Pratham Dwivedi writes on Aseem Trivedi, the man who was on a fast unto death to repeal draconian laws.
Aseem trivediThere are two words in Urdu that simply cannot be translated perfectly in English, no matter what self styled linguists claim. One is called Deewanapan, and the other is Junoon. A poor translation of the two would read as: infatuation and obsession. Whether Aseem Trivedi is infatuated or obsessed with repealing section 66(A) is hard to tell. Many well known cartoonists of India have come on TV talk shows in the past and called him stupid. Some have called him juvenile. Some cynics have even slyly suggested that the young man is seeking his 15 minutes of fame. It says a lot about the massive disconnect between the English media and the real India that the brash youngster has drawn more criticism than admiration. But that is Aseem Trivedi, the self styled Internet cartoonist who wears his emotions and his passions on his sleeves; or on his unkempt beard, you might say. In many ways, Aseem Trivedi represents the subverted aspirations of small town India who see carnivorous parasites belonging to the political, business and intellectual elite gnawing away the innards of the very soul of Indian civilization. You think the language here is way over the top? Well, it is. But for the small town India and its fury that Aseem Trivedi symbolises, it is only over the top that seems to work in this era of 24x7 hyped news. Even Bollywood bimbos like Poonam Pandey and Rakhi Sawant have mastered the art of going over the top. They understand the pysche of the small town Indian. Nuanced reasoning and subtle hints are not for them. Loud is better, and over the top is pretty damn cool. And the underlying message too is loud and clear: to hell with you English medium types and your sniggers.
Recall the narrative when Aseem was picked up by cops from Maharashtra for posting cartoons on the Internet that were deemed offensive and inflammatory. The young man enacted his role of being a revolutionary with elan. He refused to seek bail. The cops didn’t know what to do with him. Forget the cops; even the English media frankly didn’t know what to make of him. He was not Anna Hazare who could be draped in Gandhian colours and elevated as the 21st century version of the Mahatma calling the teeming millions to rise against tyranny and corruption. He was not Anna Hazare, the 21st century version of middle class messiah whose voice has been downed in the din and bustle of electoral and vote bank politics. As the top cartoonists of India suggested, his cartoons too were very poorly drawn and apparently in poor taste. So why was this man adamantly refusing to seek bail? For the English types, the very absence of any nuance or subtlety in the demands raised by Aseem Trivedi were unfathomable. In fact, Trivedi seems to have just one demand: the scrapping of the undoubtedly draconian Section 66(A) of the IT Act. The fact is, the law is in place, midwifed by the UPA regime and Aseem was behind bars. The lower court judge too seemed to go through the torturous motions of dispensing justice. It was a long while before the man was released from prison. No matter how cynical you were, at that point in time, you had to admire his guts. And you had to fall back upon those two Urdu words Deewanapan and Junoon.
Aseem trivedi
Something similar seemed to happen when Aseem Trivedi announced to all and sundry that he will sit on a fast unto death till the Section 66(A) is repealed. Predictably, the news media which carpeted Jantar Mantar with hysterical sound bites when Anna Hazare sat on a fast; and the media that started airing all allegations unleashed by Arvind Kejriwal against the high and mighty as weekly show tried very hard to ignore the man. Well, they could ignore the man. But they could not ignore the issue that he was raising. The arrest of two young girls near Mumbai under Section 66(A) for ostensibly offending public sentiments on Facebook had already created a firestorm across the world. And before India became the land of unfree when it came freedom of expression, the Supreme Court had admitted a petition filed by Trivedi seeking the repeal of Section 66(A). You can ignore a small town hick who seeks his 15 minutes of fame. You can say that his sound and fury is mere posturing. You can say that his passionate patriotism is faux nationalism. You could, well, say that he is over the top. But how do you ignore the Supreme Court? And how do you ignore the crescendo of voices rising across the land calling Section 66(A) a blot on democracy and freedom.
Aseem trivediThere are two words in Urdu that simply cannot be translated perfectly in English, no matter what self styled linguists claim. One is called Deewanapan, and the other is Junoon. A poor translation of the two would read as: infatuation and obsession. Whether Aseem Trivedi is infatuated or obsessed with repealing section 66(A) is hard to tell. Many well known cartoonists of India have come on TV talk shows in the past and called him stupid. Some have called him juvenile. Some cynics have even slyly suggested that the young man is seeking his 15 minutes of fame. It says a lot about the massive disconnect between the English media and the real India that the brash youngster has drawn more criticism than admiration. But that is Aseem Trivedi, the self styled Internet cartoonist who wears his emotions and his passions on his sleeves; or on his unkempt beard, you might say. In many ways, Aseem Trivedi represents the subverted aspirations of small town India who see carnivorous parasites belonging to the political, business and intellectual elite gnawing away the innards of the very soul of Indian civilization. You think the language here is way over the top? Well, it is. But for the small town India and its fury that Aseem Trivedi symbolises, it is only over the top that seems to work in this era of 24x7 hyped news. Even Bollywood bimbos like Poonam Pandey and Rakhi Sawant have mastered the art of going over the top. They understand the pysche of the small town Indian. Nuanced reasoning and subtle hints are not for them. Loud is better, and over the top is pretty damn cool. And the underlying message too is loud and clear: to hell with you English medium types and your sniggers.
Recall the narrative when Aseem was picked up by cops from Maharashtra for posting cartoons on the Internet that were deemed offensive and inflammatory. The young man enacted his role of being a revolutionary with elan. He refused to seek bail. The cops didn’t know what to do with him. Forget the cops; even the English media frankly didn’t know what to make of him. He was not Anna Hazare who could be draped in Gandhian colours and elevated as the 21st century version of the Mahatma calling the teeming millions to rise against tyranny and corruption. He was not Anna Hazare, the 21st century version of middle class messiah whose voice has been downed in the din and bustle of electoral and vote bank politics. As the top cartoonists of India suggested, his cartoons too were very poorly drawn and apparently in poor taste. So why was this man adamantly refusing to seek bail? For the English types, the very absence of any nuance or subtlety in the demands raised by Aseem Trivedi were unfathomable. In fact, Trivedi seems to have just one demand: the scrapping of the undoubtedly draconian Section 66(A) of the IT Act. The fact is, the law is in place, midwifed by the UPA regime and Aseem was behind bars. The lower court judge too seemed to go through the torturous motions of dispensing justice. It was a long while before the man was released from prison. No matter how cynical you were, at that point in time, you had to admire his guts. And you had to fall back upon those two Urdu words Deewanapan and Junoon.
Aseem trivedi
Something similar seemed to happen when Aseem Trivedi announced to all and sundry that he will sit on a fast unto death till the Section 66(A) is repealed. Predictably, the news media which carpeted Jantar Mantar with hysterical sound bites when Anna Hazare sat on a fast; and the media that started airing all allegations unleashed by Arvind Kejriwal against the high and mighty as weekly show tried very hard to ignore the man. Well, they could ignore the man. But they could not ignore the issue that he was raising. The arrest of two young girls near Mumbai under Section 66(A) for ostensibly offending public sentiments on Facebook had already created a firestorm across the world. And before India became the land of unfree when it came freedom of expression, the Supreme Court had admitted a petition filed by Trivedi seeking the repeal of Section 66(A). You can ignore a small town hick who seeks his 15 minutes of fame. You can say that his sound and fury is mere posturing. You can say that his passionate patriotism is faux nationalism. You could, well, say that he is over the top. But how do you ignore the Supreme Court? And how do you ignore the crescendo of voices rising across the land calling Section 66(A) a blot on democracy and freedom.
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