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Freedom at a heavy price
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The market has taken over Independence Day. It’s a struggle to break free from the hype, writes AYESHA MATTHAN
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Photo: Sandeep Saxena
STILL BOGGED DOWN BY HUNGER Nothing changes for her, not even the rising sales the market records
A girl in her teens waves a bunch of Indian flags, badges and wrist bands, hopefully in your face at a traffic jam. Saffron, green and white saris are hoisted strategically in shops as you walk by. Painted ‘flag-faces’ gleefully cheer at
a match supporting the country against its 60-year-old enemy. Movies coloured with Gandhism become blockbusters. Hotel spread lavish buffets, baiting you to taste the ‘international’ flavours of freedom. Pretty television anchors preening in the tri-colours give you 60 reasons to celebrate ‘I-day’.
You buy that flag from Anita and her co-seller Ashik who are from Jaipur. You ask them what they feel about this ‘I-day festival’, Ashik replies: “As long as I fill my stomach, I will sell anything.” Dalit writer, Chandrabhan Prasad says: “These sellers sell these things out of dire necessity, just in the way they sell rakhis or fire-crackers.India is celebrating the legacy of freedom from British order, not freedom from caste-order or social-injustice. Gandhi promised Dr. B. R. Ambedkar: ‘Let’s get freedom from the British, and then we’ll work towards social freedom.’ So, uncomfortable questions are not asked – for India is still living in the past.” Brand Domain Marketer, Harish Bijoor says: “These flags, made of plastic and attached to a drinking straw, but not the nationalist khadi signifies jingoism. It’s a classic case of trivialisation of history by the market. And when you buy these flags from the children, you’re doing them more harm than good; rather, give them Rs.5 extra for the flag worth Rs.10.”
Flooded market
Independence Day parade and marches, a public holiday, ‘freedom’ sales and concerts are galore. Say Sarvodaya International Trust Managing Trustee, P.A. Nazareth and Bijoor, “This is a day for introspection – a memorial day of sanctity to celebrate our leaders who laid down their lives.” Nazareth continues: “We have the richest people in our country, a nine per cent growth rate and still 40 per cent live below the poverty line (BPL). We are celebrating a one-sided successful India – we need to think about the other India – the heart of which lies in villages.”
Gandhi-centric films released around October 2 and August 15 like “Munnabhai”, “Rang De Basanti”, “Chak De India” and songs like ‘Phir bhi Dil Hai Hindustani’ (Even then, the heart is Indian), run dizzily in your head. Nazareth and Bijoor say: “These movies rip up emotions, making you open your wallets – the moviemakers just want to make a fast buck.” Prasad, however, doesn’t sound so discouraging. “Indians have selected Gandhi as their icon or symbol – of non-change or transformation. People aspire for growth in material life but ideologically they are rooted in the Indian past which they glorify – thereby creating a contradiction.” He adds, “When Gandhi dresses like a villager, turns the charka and sleeps on a mat, he is endorsing symbols of an ancient India which was a social hell. Non-dalits and Dalits will not use or share these symbols.”
“Everywhere I went, they spoke of Gandhi with such reverence. So Gandhi is a link with the whole community. He realised that if he had to represent India, he had to dress like a peasant or as how Former British PM Winston Churchill described him – ‘a half-naked fakir’ because the vast majority lives in the villages,” recalls the Gandhian and former Indian Ambassador. And hence, he is hardly surprised that he has become a case-study for moviemakers, scholars and writers. “There have been other leaders who contributed to India’s freedom movement and movies made about them as well, but Gandhi’s achievement is incomparable. ”
Feroze Khan’s “Gandhi, My Father” attempts to go behind the public aura created around the political Gandhi and the impact of it on his personal life, especially on his son Harilal Gandhi who converts to Islam, markets foreign goods and of course, become a non-vegetarian. Gandhi fails as a father, but is still glorified as the ‘Father of the Nation.’ And Shimit Amin’s “Chak de India” tells the story of betrayer-hockey-player, Kabir Khan, the secular Muslim who was accused of losing an India-Pakistan match deliberately. And determined to prove his undying loyalty to the nation, he becomes the successful coach of the unsuccessful Indian women’s hockey team.
As the media continues to reel under heady notions of patriotism and markets a historic day, the true colours of freedom have long faded and sold out to mean something else.
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