Designing Protests For The Apathethic

On February 12^th, Bengaluru is expected to unite in protest. Citizens of Bangalore have been asked to “Step Out” of their offices, “Stand Up” for their rights and “Stamp Out” Fundamentalism.

A fellow citizen of Bangalore justifies his initiative saying “My father and his brothers went to jail to secure freedoms. I can't sit back and watch these freedoms be taken away.

“The usually apathetic urban citizen regards "politics" as something unclean to kept safely away from” says Prof. Gowda commenting on his ‘Bengaluru Unites’ protest. Aware of the insecurities and constraints facing the urban citizens’ “shyness” to protest, Prof. Rajeev Gowda has devised a protest with a difference as a citizen, for fellow citizens.

While there is evidently much consternation against moral policing, with people “angry and disgusted” as Gowda says, “upset at hooligans telling us what we can or cannot do”, outpourings of protest on the streets sending a clear message “we have had enough” are virtually non-existent.

Rajeev Gowda has factored in the myriad excuses citizens’ make while organising this initiative that takes "protest to the people". He says “Protest is designed to eliminate people's usual excuses ... too far away to go ... too busy at work. Protests come to the people, where they are. People are empowered to come out and be leaders themselves“

At precisely 1330 hours - which is everybody's lunch hour – Gowda is exhorting people to gather outside their workplaces “as free citizens to express our anguish about the attacks on our fundamental rights”. Explaining the timing Gowda says “Lunchtime on a working day--that is not Valentine's Day, which would cause other tangential discussions on culture--is ideal. People do not even need to seek the permission of their colleges or offices to step out and join hands to demonstrate their feelings”

On his blog ‘bengaluru-unites.blogspot.com’ Prof. Gowda beseeches fellow citizens of free India to: “Join hands in protest, Raise slogans: Against Moral Policing; Against Attacks On Women; For Our Freedom”

26/11 propelled the great urban Indian middle class from the comforts of their armchairs onto the streets of Mumbai. For a very brief while, Mercedes owners rubbed shoulders with Maruti owners during candlelight commemorations and vociferous protests demanding resignations, sackings, inquiries and military government. And then there was quiet...

A short while later no one protected bookshops against the diktat of the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena demanding the removal of Pakistani books from their shelves; no one protested the humiliation of Pakistani artistes; no one protested the demand to rename a confectionary store.

Protests had once again retired to the confines of drawing rooms, mushrooming into numerous groups on social networking sites with membership of thousands.

Two months later, Pramod Muthalik's Shree Ram Sena humiliates a group of women in Mangalore causing ‘canned’ outrage. Once again anger is confined to protests of convenience, including raving and ranting on social networking sites, and parcels of pink underwear to be dispatched in bulk to Mr Muthalik.

‘Moral Police – India’s Shame’ a group on Facebook with a membership of over 5800 and increasing exponentially cannot rise above and beyond hurling expletives in English at a non-existent audience of Shree Ram Sena with Kannada as their native tongue.

On February 12^th Prof Rajeev Gowda hopes to make the difference. Bengaluru will put to the test a protest designed to cause minimal disruption; for the convenience of the urban citizen to express his anguish by ‘Stepping Out, Standing Up and Stamping Out’ infringements on his fundamental rights – post lunch ofcourse.