Nandagopal Rajan
“No reservation, yes scholarships,” screams a bumper sticker on a gleaming new sedan parked in a posh South Delhi colony. The message this innocuous looking piece of on-road graffiti signifies is significant: The Great Indian Youth has finally arrived at the scene of political activism. Their days of vicarious agitation and activism seem over. The indicators were there for all to see; often so obvious that they were overlooked.
Till some time back it was widely believed that you could judge a man’s affiliations by the books he read – the 1984s and War and Peaces were a great giveaway. But we Indians have of late been too busy to read. For the X+ generation, the pressure valve comes neatly wrapped in celluloid.
A couple of years back, south India had two major blockbusters – 4 The People and Boys – both with the obvious message that youth need to change things for themselves. Well nothing new here if you have seen great Hindi formulae films of the 70s. But the message this time was more direct, planting a bug in those impressionable young minds. Up north, Rang De Basanti too said the same things at a time when Anniyan (Aparichit in Hindi) was making 16-year-old stand up and take notice in the villages of Tamil Nadu.
There was rebellion in the air, but no one smelled it. When the spark came in the form of the OBC reservation hoopla, the tinder was ready to be stoked. Soon even the “this-is-not-my-headache’ packs of students across the country were marching on the streets, sweating it out on footpaths and trying their hand at making the most devious looking Arjun Singh caricatures, all in their fight for the Right to Equality. Many of them still might not understand the necessities or intricacies of caste politics, but they sure do understand that they can’t lie back and wait for the wheel of time to set things right.
Half a century of collective frustration seems to be finally finding its voice in a generation that has not learnt to wait, or to forgo. From Coke to PCs and mobile phones they have always got what they wanted. Their attitudes are different; their agitations might be stomped down, but not their resolve. We better not confine the similarities to Bhagat Singh and Azad to silver-screen scripts. Remember history teaches more about the future than the past. Look back, have we seen all this before?
“No reservation, yes scholarships,” screams a bumper sticker on a gleaming new sedan parked in a posh South Delhi colony. The message this innocuous looking piece of on-road graffiti signifies is significant: The Great Indian Youth has finally arrived at the scene of political activism. Their days of vicarious agitation and activism seem over. The indicators were there for all to see; often so obvious that they were overlooked.
Till some time back it was widely believed that you could judge a man’s affiliations by the books he read – the 1984s and War and Peaces were a great giveaway. But we Indians have of late been too busy to read. For the X+ generation, the pressure valve comes neatly wrapped in celluloid.
A couple of years back, south India had two major blockbusters – 4 The People and Boys – both with the obvious message that youth need to change things for themselves. Well nothing new here if you have seen great Hindi formulae films of the 70s. But the message this time was more direct, planting a bug in those impressionable young minds. Up north, Rang De Basanti too said the same things at a time when Anniyan (Aparichit in Hindi) was making 16-year-old stand up and take notice in the villages of Tamil Nadu.
There was rebellion in the air, but no one smelled it. When the spark came in the form of the OBC reservation hoopla, the tinder was ready to be stoked. Soon even the “this-is-not-my-headache’ packs of students across the country were marching on the streets, sweating it out on footpaths and trying their hand at making the most devious looking Arjun Singh caricatures, all in their fight for the Right to Equality. Many of them still might not understand the necessities or intricacies of caste politics, but they sure do understand that they can’t lie back and wait for the wheel of time to set things right.
Half a century of collective frustration seems to be finally finding its voice in a generation that has not learnt to wait, or to forgo. From Coke to PCs and mobile phones they have always got what they wanted. Their attitudes are different; their agitations might be stomped down, but not their resolve. We better not confine the similarities to Bhagat Singh and Azad to silver-screen scripts. Remember history teaches more about the future than the past. Look back, have we seen all this before?
Posts
