The young and the elite are speaking up, post the Mumbai attacks. Does this signal a new era for us?
Minica Chhabria was like any other privileged,25-year-old in Mumbai. She would work with her father, car designer Dilip Chhabria, during the day, living a life of relative ease, immune to many of the problems that this country faces. On November 26, that changed.
On December 3, Chhabria, along with Manyata Dutt, actor Sanjay Dutt’s wife, restaurateur Abu Farhan Azmi, and entrepreneur Vijayata Gandhi, got about 15,000 Mumbaikars to come out of their homes to say, “Enough is enough”, at the iconic Gateway of India. From one end of the Gateway plaza to the other, “there must have been about two lakh people, at least that is what television said,” commented Chhabria.
Young, urban elite like Chhabria have often been accused of choosing to remain silent about the many problems that this country faces. Post the Mumbai attacks, there is a new energy in civil society that observers are noticing. They hope that it will usher in much-needed change.
Kaizad Bhamgara, a 19-year-old Parsi, set up a community on the social networking site, Facebook, called Rise Up Mumbai! Rise Up India!, with the understanding that taking personal responsibility was the only way India would change. He says, somewhat poignantly but without a trace of helplessness, “I lost some friends in the 2006 blasts in the local trains. Many groups had mushroomed even then. They wanted to start non-cooperation movements but fizzled out. This time, I knew each one of us would have to stand up.” On Facebook, Bhamgara writes: “Be the change that you wish to see.”
Standing up and speaking out is a new and exciting phenomenon in India, post these attacks. Even as events were unfolding in Mumbai, SMSes that spewed anger against politicians started doing the rounds.
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One SMS read: “V need not worry too much about those who came thru boats. But v definitely need to worry about those who will cum thru our votes.”
Another said: “Enough is enough...!!! This simply cannot go on anymore...we want change!”
Says Vijayata Gandhi, 20, one of the key organisers of the event at the Gateway, “All this is out of a sense of frustration and anger. If you are not safe in your house, in your country, what’s the use of a government?”
The anger in Gandhi’s voice finds an echo in thousands of others. Mohammad, an 18-year -old, wore his thoughts on his T-shirt, which read: “We cannot take this anymore.” He and his friends had one message: “You can see how hurt everyone is. We cannot let a handful of greedy politicians run our country to the ground.”
A youth held a banner that read: “There are some more terrorists in India. They are called politicians.” Another banner had Raj Thackeray’s photograph with “Missing” on top, with the tagline in Marathi asking, “Have you seen this man?”
What has helped people express themselves is, undoubtedly, technology. The mechanics of organising a protest are simple today: One or more people can start a community on Facebook or other websites, explaining the purpose and the event planned. That link is sent to friends and friends of friends, with an ever-widening circle being informed and regular updates provided. Those interested in participating in the scheduled “event” confirm this on the site. Then, there is the SMS. Again, people confirm through text messages.
The phenomenon of middle- class India speaking up can be traced to crimes such as the Jessica Lal and Priyadarshini Mattoo cases, which become rallying points for middle India.
Recounts Aditya Raj Kaul, who actively campaigned for justice in both the cases: “The Mattoo case involved a long process. A group of us fighting for justice got the verdict from the court. It was so long that we divided it up to study it in detail. Since we did not understand legal intricacies, we sought help from friends who were lawyers and journalists. We spotted the flaws in that verdict and made a document pointing these out. People called in from across the world and offered monetary help. Then, the case lost momentum.”
“Almost seven years passed. Gradually, however, we gained momentum. I had not imagined that Internet petitions could generate such momentum. Within two months, the guilty was behind the bars,” he says.
As Kaul points out, both the Internet and television have helped elite voices get heard. Aditya Jhaveri, who is yet to turn 18, and is studying at the London School of Economics, didn’t know any of the victims at the Taj or Trident hotels.
Despite that, and the fact that he was away, he was moved enough to start a group on Facebook, Mumbai 26 Nov — Let Us Not Talk, Let Us Act. Jhaveri, who belongs to a wealthy south Mumbai family, says he set it up to initiate a signature campaign. “I have never done anything like this before. I am not organising any candle-lit procession or other march, I am only sending out a message about the these events,” he says.
Jhaveri’s group already has 7,000 members and 700-800 more sign up daily. “Every day, I send out seven to eight key items for the day and that’s how I am helping out,”. Chhabria and her group too informed people via Facebook and SMS. This ability to get information out quickly to a large number of people through technology has helped such activism. Says Dr Rita Brara, reader with the Delhi School of Economics, “The new media has the capacity to be in many places at the same time.”
