DIFFERENT REGISTERS
A nation's memories
C.S. LAKSHMI
SHAJU JOHN
Reflections on the nation...
THE month before August is the time SPARROW receives a lot of calls from journalists and others who want to bring out special issues for the Independence Day. Suddenly people remember that some freedom fighters may still be alive and that they may have something to say before they become part of a forgotten history. It is not unusual to receive calls which may go the following way:
"Do you have any material on freedom fighters?"
"Yes, we have some material."
"Are any of them from Mumbai?"
"Some of them are."
"Are they alive?"
"Some of them are alive. Most of them are dead."
"Where are the living persons located?"
"In different parts of Mumbai."
"Anyone in Colaba area?"
"Yes, there is one. But she is not a freedom fighter in that sense of the term. She is a Gandhian. Her husband ran an underground newspaper and she was with him during the movement. She came here during partition."
"How old is she now?"
"Maybe 80 or 82."
"Can she give an interview?"
"She can. But she has not been well."
"Do you have anything printed on her?"
"Yes, we have brought out a booklet on her."
"Can you send me that booklet right away with a few photographs? You see, I have a deadline for this special issue we are bringing out for August. We are looking at freedom fighters... "
For those looking for freedom fighters every year for an August special issue and who want to do all their research over the phone and who want to maybe meet freedom fighters in conveniently situated areas, and for whom August 15 is a deadline to meet, the Independence Day or the nation don't have any special significance. The date may not even figure in their lives if their career changes. They may be looking for something else then which is conveniently located. Like someone suddenly remembered that I am past 50 and asked me if I would like to be featured in a journal that is meant for people who live with dignity after 50. As if I lived with no dignity before 50. I politely refused saying I have been living with dignity all my life and intend to do so for the rest of my life.
Knitting a country together
Where everything gets transformed into material to report for a deadline, it is good there are still some wholehearted attempts being made to think of the nation as an entity that needs to be knitted together. The third volume of Sivasankari's Knit India is out and it is in sand brown cover reminding you of the brown sand on the beaches in Maharashtra, Gujarat and Goa and in this volume Konkanis, Marathis, Gujarathis and Sindhis are covered. Two interviews that stay in one's mind are that of Dhiruben Patel and Poppatti Hiranandani. Both of them talk of two different aspects of the nation. Dhiruben talks of her mother wrapping her in a khadi cloth just after she was born and about her wearing khadi ever since and Poppatti talks about partition, her Sindhi identity and her roots in Sindh and about the lack of a homeland she can call her own. Belonging and not fully belonging, both are memories the nation evokes.
Dhiruben narrates an interesting incident about her meeting Gandhiji when she was a four-year old girl:
"I would accompany my mother everyday to Bapuji's evening prayers. Once, somebody took me to meet Bapuji and introduced me as Gangaben's daughter, adding that I was very clever. Bapuji smilingly asked me what I knew and I promptly told him I knew how to read and write. He smiled again and then asked me what chores I was capable of doing to which I answered saying that we had servants to do all our chores. Bapuji continued to smile as he wondered why I was being called clever when I was not able to perform any chore at all. I was very embarrassed at this and quickly answered saying that I washed my handkerchief myself. Bapuji laughed aloud at this and patted me on the cheek... "
Different views
Dhiruben also talks about the influence of Gandhi on the thinking of people, specially women, and talks about how some of those cherished values have given way to materialism and there is a lack of perspective. She speaks with great concern about the Gujarat riots, her feelings deeply saddened by that event. Poppatti, on the other hand, talks about her refugee experience and about her constantly seeking roots. That is why maybe in one of her poems she identifies herself as a wave, a wave of water. Poppatti says that it is difficult to avoid feeling orphaned. She says that if she were asked about her identity, she would say that she is a Sindhi first and then an Indian, and next a Hindu and finally a human. To this Sivasankari tells her that she will call herself a human first, an Indian next and finally a Tamil. To that Poppatti replies: "You have not suffered the pain we have. Your reply differs because you have not experienced the feeling of being uprooted." Dhiruben says that she has had a very happy life and that she is sure that she will be happy for the rest of her life. Poppatti, who is ailing currently, says that death is her only plan for the future. She says she has done whatever she can in this life and now she only awaits death at the right time.
When we place these two interviews together, one gets the strange feeling that two aspects of the nation are being spoken about; aspects that one should never forget, for, we have created times when one can feel like a refugee in one's own country. Manoj Das, the senior Oriya writer, quotes in his foreword, the beautiful lines of the Sindhi poet Lekhraj Aziz:
The bulbul hasn't forgotten the songs
She hummed in the garden of her homeland;
Away from the flower now,
She pines for the nest she built there.
Those poignant lines surely reflect the feelings of those whom a dam, floods or riots forcibly displace from their homes.
C.S. Lakshmi is an independent researcher and a writer. She writes in Tamil under the pseudonym Ambai. She is the founder-trustee and director of SPARROW (Sound and Picture Archives for Research on Women).
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