Caste system,
christians,
Dalits,
muslims,
Nationalism,
patriotism,
purity,
reservation,
upper caste
To my Fellow Upper-Caste Country People
first
they said
Hindu Rashtra
in
righteous anger
they unfurled the tricolor
and it covered not only
the whole country
from kashmir
to kanyakumari
but also the shame
of mass graves,
of genocide,
of stolen lands
and dreams,
of rape as a weapon
in times of war and peace
then
they said
Bharat Mata Ki Jai
in
feverish nationalism
they claimed their territory,
hoisted up the flag,
smeared saffron on their faces
and sat on thrones
made of flesh and bones
of their victims
the dalits
the adivasis
(remember ghar-wapsi?)
the muslims and christians,
tell me, who said only whites
could be missionaries?
then
they said
Hindustan Zindabad
in
blood soaked patriotism
they wielded manu’s laws
as though loaded guns,
jailed some protestors
caged some women
and the rest were beaten
into submission
by upper-caste men
by upper-caste women
by brahmin preachers
by their own teachers
by their mothers and fathers
and neighbourhood gossips
in
the end you said
india is our motherland
in
blind loyalty
you participated wholeheartedly
in the subjugation
of those deemed inferior
you raised your children
on notions of purity, morality,
superiority and then…
you called them communists
and hunted them
you called them anti-national
and hanged them
you called them traitors
and hated them
in
the end you said
SARE
JAHAN SE ACCHA
in
devotion to your country
you changed history textbooks
to reflect false accounts
of your victories
you debated the merits
of reservation, sitting
in ivory tower institutions
you didn’t hold up guns
but you wiped out villages
with the stroke of a pen
you didn’t kill anyone
but you certainly
didn’t speak up for them
in
the end you said
MERA
BHARAT MAHAN
and
watched the country burn
Kavya Kartik a LLB student at Jindal Global Law
School.
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