THE AHIMSA WAY
Voices of dissent
USHA JESUDASAN
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Suppressing people with different ideas is a form of violence that hits at the heart of civil society.
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A young reader shared with me how her thesis which had some new ideas and findings had been suppressed by her tutor. She was asked to delete parts which she was excited about, and threatened with withdrawal of research funds if she didn’t. In the past, scientists and philosophers who came up with new ideas were burnt at the stake. Today we just give them a hard time so that they are forced to leave the country — think of artist M.F. Hussain, hounded for his creative outbursts, and feminist writer Taslima Nasreen who has gone from place to place because of her feminist views.
The instinct to suppress is alive in all of us. Men suppress women. The best of parents suppress their children’s curiosity, talents, energy and creative growth. Many mothers suppress their daughters’ desires to be independent, fearing that the girls will grow away from them emotionally. Bosses suppress their juniors’ promotion in fear that they will become more active and more prominent than they are. Teachers suppress children’s creative outbursts. Wherever one person holds more power than another, there is the temptation to suppress. So we are all perpetrators or victims of suppression in some way or another. In every act of suppression, there is some violence.
Against the tide
Todays’ dissenters are those like Medha Patkar, Vandana Shiva, Arundhati Roy, Aruna Roy and Dr. Binayak Sen, to name just a few, who show up areas of injustices and raise moral and ethical questions to our way of life. They are necessary to a democratic way of life because they question accepted ideas. They look for alternate lifestyles, stand up for the voiceless and look for ways to include forgotten sectors of society. Such people are perceived as a threat to the powerful, whether in government, academia , industry, religious traditions or the creative arts. Censorship, book burning, decreeing a fatwa and murder have taken the place of the earlier ways of putting a dissenter down. But nevertheless all are forms of violence.
In places of academia, one expects freedom of thought and speech. But, with little discussion in academic circles, and hierarchy that is strictly compartmentalised , suppression of dissent comes in the form of obstructing publications, withdrawal of grants and refusing to employ or give references.
Writers especially have always been voices of dissent throughout history. Alexander Solzhenitsyn was sent to the Gulag; Dostoevsky to Siberia, Albanian writer Tomor Bahja to London, Wole Soyinka, the Nigerian Writer, and Chilean novelist Luis Sepulveda are exiled writers whose voices are suppressed in their own countries. What is it that makes these writers such a threat that they have to be exiled? They write the truth about how life really is, and not what it is painted for everyone to believe.
You may not be a politician, writer, or social activist, but in everyday life, many of us are dissenters who are suppressed. In schools, teachers with new ideas and who are creative are quickly suppressed with, “This is how we’ve always done it.” At home, wives and children who dissent are slapped, ignored or suppressed in other violent ways. At work places too, creative people, those who stand up for fairness, and who question unethical decisions are suppressed as trouble makers. Once such a label is pinned on you, progress up the professional ladder becomes hard.
Feeling insignificant
How do the suppressed feel? I asked a few people who were in suppressed circumstances to describe how they felt. These were some of the responses: “I feel like an insect, always waiting to be crushed.” “I feel angry and violent. Sometimes the desire to hurt rises strongly in me.” “One day I will teach him a lesson.” A person who is suppressed feels humiliation at being treated in a demeaning way. They experience deep pain and anger towards the perpetrator and at some point, will revolt, usually with twice as much violence than the one who suppressed them.
How does one counter the violence inflicted on those who dissent? History has given us two examples. One is Socrates, who was condemned to death or exile by the Athenian government for his teaching methods which aroused scepticism in his students. Socrates rejected exile and accepted death from hemlock. This is a very passive and non-productive way of dealing with it. Another way is to keep on dissenting in non-violent ways as shown by Gandhiji, Lokmanya Tilak, Annie Besant, Lala Lajpat Rai, Bal Gangadhar, Sarojini Naidu, and in our own times by those already mentioned earlier.
Being an ahimsa person should make us aware of what suppression is, what it does and how it affects the people we suppress. It also means standing in solidarity with those who dissent to bring justice, freedom and peace, so that they are not lone voices which can easily be put down. If you are an ahimsa person and wish to share your story, email the writer at ushajesudasan@gmail.com or www.ushajesudasan.com
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