The stupid privilege of being apolitical
If you’d been a part of a heated Whatsapp discussion on Socio-Politics, you must have observed two kinds of people:
- Those who are vocal and voice their opinions loud, no matter if they are right or wrong.
- Those who remain silent, not because they don’t have time, but they simply don’t care.
It is category number 2 that are more dangerous (read: futile) to the world than anyone. Because you can always change someone who has an opinion; but you can’t do anything with those that have none. What they only have is a ‘moo point’!
They would avoid confrontation. They might as well make a joke or two about someone’s statement. They would send in a baseless message in the garb of ‘humanity’ and ‘stop fighting’ and ‘unity’. Basically, Moo Point!
If you ask this person why they chose to remain silent, and not pick a side in a matter of politics or social issues, they would simply reply with,
“I am apolitical.”
While being apolitical may sound intellectual, it is the least kind of person that democracy would require.
“What makes a person apolitical? Is it only that they don’t like confrontation?” I asked Mayank [name changed], who not only studies humanities in depth, but is an active political activist. And the answer I got revealed much than I ever knew.
“It’s about privilege,” he said. “If you are privileged enough to fill your stomach with every meal, have a shelter, a sense of social security and rich enough to keep alive your comfortable lifestyle; you are simply privileged enough to not care about the politics. There’s a precursor to being apolitical, and that is being privileged.”
“A rickshawala struggling to make his ends meet would obviously care for who his representative is in the Parliament. He wants to know what policies of the Government can help him survive.”
A poor person who lives in sensitive areas would want to know if his parents survive when swords are drawn out. A Hindu or a Muslim, doesn’t matter. In riots, poor people die. Not the ones with privilege. Someone who knows that the current politics is in his favour doesn’t care to change that. ‘Survival instincts’ on steroids!
They are a few who would try to make a joke of a political opinion. That is actually a self-defence mechanism. Because when you don’t have something to say, you feel powerless. Saying something funny rids you of that burden and the guilt of not having anything to say. An escape!
But there was something that I didn’t understand.
I am a privileged Hindu (though an atheist), with job security, shelter and a political party at the helm which is willing to bend hells for Hindus. Why then, despite being privileged, am I political? Why do I experience chaos in my mind with what’s happening outside?
“Curiosity and Knowledge always bring burden”, says Mayank, a Hindu himself.
An unaware citizen never arouses commotion.
Have you ever found a historian who is apolitical? People who understand the history of India, her rich and epochal democracy, and bathe in her heritage can never be apolitical. People who understand the minorities, those that have friends in the oppressed communities can never be apolitical.
K’naan, that famed singer of Wavin’ Flag from 2010 FIFA World Cup, has put it well when asked why he was political:
I just write songs that tell the state of the world. And then people say that I am political.
And that’s exactly how it is. A politically aware mind is just conscious of his society. The curiosity to understand your world makes you political. Curiosity breeds knowledge, and knowledge makes you restless in times of injustice and oppression. Had Martin Luther King or Nelson Mandela or Mahatma Gandhi remained apolitical, the world would not have been where it is today.
But what does being apolitical mean for a democracy like India?
It only means a lost voter. A misguided or a misinformed citizen is as good as not turning up for a vote.
You want to be free. You want to enjoy all the rights given to you by the Constitution. You want to roam where you wish. You want quality education and a sturdy health infra. But when it comes to politics: You’re apolitical?
How can that bargain work!
A nation like India cannot afford an apolitical person. We are a multicultural, heterogeneous, pluralistic, secular and an unnatural democracy that has thousands of communities living within its fold. We are legs of the same chair.
So, get up and get Political. Because each silence is a voice lost!
I will leave you with this quote from EVR Periyar, the Father of the Dravidian Movement.
