Farmers’ Agitation: Journey to Keep Justice Alive

• Apoorvanand

Will this journey reach the destination? Does it depend only on these passengers of justice? Another journey had started last year. If it could not reach the destination, did it become fruitless? Those who stayed away from the journey, those who put obstacles in the way, those who killed the passengers, did they emerge victorious?

A journey is undertaken to reach a destination. But a journey is not just about the destination. It is about the path that leads to that destination. And as journeys are not same, paths can also be different. What the goal is, it determines the nature of the path. Some paths are straight, uninterrupted. But some are difficult. Inaccessible. Filled with thorns and spikes. Therefore, not every journey is adventurous, adventure is not destined for every journey. In the same way, not every person who walks gets the distinction of being called a traveler. Every journey does not turn into a story.

Professor Yashpal often used to say that while traveling, one should stay focused on the goal, but should not ignore the path. If you cannot find the time to meander into the forest, the rugged terrain, rivers and lakes while journeying straight onto the path, then you are not a true traveler.

Those journeys that are undertaken while struggling through obstacles are the ones that turn into great stories. Mostly, obstacles are natural, but many of them are planted in one’s path. Do obstacles emerge automatically or are they planted? By people who are against that journey, its goal and many times the traveler himself. So, you even have to fight them during the journey. The path is made inaccessible. It is not possible to estimate everything before undertaking a journey. Just as there are efforts to interrupt the journey and there are elements to take pleasure in the obstacle itself, similarly there are those who take pleasure in making the journey of others easy and pleasant. It is not necessary for their selfishness to be there in this. The purpose of the journey is pure, so perhaps what they only want is to acquire some part of that purity.

How many selves are connected to this, how many feel gratitude in its expression, it shows how rich that self is, but it can also be seen from the other side. It also tells a lot about those who are either able or unable to connect to that self. You look at the traveler with curiosity, want to share his journey by taking a few steps with him or do you get apprehensive of him? Does every traveler who pass through your area seem to you as an enemy or as one who has come to you to crack your secrets? There is only a slight difference between curiosity and apprehension, but those whose primary sense is not one of curiosity or welcome, but that of apprehension or prohibition, are the victims of some insecurity. If the passenger has stopped on your doorway, then after thorough investigation do you let him come in? I recall a poem by the Palestinian American poet Neomi Shihab Nay, Arab kahaakartethay Jab koi ajnabitumharedarwaazeyaaye, Uski teen din khatirdaarikaro Yah poochhnekepahle Ki vahkonhai Vah kahaan se aayahai Vah kahaanjarahahai Is tarahusmeitaakat aa jayegi Itnikivahjawaab de sake Ya, tum itneachhe dost ban chukehoge Ki tumheiskiparvaah hi nahogi.

We know that this open welcome is the poet’s imagination, but should it not be real for the same reason? In the same way, will fellow traveler be the one who would walk till the end?

Safar, Musafir and Humsafar, each of them is an echo of the other. Humsafar (Fellow traveler) is wanted, but the poet Guru says that if no one comes to hear your call, walk alone. You need to call as calling is also your duty. Association is indispensable in a journey. That is why you need to call for sure. It is necessary to be free from the ego of walking alone. There is a sense of might or pseudo-bravery in walking alone, but the significance of the journey is determined by participation in it. How many people are able to embrace that goal and how many are willing to follow that path? It is possible for your call not being heard. The one who calls could also be at fault. To remove it, to let the call travel far and wide, it is all duty. But the call may remain unheard of despite that effort. It could be lost. Then the journey cannot be postponed waiting for the companion. That journey may have been a moral imperative for one’s existence. Then you would have to start the journey, taking the risk of being alone. Not to embarrass those who shuddered, who hesitated, but because I knew at that moment that if I postponed it any further, I would lose my justification for being. But in this journey, walking hand-in-hand with the farmers are students, teachers and businessmen, also those who do not even know Punjabi or Haryanvi. Seeing them, it is being asked that these people who are not like you, who are not of your profession, why have they come to support you in this journey?

These farmers are reluctantly explaining to them in Punjabi the meaning of their migration to Delhi, why have they left their homes, regardless of whether they will win or not?

This journey was necessary so that the idea of justice could be kept alive. If I remain silent thinking that I am weak, then I would lose my self-respect. Will it be considered as injustice only if there is a sense of injustice among all at the same time? And should the struggle against it start only then? It may be a question of strategy when and how the conflict starts and goes on but recognizing the injustice and still not naming it is a moral cowardice. And it could be clever not to mark it at the very moment when it is recognized, but it does not elevate anyone in stature.

Will this journey reach the destination? Does it depend only on these passengers of justice? Another journey had started last year. If it could not reach the destination, did it become redundant? Those who stayed away from the journey, those who put obstacles in the way, those who killed the passengers, did they emerge victorious? Or was he a true daredevil in the words of the agnostic because he stepped on the path of justice only when he knew that the sense of justice in the society had fallen asleep?

(The author teaches Hindi at the University of Delhi)