Cellular Satyagraha Explained

The object of proposing the 'Cellular Satyagraha Divas' February 14th was to assess public opinion for the 'convenient' alternative to the preferred non-violent plan of action, which involved joining the people of Mangalore on the streets in an demonstration of solidarity - a peaceful show of strength' rather than a protest.

Such a non-violent plan of action seemed premature without a response from the people of Mangalore itself. Meanwhile, the citizens of Bangalore were overawed with the logistics of such an initiative which involved travelling to Mangalore en masse to execute such a 'show of strength'.

The alternative was to design a strategy that straddled geographical challenges with an equivalent if not more significant impact. Thus, Cellular Satyagraha is a 'strategy in progress' building on the lessons of the Cellular Silence Day initiative.

It is perhaps time to explore migrating protests off the roads onto the digital and infotech highways, where a protest does not physically inconvenience or, affect the livelihood of those who do not wish to take part. Thereafter, as and when a protest does hit the streets, it would enhance the significance and value of the same.

Infotech highways are perceived as avenues of delivering consumption, encouraging you to make more calls, send more messages, watch more television etc. etc.. The ownership of these highways is in the hands of a few who wish to determine how we think, what we think and even when to think. The 'big brothers' of business decide "what is good for business is good for the people of India"

If at the press of a button on a cell phone or, TV remote we can assume control over that process; empowering citizens with the knowledge that they can stop consuming as and when they choose, then there is potential to exploit this strategy to enthuse and engage significant sections of the population in participatory 'press button' democracy.

We have to push such highways through to the rural areas in due course to empower the citizen in the vlllage too, so that he/she too may choose to have their voice heard - or not heard - at the press of a button.

This would be a participatory democracy of citizens with the choice of involving themselves in the process; having a direct influence rather than outsourcing their democracy to elected representatives and political parties over whom there is virtually no control between elections.

The Cellular Satyagraha strategy is effective only if millions put off their cell phones. It is therefore necessary to find out how many are prepared to do so; to assert their citizen rights at the cost of some inconvenience - that could be deemed 'self sacrifice' in this age of rampant consumerism

If we affect big business then they lean on the political class, since the latter rely on their funding and support on the business houses. Quite simply, if Muthalik is 'bad for business' then he be will shut down; the captains of industry do not want to antagonise the 'consumer'

Secondly, if the numbers switching of phones and ready to sign a petition are the same, then that sends a message to the political class that ignoring significant sections of public opinion - mobilised through such digital highway initiatives - would no longer be an option.

The 'Cellular Silence Day' initiative had an exponential effect with infinitely more people putting their phones off, than the 4900 who actually signed the petition. In Gujarat, for example an entire community boycotted the products of two of the telecom providers. One of the business houses even thought it appropriate to use legal intimidation to silence the petition.

If a few thousand signatories could generate national media coverage for three weeks, consider what more zeroes could do, added to that number of 4900.

So, this is another step towards scaling up the strategy, engaging citizen support, so that in the near future it becomes progressively easier to mobilise public opinion and have them respond instantly via the digital highways; to make them aware of the potential and possibilities.

What this is NOT, is a strategy of confrontation that alienates the people with whom engaging in dialogue is most important. It is to inform the powers that be that the citizen is no push over; that in the era of consumption he/she can exert influence at the press of a button.

If you have not visited then C+ive website yet, at www.c-positive.in, may I suggest you drop by and browse the charter. The idea is to have a home grown civic society where strategies and initiatives emerge through the 'noise and chaos' of discussion. It is the citizen who is supreme, not elected representatives and certainly not political parties.

It is through such engagement becoming wider, more intense but remaining constructive, that non-violent strategies of the digital age will evolve, engaging everybody in the process of building consensus

Mangalore_India's Nashville - A Non-Violent Plan Of Action

For an Inter-Jesuit schools essay competition way back in 1978, the topic was Martin Luther King's quote "The ultimate tragedy is not the brutality of the bad but the silence of the good". Every time India goes through a civic convulsion - major or minor- that quote returns to haunt me. Now, it does not stop haunting me!

A significant section of the great Indian middle class 'seems' to be apathetic and indifferent,cocooned in their glass houses of prosperity, remaining silent in frustration, unprepared for someone throwing the first stone.

Meanwhile, there is a simmering anger amongst the youth frustrated by the poverty of leadership and direction by the generation that ought to be showing them the way forward. They are angry, insecure and afraid - a lethal combination that requires to be harnessed and provided direction.

