An underrated couplet from Allama Iqbal reads,”Jamhuriyat ik tarz-e-hukumat hai ki jis mein bandon ko gina karte hain, taula nahin karte“. Which translates to, “Democracy is a form of government where people are counted, not weighed as a whole”.
Among other things, it implies that in a democracy every voice counts, and every opinion matters.
But for something to matter, it has to be treated with respect, and we all know how our nation is doing in that department. Throwing more light on the same is Kommune India‘s excellently written piece #TooMuchDemocracy, narrated by Nakuul Mehta and written by Ajay Singh.
Starting with the state of affairs around the world due to the pandemic and the rise of divisive forces, Nakuul says:
Then, he moves on to the drug-debate that rocked the entire country in 2020, its impact, and the sheer ridiculousness of our news anchors to turn such a serious topic into a tool for gaining TRPs.
In the middle of all this, was the movie world. Movies, which don’t ask for their viewers’ religion, caste, or class, unlike people who are supposed to give us information about the nation on television.
Cleverly using mythology, writer Ajay Singh makes a comment on democracy (addressed as bhegum here), what it means to India today – and if it means anything at all.
Of course, then, we have a new law which prohibits love between people of two different religions.
As if we were not putting enough restrictions on the purest of all emotions already. As if that emotion doesn’t know how to survive, still.
From Gandhari who chose to not see what was going on to Dasharatha, whose vachan led to chaos, there is a lot from India’s mythological history that serves as a lesson for our country today and this series of poems aims to make sense of it.
You can watch the entire video, here: