Beckoning of a New Era
On 17th December 2010,
Mohammad Bouazizi, a vegetable vendor, immolated himself in front of a police
station in Tunisia (North Africa) to protest against the oppression of the
local police officer. The story fumed the youth of the million population
nation who took to streets against their repressive government. He passed away
on 4th January, and government fell ten days later. That was not the end of the revolution – the
news of youth power taking battle to people misusing power reached the entire
Arab world – soon movements took shape in the streets of Egypt, Libya, Syria,
Bahrain and almost the entire middle east. Within the year itself, Heads of
States, in many nations fell like house of cards amidst the fury of the largely
peaceful protestors.
Around the same, South Asia,
especially India was seeing a similar phenomenon – when a village man of more
than seven decades – Anna Hazare decided to go on a resilient, unto death fast
for strong laws against corruption in the heart of the Indian capital – seeding
crowds which began to swell from hundreds to lakhs in a matter of a week. A few
months later, a yoga guru, Baba Ramdev repeated the same mass movement in his
tailored version against black money. But the best of all happened last week,
when an unaligned, leaderless movement grew in size and anger in the streets
leading to the symbolic President’s Estate. On the self-created, largely hand
drawn, placards we were asking justice for a girl whose name and identity none
of us knew, but whose pain we all shared. The message was clear, “People in
power, behold, the crowds are at your gate and this time they don’t even need a
leader.”
Deep within, there is a general
bitterness against the way the governments are being run, how the corrupted who
get away all the time, against a judicial system which is failing under the
burden of delays, and against the fact the while India remains to be one of the
most highly taxed nations in the world – the public services, education and
healthcare are a pittance. And yet, while there were only two dollar
billionaires in India in mid-1990s, the number grew to 46 in 2012. The
inequities arising from the struggles of daily lives of the poor and middle
class, who toil day and night to get their children to schools, find healthcare
for their parents and safety for their family, and yet keep paying taxes and
duties which only keep increasing – have nurtured a sense of resentment against
the system, specially the governance system of the nation at large. And same
anger against the system, left uncared for, can easily take the monstrous shape
of armed rebel, which one-third of India is seeing in the form of Naxalism.
Lessons to Learn
Let us learn from the lessons from
past on how we and others have addressed the issue of youth movements.
First, “The power of the people
is greater than the people in power”, reads a famous excerpt about the youth
movements in Arab world. One primary
reason for such movement getting into streets is explained statistically by the
Power Distance Index (PDI) which measures how the rich and powerful are able to
control the middle and lower classes. Egypt (80), China (80), Lebanon (80),
India (77) are poor performers showing large power gaps, while much of the
advanced democracies nations like Norway(31), Germany (35) and New Zealand (22)
show very low power gaps. High Power Gaps, are often shown by the politically arrogant
attitude of people in power when a famous politician from Bihar publicly
stated, “Raj raub se chalta hai”. Instead of using British methods of baton
charge, tear gas and water cannons to wage a war against their own people
demanding justice, the politicians need to consider shelving their security
cover for a while and spend time with the crowds, braving cold winter in their
wet clothes.
Second, it also shows a poorly
managed opposition. When people come to street against a government, state or
central, it is basically because the opposition has not played a responsible
role of raising the issue in the right channels – and making the government
accountable for it.
Third, it must be understood why
the youth are so concerned about issues. It is solely because the youth have
the largest stake in the interest of the nation – after all we have to live here the longest amongst all
age groups.
This energy will expand
Looking at the history of other
nations, the movements which began as ideas and spread in youth have only
expanded. It was for the People in Power to either acknowledge them at the
right time or be swept away completely in them. Communist nations like Russia
(1905) and China (1949) came out imperialist regimes largely through the action
of youth in early 20th century, even religion nations like Iran (1979)
have seen similar successful movement by the youth. It was the youth of USA,
who in fact rose up against their own nation’s military aggressions in Vietnam
(1960s) forcing a retreat of US Army and more recently, the same super power
saw the Occupy Wall Street Movement (2011) against corporate-government nexus
spreading like wildfire and engaging a large participation. Most youth
movements, sooner or later, end on the side of success.
The reasons are simple. Youth are
most creative and energetic segment of people. We have daring undiluted hopes
of a better for us. We know well how to connect with each other, social
networks, mobile phones, SMSs and emails have gone a long in spreading ideas
across like-minded people. We are not easily broken down by the barriers of
caste, creed and religion. And we are simply too many in number, India alone
accounting for over 60 crore young people.
Road Ahead: Points to consider
While, the power of youth is
unquestionable in any sense, I must also point out two issues which Youth
movements are inherently more emotional in nature and there is distinct need
for rational guidance which has to come from seniors, teachers and parents over
complexity of causes which are youth are standing for. Second, in a nation like
India, youth should not let their minds be narrowed down to only those issues
are happening close-by, in big cities with media glare. Remember, that more
than 41,000 farmers were forced to commit suicides in rural India within the
last 12 years – we need to space for these issues on our canvas of
compassion.
In my interaction with all kinds
of politicians, I often hear them dismiss the authority of such mass movements.
One famous leader from UP told me, “Look these are Sunday crowds. People come
to the protest because the offices are closed”. I had only one thing to reply,
“Remember, the election day is also a holiday”.
By
Srijan Pal Singh
Columnist, Consultant and Co-author, Target 3 Billion (with Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam)
Columnist, Consultant and Co-author, Target 3 Billion (with Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam)
srijanpalsingh@gmail.com
This article was published in a leading daily.
