Is there only one road to revolution?
Some of this connects, some of it doesn’t. Most of all, I have discovered a fear in me that keeps me from from disagreeing with people like Meena Kandasamy – great orators, no doubt, but what are they really capable of?
The piece speaks of revolution as being the sole goal of an Indian youth’s life, that we must spend our lives stirring the muddied water, exposing the mud to light, and separating grime from guts and guts from guts from glory. This is where I disagree. Revolution is not my cause. I don’t want to stir the muddied water. I concede that I am afraid that I will fail.
And at this point, Meena Kandasamy would have me believe, I should either crawl back into my liberty-encrusted shell or lay down my life. Why should I when I know I will succeed in keeping aspirations alive? Why should I when, given the freedom to aspire, I can teach others how to go about believing the same? Why should I when I can just pour in more and more clean water and render the mud a minority?
Why is this never an option? Have we reached a head, that it’s either a corruption-free world or a bloodied one? India desperately needs a revolution, yes, but not one that welcomes a man liberated after pained struggles to a joyless world.
