My Politics

I used to believe that my political belief is something which is very personal to me and that there is no need to wear it on the sleeve and take it everywhere.

This belief stems from two causes - one, I believe, I arrive at a political belief by reading, analyzing and understanding the nature of the society we live in. This is an intensely personal experience and very obviously, everyone of us go through it differently which result in different political beliefs. Hence, there is not much of a point in going around professing one’s beliefs and starting arguments.

The second cause is that I am also a very private person. I do not believe in sharing anything I feel is private to myself and not necessarily need to be displayed everywhere. This is just an extension of the cause one.

However, 2017 - probably is the most politicized year in this state at least. We - the Tamils - have gone through protests after protests starting with the Jallikattu protests in January. There is no single month in this year so far which has not brought forth some kind of an injustice followed by a rash of protests. 

There are multiple reasons for this as far as I am concerned. The casteist politics which is getting prominence, the policies of the central government (the state government hardly functions and cannot be said to have any policies at all!), the discriminatory behavior towards the state (no more perceptional ‘alleged’ - it is now obviously discriminatory towards the state), most importantly, the overtly , coming-out of the right wing lunatics into the mainstream discourse and the fringe Tamil nationalist groups. None of which are acceptable anymore.

This is a state which considers putting one’s caste as a surname as shameful, which opened the temples to the ‘lower castes’ much earlier than the rest of the country, which brought rationalism as a main course in discussion and which steadfastly refuses to elect any national party to power for the past 50 years. 

My father’s generation went through a lot - jail terms, continuous protests and most importantly - they grew a spine and stood , for the first time, erect against the elite classes and the supposed higher castes. The gain for my generation are the model of reservations - I am a direct beneficiary - the respect (at least outwardly) in the social spheres which transcend the caste barriers etc. This is for the middle caste group. We still have to fight against the discrimination against the still lower caste groups - especially in the rural areas and the strong prejudice against them in the urban set up.

All those gains from the last 50 years are at stake now. 2017 - has directly thrown the challenge at us to take a side and make a stand. My belief that the politics is personal - stands exposed and continuing with that makes little sense in this changing world.

While safeguarding the state rights and the social justice gains of the past 50 years is on one side, the work still to be accomplished to educate, understand and fight the casteist and nationalist discourse is still pending and every one of us are going to be touched by this politics at one point or other. There is no escaping it.

Hence, I am putting my politics in the open now. I am a rational, left-wing, liberal (and proud of it!). I chose to do it on the birthday of the man I respect the most and whose writings I’ve read and respect.

I want to close this by quoting Martin Niemoller’s famous quote - which stands very valid for the world we live in today.

“First they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out—  

Because I was not a Socialist.

Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I did not speak out—  

Because I was not a Trade Unionist.

Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out— 

 Because I was not a Jew.

Then they came for me—

and there was no one left to speak for me.”