Year 2011: Street wise power foolish

We didn’t light the fire. It was a faceless, frustrated and frazzled fruit vendor in Tunisia who lit the fuse for 2011. The effect was a dangerous and explosive contagion which got airborne across the world, overthrowing dictators, killing tyrants, felling autocracies, nailing the money mess, hunting down corruption and telling those in power — “We’ve got you”

Sadda haq, aithey rakh may sound crassly, aggressively and unreasonably Punjabi, but it would’ve been unanimously adjudged the Worldwide Anthem of the Year by Time magazine had its yearend team been up with some local lingo.

For lyricist Irshad Kamil’s famous first words pretty much signified the psyche and the state of the world in 2011, a tumult-ridden year in which popular protests for aam rights went acutely, insanely viral. The spirit of the year was untamed aggression, uncompromisingly and uncannilyen masse. It was an upsurge by the 99 per cent of world society against the one per cent occupiers of power. Be it the autocrats in Tunisia or the benevolent despot in Egypt, or for that matter, the downright tyrant in Libya — the unpowered made the powerful powerless. Be it Boston Square, London, Greece or Spain, be it massive unthinking, but driven populaces in Arab nations, or the discerning and educated youthsters of Western economies, or last but not the least, the billion-strong punch that rattled politicos in India, the demand always was for, well, sadda haq.

And unlike those good old times when Nero played the fiddle while Rome burnt, the power-mongers fought all the way down to bloodbaths and yet indulgent analysts decided to call it the Arab Spring.

What they were eulogising was the glasnost of popularism that fuelled protests. Incidentally, these were not about a singular kind of oppression — they were against pretty much anything that was unfair, unkind or uninterrupted till now. It was as much against the political fist as it was against the financial mess, the corruption, the inflation and the general dent in the right to qualitative and quantitative life of seven billion people blinking on the convulsing Atlas.

The issue, gathering wind and fuel through the highly inflammable refinery called cyberspace, stitched up a strange kind of universal brotherhood resulting in massive blowouts at the world’s most respected centreplaces — from Tahrir Square in Egypt where thousands converged against Hosni Mubarak’s 30-year dalliance with power, to Ramlila Maidan in New Delhi where the cussed Government could not believe that it was an impromptu and unscheduled mid-term poll against corruption, much, much away from the ballot box year — the common man had worn the battle gear for good.

‘Occupy’ no longer remained the buzzword of political masters ensconced in their forced, elected or time-bound power beds. It went viral, it turned common and it pervaded Tunisia, Algeria, Egypt, Syria, Yemen and Libya to Greece, Spain, Wall Street, London Square, Los Angeles and our very own Ramlila Maidan.

So, why was 2011 so singularly and infectiously revolution prone? After all, haven’t all the issues we are now fighting for, existed for generations before us? Sahir noticed and noted it much before the 60s when he penned the unforgettable “Aasmaan pe hai khuda aur zameen pai hum, aaj kal woh is taraf dekhta hai kum…” Billy Joel was a little more recent in his admission that “we didn’t start the fire, it was always burning.” And Prasoon Joshi a bit more instant when he decided that enough was enough and he needed to question the unending slumber of the common man.

The answer lies less in angst (which was always there in populaces around the globe) and more in the new wave disbursement of information through social networking sites like Twitter and Facebook. Thanks to the Internet, the frustrations of one citizenry could not be contained within the physical boundaries of their country. It turned viral, it stoked the passions of populaces thousands of miles apart, it straddled oceans to dock into far removed lands and cultures and started remotely connecting to drivers of revolts through a common server called populations against oppression.

And before a Mubarak or a Gaddafi or even an Obama or a Cameroon or a UPA knew, there were people and people and more people on their case — pressuring, questioning and neutralising their existence to a point where survival became difficult and compromise impossible. Placation was no longer a word being understood by the restive billions. Law, reason and even talk of punishment falling on the deaf ears of an action-propelled sea of persons no longer willing to stand and stare, overlook or forgive or lie back and enjoy.

Behind all this posturing, all this fisticuffing of opinions, all this fight for and against issues lies one inherent flaw — most of the popular uprisings this year were spontaneous outbursts lacking the DNA of longevity. Where the people of a nation managed to overthrow their immediate bane, the future looked even more in disarray.

In Egypt, for example, where Hosni faces treason trial, the protestors are no longer sure of the genie they have unbottled by overthrowing a long-time Government. Radical Islamists are hovering to fill up the vacuum as a sleazy military takeover has turned into a fear no longer stray or intransigent. Libya, too, is in the throw of blind transition to nowhere and regimes in places like Syria are adamant to fight it to the finish.

Back home, where Anna and Co are in the midst of their next, and perhaps most crucial, move against a Government which has pushed a Lokpal Bill full of sympathies for the corrupt, a Bill through which most political parties are overtly and covertly inclined to keeping everything under a fist, the situation could be termed fluid only by an optimist. For sceptics, however, it is the classic Dr Faustus state of mind — eternal eclipse with no hope of light.

Indeed, and with all due respect for the relentless fight by well-meaning and committed Team Anna, the woods still are lonely, dark and deep and unless the common man is ready for a prolonged war with the establishment, the fifth pillar of India’s tumultuous democracy — corruption — will continue to eat into its vitals.

It is this long haul situation that will mould the years to come. And the biggest dent to this novel, boundary-less evolution of revolution in 2012 will be the great Recession No 2 (being termed the grandfather of all economic slowdowns) which is staring down at the world, its hapless leaders and its explosively directionless populations — it is coming and coming without any solution in sight. So, a revolt may at best topple a regime but where’s the hope that the incumbent will be any more knowledgeable on setting the system right? At best, he may have the intention right, but will he have the wherewithal to deal with the looming crisis? More importantly, will these same protestors allow a regime to take some stiff measures?

With no concrete solution to a liberalised world economy yet in sight, and the world hurtling towards a financial apocalypse, a people’s movement may not be enough. Alternately, it might just be the medicine the doctor prescribed to treat the viral.

Either which way, the churning will signify the life and times of future generations, the seeds of which were sown by 2011. Call it a people’s year or a year of angst, of rage, of occupations, of overthrowing or a year which made your presence felt. But, it was definitely a big movement year, a year that lost and sought the single most important tenet of democracy — trust in our political leaders.

And till we get our leaders to find their way through the maze of negatives they work in, or are sadly powered by, we shall exhort them by singing, nadaan parindey ghar aajaa…

Source: Published in Sunday Pioneer, 25 December, 2011. Yearend issue