Once Maharashtra was the land of progressive thought. Now it is the land where progressive thought is killed. After Narendra Dabholkar’s murder in Pune, Comrade Govind Pansare was shot in Kolhapur. He has succumbed to his injuries.
This is the man who hosted events asking dangerous questions like “Who killed Karkare?” or protested the powerful IRB Infrastructure Developers. Over decades of service, he has stood up for all kinds of rights of people. He faced virulent hate propaganda from fans of Nathuram Godse more recently (Nathuram godse is Mahatma Gandhi’s murderer) from Sanatan Sanstha and others.
[tweetthis twitter_handles=”@Vidyut, @_AamJanata”]Govind Pansare is dead. Murdered brutally to silence. His killers roam free. Where is justice?[/tweetthis]
In a state where the supporters of the ruling parties are the most venomous haters of progressive thinking activists, there appears to be no point expecting justice. In a country where the state machinery works to free killers and frame activists, there appears to be no point expecting rule of law. What is justice anyway? Two or ten worthless souls put behind bars cannot compensate the social loss of progressive thoughts being proliferated time and again.
Justice for the murder of a thinker can only come from the proliferation of their thoughts. Voices that resonate with ethics become louder because they speak the hearts of many, address the needs of many. They can be silenced by guns, but they cannot be refuted. Thoughts let lose in the world cannot be reeled back in.
We all die one day. The fearless die once.
When Narendra Dabholkar was murdered, I was overwhelmed with shame for having agreed with his views, but never taken the effort to add my voice. From that day, I remain committed to speaking out against superstition.
[tweetthis twitter_handles=”@Vidyut, @_AamJanata”]We all die one day. The fearless die once. One dead Pansare spawns many more.[/tweetthis]
Today, it seems the commitment needs to be wider. There are so many things that need voices speaking truth to power. So many voices that going around with a gun becomes unfeasible. In the absence of deterrent for criminals from the state, the strategy of minds insisting on progressive thought must evolve to build in deterrents. This is one.
I promise to continue speaking. Loud and clear. Against superstition. Against corruption. Against exploitation and inequality. Against communal hate.
It is but one voice and the task is huge, there is no alternative but to grow to meet it.
Walk along. Let not voices of reason be a few heads sticking out in a crowd that can be shot out of the picture.
I dont really think that you can weed out superstition in India. The reason is that it is a highly competitive country. I mean look at the IIT-JEE exams in context of number of candidates and level of questions far surpassing the grad school’s level itself(or any other exam like IAS etc).
So the pressure on an indiviual to perform will remain exceptional. Such pressure is not easy to cope up with due to the lack of community programs based on scientific research. People who break under the pressure will look for superstitions for solace.
You cant really blame the people or the charlatans who are filling the void … they act just like placebo in absence of medicine. The blame lies on lack of initiatives to start community based programs to decrease the pressure and help people with motivation to face such an exceptionally hard competition.