Candle-light! - How Rang De Basanti Is Changing Society

It's not so much the rich, but the politically connected. The politically-connected are the one's who can get away with anything...

I am surprised how we haven't been able to evolve civil instituitions for our own protection - why we don't build police-stations and civil-courts with our own money? We should be able to develop locally enough of these strong civil instituitions to take care of our needs..

Why do we expect the State to do all this? The mobs elect the politicians, primarily hoping for economic redistributions, and the "netas" only look out for their flock...we can't expect them to care too much about our needs..

I'm being serious, why don't we do the building, put up the funds locally, and then just seek State legitimacy ..?

While I am in concurrence with the latter part of your post, however to attribute the solidarity a nation has shown to Jessicas case to just a movie is rather bizarre and also untrue.

I, including my friends have wholeheartedly contributed in whatever manner we could towards getting her justice and are continuing to do so. I assure you, this has nothing to do at all with RDB or any movie. In fact i have written about mt serious reservations on the film. You are in fact trivialisng the awakening of the masses and our conscience by giving the credit to a movie which was in fact fallacious in its conclusions.

Also then do keep in mind that the reverse may hold true as well, if one blames the negative uprisings by the youth to the RDB syndrome. link
http://sachiniti.blogspot.com/2006/02/aftermath.html

Kaveeta:

Thanks for your comment.

The Jessica Lall case is 7 years old while RDB is a very recent phenomenon. I definitely was not trying to trivilize the movement (people like yourself) that has/have been supporting the cause of Jessica by attributing it to RDB.

What caught my attention was the specific mode of registering a peaceful protest having a similarity with the movie. What also caught my attention was how NDTV et al got involved in a role that was more than news reporting.

And my point being that while these two instances of protests, while isolated in the big picture, you might argue, did seem to get the attention of the nation. And they are welcome. But let us search for injustice and methods of dealing with it even without the urging of anyone on national TV or films.

The case was 7 yrs old, but the acquitalls and the judgement has just been passed. Therefore the outrage.

Even before the release of RDB, nmany months before, there was a heartening national consensus for the release of Sarabjit, a resident of Punjab who had been dtained in Pakistan, allegedly under a mistaken identity case, and is to be hanged.

Lakhs of SMs were sent to the President of Pakistan, to show that we as a nation feel the need for amnesty in the case. So it definitely is not that we as a nation are not aware of our rights and responsibilities. What was lacking was the forum , a common platform, an impartial non corruptible medium. sensing that the media took over. It reacted to the incense of the common man.

Instead of undermining the role of the media, let us laud it for its efforts in presenting us a platform where we can as a nation express our opinion over issues. How else would you suggest, that in less than a month, a retrial has been ordered for a case which took 7 years to be heard?

It is all very well to expect Utopia or say that this is what should happen or that should not. Had we been a conscientious nation, do you think that the rampancy of corruption blatant in every branch of the GOi would have been a reality?

Let us celebrate that we have in fact taken the first steps towards justice and feel encouraged. Can you decipher the effect it has had on other cases? the NItish katara, best bakery, and scores of others, where the lesser courts were wont to giving arbitrary judgements, have to bruce up their act.

Living in India means dealing with conditions sometimes which are staggering.If such a citizen forgets his problems, frustrations, angst and takes out time and energy to vote fro or against, it needs to be highlighted, as also the role of the media. Why cannot the media be our voice and eye for justice? where is the harm? The peaceful mode is what we as an enlightened citizen have decided to adopt. You are so wrong when you aver that this was RDB in action. Please see the movie again to analyse their suggestion and resorting to violence to deal with issues.

I do not blame you for sensing things the way you have. Being so far away from home, your window to it has been the news sometimes filtered and erroneous, therefore your take on it.

To respond specifically about the suggestion being made by RDB, here is what I also wrote early on in the piece:

>This new brand of revolutionaries resorts to a >rather simplistic solution to violence in the >end and the poignancy of the non-violent candle->light vigil is somewhat undone, one might argue

Srinadhm: Enjoyed reading your informative piece. I wasn't aware SMS had begun to be routinely used as an organizational tool -- I heard it'd come into its own during the tsunami but was unaware how much it'd seeped into daily life. I'm skeptical the movie did much to influence/inspire people; it's not exactly hard to get Indians to protest anything from the color of Dalda cans to the laws of thermodynamics. We're born human noisemakers. Still, that churlish comment aside, the peace march and candlelight vigil are powerful weapons indeed. Demoralization of the opposition by reminding the opposition of its innate humanity. Neat.

Srinadh,
Enjoyed reading your article - surely "when people lead, the leaders will follow". The RDB phenomenon is very intriguing too. Perhaps it indicates the birth of a new idealism among youth - you only have to see the _success_ (not production) of movies like Yuva, RDB, Dhoop, etc. to see it.

And we are all part of it.