the bomb blasts. Mumbai was what it has been for as long as I remember it, it was “neutral”. It was insensitive, it was cruelly apathetic, it was indifferent!.... and this is all to say the least!
I wonder what it will take for this city to yell against all the crimes it is and has been a witness to, for all these years. I wonder what level of injustice it will take for this city to stand up and say Enough!

I wonder if this is the same city whose Mill workers union was once one of the strongest unions the country has ever seen?...... oh well, but it was this city by and large which is responsible for the shutting down of all the mills, which have today become and u might know them better as Fire and Ice or Pantaloon, the malls and pubs homes to celebrities, even as the thousands of mill workers who lost their jobs are still waiting for homes thanks to the election promises of Mr. Joshi! Next time you go to Parel and pay a visit to the grand mall there, look at the single isolated chimney which stands in the same compound!.... Try to hear what it is saying to u, to me to all of us!.... try to wake up and see what you have been trying to ignore for so long!
Try tomorrow to not just read the newspaper and keep it aside. Try to feel angry enough to come to the streets to demand information, to demand justice. If you feel that it is not your fight, you will soon realize that when it is actually your fight there will be nobody left living to fight for you if u today do not get up and fight for all that is wrong (I use this rationale if I must appeal to the selfish you, if I cannot find the you which still knows what “middle class morality” really means).
If you cannot go to the streets to fight, at least try to cry instead of smiling tomorrow when u keep the newspaper aside!


Tejal Kanitkar