Protest in Kolkata, India. Image by Soham Chakraborty.

At the start of this decade, I remember seeing images of protestors gathered in Tahrir Square. Thousands upon thousands protesting, among several issues, the lack of civil liberties, freedom of speech, corruption, high unemployment, low wages and of course most importantly thirty years of an autocratic dictatorship. I remember watching as the Egyptian government shut down the internet, attacked protestors and brought in the military as the crisis escalated. I never thought this could happen here. Now, I’m not saying this our Tahrir Square, not even close, but what we’re witnessing from the Indian Government is straight out of the same playbook. Now, less than two weeks away from 2020, a year which was going to be a great marker of progress for our nation and a year that former President Dr. Kalam envisioned our country becoming a superpower on the world stage, we couldn’t be farther from it.

We have a flailing economy and a government preoccupied with pushing their ideological agenda. I never thought I’d see an Indian Government attack protestors (14 dead in UP, 26 dead in Assam), I never thought I’d see such an unprecedented suppression of civil liberties (large scale internet shutdowns, imposition of section 144), and I certainly never thought I’d see an elected government at the centre persecute its own people in this manner. The CAA and NRC are only the tip of the iceberg. A 2018 report from the National Crime Records Bureau showed that violence against SC/ST minorities increased by 25% while conviction rates fell by 2%. Crimes against religious minorities have increased by 27% in this time, with so many religiously motivated crimes such as the lynching of Tabrez Ansari going unpunished. This has been happening for years and we’ve barely noticed.

In my opinion, this isn’t just a fight against a policy or the actions of the government, this is a fight about what it truly means to be Indian. For a while now, we have seen a coordinated attempt at the bastardisation of our national identity, I don’t think we’ve ever seen this level of political polarisation and targeted misinformation focused at political, social and religious minorities. We’re living in different versions of the same country with different realities based on where you get your news and who you speak to. Over the last decade I’ve seen the Indian media go from being pacifist to hawkish and aggressive, I’ve seen video of lynchings and other atrocities go viral online without ever reaching the rest of India and I’ve seen the vicious derision of opinions that don’t align with the political mainstream. “Unity in diversity” is dead, and the politics of divide and rule is well and truly back. We’ve heard a lot of talk in the last few years about “Indian Culture”, I might be incredibly naive but in my mind it has no place for division along the lines of religious or social identity, for ours is a culture of change, adaptability, resilience and multiformity, and these are the values that we must fight to protect.

I wish I could be in India, at the protests, alongside thousands of my peers. Thank you for standing up when it’d be much more convenient to sit on the sidelines, thank you for marching despite the threat of attacks and arrest and most importantly thank you for standing up for those who need it the most. All my life I’ve struggled to fully understand the concept of patriotism and about how people can feel attached to objects and symbols, yet now I think I finally get it, a nation is its people, and when you stand up for those injusticed, you stand up for the nation. Thank you, you are the real patriots.