Daily Times

Sitting here across the border, it is hard but to admire the vibrancy and resilience of Indian civil society. One week on from the murder of journalist Gauri Lankesh, one of the country’s most notable progressives, and the protests have not lost their momentum, with some running into the tens of thousands.

Yet India has been here before. Back in 2012, Jyoti Singh was literally raped to death. So horrific were the emerging details that the attack embedded itself in the global collective conscience. For a time, at least. While back in India, it sparked one of the largest waves of civil society protests and came to represent a tipping point of sorts for Indian society. A collective show of anger directed towards a state apparatus more than apathetic on the question of the safety of women in the public sphere. Though there were those who objected to the planned screening of a particular documentary on the Singh case on the grounds that offered a ‘stereoytpical’ portrayal of underprivileged Indian men.

Yet is unreasonable to expect civil society to effect change on its own.

We have seen this here on this side of the border. One of the most notable civil society uprisings was the Lawyers’ Movement, or the so-called pinstripe revolution as some quarters of the western media took to calling it. This was a sustained push to oust a military dictator who had actively sought to clip the judiciary’s wings.

Yet ultimately civil society was betrayed as those democratic forces calling for regime change from the streets busied themselves with trying to make backroom deals with the military strongman to secure their own political future. Though when the latter did doff his khakis – civil society was once more thrust centre stage. This was a blatant move to deflect from what had actually transpired behind-the-scenes, whilst giving the illusion that everyone was on the same side.

When governments actively seek to hoodwink protestors — this has nothing to do with traditional concepts of weakened democratic institutions, especially with regards to this part of the world. But everything to do with just how far a state apparatus will go to preserve its own hold on power

When governments actively seek to hoodwink protestors — this has nothing to do with traditional concepts of weakened democratic institutions, especially with regards to this part of the world. But everything to do with just how far a state apparatus will go to preserve its own hold on power. Britain boasted, in the run-up to Iraq, one of the largest anti-war protests in Western Europe, with some 2 million reportedly taking to the streets. This didn’t stop the Blair government from doing the dirty and waging a war of aggression. Thus we should be careful not to confuse permission granted to street agitation with evidence of democracy in motion. For as a wise man once said: power cannot be given by the state – it has to be seized.

Thus, while sitting here across the border it is admittedly hard but to admire the vibrancy and resilience of Indian civil society – just think how much more commendable it would be if the police would hunt down those who killed yet another bright light without which Indian democracy shines that much less.

The writer is the Deputy Managing Editor, Daily Times. She can be reached at mirandahusain@me.com and tweets @humeiwei

Published in Daily Times, September 15^th 2017.