the gunless classes
By : Vasantharao Dusthakar on Jun 08, 2011 | Views (9) | Responses (4)
author:satyasarada kandula
Current Affairs : The gun-less classes.
Current Affairs : The gun-less classesIn our country, the state has armed forces, police, guns and jails. The mafia has guns. The terrorists of various affiliations and ideologies have guns. The rowdies in addition have hand made bombs, cycle chains, muscles, sticks, aggressive attitudes and broken bottles. These are the present days kshAtrAs or kshatriyas, literally the ones with weapons. All of these groups are organised.
The Indian Public is unarmed. Weaponless. Of these some poorer classes can at least engage in fist fights and verbal duels. Some richer classes can control some armed groups with their money. At least they can hire mercenaries with guns, security guards at the least and control the state machinery itself in some cases.
Not so the middle classes. You can say “boo!” and the middle classes run for cover. We are “bhagwan se, kanoon se, banduk se dartha” aam aadmis. (Ordinary people who fear God, Law and Guns).
We sacrifice our childhood and youth to gain “educational qualifications” and learn to live in “school jails” and to “follow rules”. After a brief ”fun in college education” phase, which finishes our parents off financially, we yoke up to serve various commercial institutions till we burn out or retire. We teach, we cure, we build, we cook, we clean.
We are the dasas, the servants. We are the s’UdrAs of these times.
When we are unhappy with something to the point that we would like to do something, we light candles, fast, walk, talk and write. In our times, the state machinery can tear gas you and beat you up and arrest you for this. We take pride in our peaceful agitations, but as a matter of fact thats all we can do.. we can do nothing more. We are not even organised.
Before liberalization, and we had foreign employers to be dasas to, all we had were “government or public sector” jobs.
The most fearful fled to foreign countries in a phenomenon called “brain drain”, for good work and decent living conditions. If you kept your head down and worked hard, your children could have a better future as citizens of a free country. We were blamed as the intelligentsia that failed the country, and the young ones were not allowed to ask what the country did for them, only what they could do for the country.
Now with a stronger private sector and FDI, we are brave enough to light candles and speak up against corruption. We “Teach India“. While the “weaponed classes” siphon off relief money, we go and help tsunami victims. We pay taxes and then travel in unclean, unsafe second class compartments of trains, unless the travel is “official”. It is a victory to get a ration card, a passport, or an election card. We are victims of corruption, our white money turns black in a million un-receipted ways, from a bus conductor who does not give you a ticket – to everything else. We tighten our belts. We hold the “Simple Living – High Thinking” Ideal. We are glad to get by and to be left alone.
We know that we are the prey. And “They” are the predators. We live like deer and they live like lions. We are glad when it is the other deer that is caught, not us.
We turn to gurus to help us deal with our feelings of helplessness. And we contribute to their empires. If they are good gurus, we are blessed. If they are crooks, we feel cheated once more.
What can we do?
In the movie Siva, Nagarjuna turns a kSAtra, by taking up arms himself, as does Mahesh Babu in the movie inNijam. In ancient times, Parasurama परशुराम, took up arms to rid the world of kSAtrAs gone bad, till he met kOdanDa Rama श्री राम, who was a noble kSAtra.
But what arms can we take up? Just as America and the northern block prevent other countries from getting nuclear weapons, our state does not permit us, law abiders, to have weapons. Only crooks can have them. And history has taught us that phirangis can win over the weaponless easily.
So what can we do?
My previous guru said, “If a slave you must be, Choose whose slave you will be”.
Thyagaraja asked for an armour of romaancha (horripilation), a badge labelled Rama – bhaktha and the sword called Rama श्री राम – Nama. And he asked for banTu rIti koluvu, to be a servant of Rama.
If a dAsa is what I am, then a Ramadasa shall I be, and be blessed for it!
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