Television news channels, aware of their own potential, have also started campaigns. Says Rajdeep Sardesai, editor-in-chief, CNN IBN, “The campaign we have started is reflecting the concerns of the middle class. The channel is a forum to empower people.” Adman Prahlad Kakkar adds: “The youth and the media are spearheading the movement.”
This awakening seems to have stunned the political class as well. Few politicians dared to show up for the Gateway march or any other such event. And after being pilloried by the media for several inappropriate remarks, according to newspaper reports, politicians are now choosing to keep quite till the furore dies down.
In the past there have been attempts by citizens to do their bit for soldiers fighting the Kargil war, or for victims of the Bhuj earthquake. Grief and anger felt by civil society about terror attacks in the 1980s were usurped by politicians who regularly called for bandhs. Says Milind Deora, MP from South Mumbai: “It is unique to see the educated, upper-class coming out on the streets. I welcome it and this can be constructive.”
Brara explains the rise of a more vocal, affluent Indian by pointing to the election of Barack Obama, who harnessed votes by reaching out to the young through technology. Adds Mala Kapur Shankardass, sociologist with Maitreyi College, Delhi University, “You see a strong middle class emerging everywhere. It is coming out of its shell. That’s a good sign.”
Brara says the Indian elite did take to the streets during the freedom struggle, only to get somnolent later. Kakkar, barely able to suppress the glee in his voice, says, “The youth and the privileged were sleeping. They have now woken up and due to this there will be a wave that will lead to change.” Sardesai, too, is optimistic. He says, “The educated, literate middle class is now a vote bank.”
Lawyer and activist Prashant Bhushan is cynical. He says, “Unthinking, reflex responses promoted by the electronic media are counter-productive. Protests will have a lasting effect only if they carry on in the long term. A candlelight procession will not achieve anything. The problem with these people is that, tomorrow, they will be back at five-star hotels or playing golf. ”
The mood on the ground seems to suggest that this time at least people aren’t willing to let things die. A day after pulling off the successful march in Mumbai, Chabbria and her group aren’t settling down to rest. She says, “We are meeting today to take this forward. We are still as serious about what we want to achieve as we were when we started.” Says a determined Jhaveri, “I am going to vote the minute I turn 18. This is the time for a national awakening on the issue of voting.”
Adds an equally determined Bhamgara, “The anger is so intense that people are willing to come out of their homes. My group hopes to make people aware of their right to vote... that they can use the Right to Information, that they can file PILs. I would like a common man to be able to contest an election and win. We now need to elect the right people.”
Those of an older generation are questioning elite India’s ability to sustain this nascent movement. Others are more positive. Now, that this silence has been broken, here’s hoping that these fresh voices keep shouting.
With inputs from Neha Bhatt and Priyanka Joshi
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i-Revolution Mumbai’s online community also aided the easy transmission of hard-to-confirm information. Bloggers on Twitter posted items such as the license plate numbers of alleged police vehicles stolen by terrorists. There was a storm of live updates, swelling traffic on sites like Flickr, where images taken by locals (through mobile phone cameras) were put up. |
A Google map of the attack sites was swiftly put up by bloggers. Also, a lengthy entry on the attacks was on Wikipedia in less than an hour.
Users posted phone numbers of hospitals on their websites, blogs and even sent SMSes to friends and family — before phone lines were jammed.
Digital activism
Facebook took over Twitter, in creating a wave of responses. At least, two dozen virtual groups are still active with users talking about government apathy and the need to change “the system”. A Facebook group, Condemn Mumbai Terror attacks! It's time to wake up! Future Ahead — India, mentions a 20-point agenda and has a followership of more than 2,300 users. Yet another group titled, Waiting For Taj to Reopen to its Full Glory, has 130 active members sharing their experiences of the Taj Mahal Hotel.
SMSes and email forwards with pictures of the victims persuaded people to join rallies in their respective cities. Millions of SMSes were exchanged, bringing in a multiplier effect, to gather people for these rallies. Websites like www.abillionhands. com, were launched (this one, by the TV18 group) to bring about awareness and activism.
Twitter traffic
Twitter is a free social-networking tool, where users submit updates about whatever they are currently doing. These cannot exceed 140 text-based characters. By using the tag “#mumbai”, tweets from individual users were aggregated into a single channel, which people could follow. In this way, news collection and dissemination became participative. People acted as citizen journalists and the aggregation function of the tag “#mumbai” allowed for the automatic broadcast of that news back to the public.
Priyanka Joshi