Mangalore has been the beacon of secularism for centuries. Communities have co-habited and co-existed with each other in mutual respect, doing business together, participating in each others' festivities till very recently, when communal rifts were engineered. The same elements have now upped the ante, engineering the segregation of cultures.

Mangalore is their laboratory where they are 'beta testing' their madness before proliferating their programme of cultural sanitization and segregation elsewhere the country.Soon, we shall all be required to prove our 'Indianness' by wearing saffron swastikas!

If we reduce our social action to exchanging email and Youtube clips about the Mangalore pub attacks, raving and ranting on social networking sites and doing precious little, then we shall become silent participants in a repeat of the occurrences in Germany in the 1930's. History ought to help us learn from the previous follies of mankind not allow them to be replicated in meticulous detail in the presence of our silence.

These extremist forces emulate the tried and tested structure of numerous organisations that have previously propounded change through violence. There is a political organisation well established within the mainstream providing sanction to sleeper cells ready to execute acts of violence.

If the situation goes out of control there is an immediate public statement of dis-association and denial. The modus operandi followed in Mangalore leaves the 'mother ship' without blemish but the illegitimate intimacy of these political bedfellows continues unabated under saffron sheets.

So, it seems rather pointless targetting the Shree Ram Sena and seeking its ban as that would proliferate two more Senas - as has happened ad infinitum. It is time to keep 'mother ship' in our cross hairs especially with elections around the next corner.

The institutionalised segregration of Black and White in the town of Nashville gave birth to the Civil RIghts Movement under the leadership of Martin Luther King. it began with a group of black students from Fisk University in Nashville peacefully defying segregation. They were introduced to and inspired by the non-violent strategies of our very own Mahatma Gandhi.

It is now time for the youth of India to defy the cultural segration imposed by a few on the many. Mangalore is India's Nashville and the time is ripe for a similar satyagraha.

The youth of Bangalore and elsewhere should join hands in solidarity with the youth of Mangalore in a show of solidarity at the earliest opportune date. The demands should include the trial and prosecution of Pramod Muthalik and his lumpen outside the state of Karnataka withn 30 days, owing to a lack of confidence in the government of Karnataka. Also required is an apology from the Chief Minister of Karnataka for not providing citizens the safety and security of state machinery.

If no action is taken within the stipulated time, then we step up civil action; set aside our political differences and rally behind independent candidates against the ruling party of the state and defeat them in the constituencies where we can manage to do so.

If Mangalore leads the way, Bangalore and Mumbai will follow.

Seize The Day_ Liberty Through Non-Violence

Dear Friends

Please find below the YouTube link to the Mangalore pub attack on women:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lEbD2aXs-XU

This could happen in any city and town of India because these lumpen elements have been given the sanction to do what cannot be done within the realms of the rule of law.

There is a reactive choice of carrying Mace on your person, learning Krav Maga, or living in a perpetual state of paranoia every time you wish to unwind with friends or colleagues in a public environment.

There is a pro-active choice with a strategy like Love Your Neighbour Day/ Padosi Divas where you work on neutralising such antipathy with a gesture of non-violence.

When citizens work together, then we can become a force of peace to be reckoned with shaming those who embrace paths to violence.

It is time we secure our freedom in our own democracy to read a Pakistani author if we so choose, name a sweetmeat store after Karachi or Kinshasa, or enjoy an evening in a pub without disturbing the public peace.

We could discuss ad nauseum on Facebook and other networking sites wishing the problem away or we take the initiative to address the issue through engagement, dialogue and work towards a resolution.

The choice is ours...

A Civic Society That Never Sleeps

Dear Friend and Fellow Citizen

The Indian citizen has been incessantly buffeted and bullied over decades by the political and corporate class of the country.

Over sixty years we have mutated from citizen to mere consumer. We have been reduced to a herd of cattle, milked frequently off votes, while we are prodded to further nourishment on a diet of consumerism. As a consequence we citizens have been anaesthetised into apathy and indifference. Our minds have been progressively dulled by apparent prosperity into shirking our duties and responsibilities as citizens while the nexus of political and corporate establishments arrogantly pursue their machinations.

We are being marginalised within our physical, psychological and most importantly civic spaces, fed on an illusion of the greatest good for the greatest number while the contrary is happening.

We are terrorised from without and within our borders, expected to follow diktats on who is Indian and who is not, who is a patriot and who is not, who is secular and who is not, what we can read and see and what we cannot, what is and is not our heritage, who should and should not be our Prime Minister while the perils of the global economy keep us busy eking a livelihood.

It is time we proved our strength on the floor of the country by giving ourselves a much needed vote of confidence, proving our majority and using the same with responsibility to the greatest benefit of all.

In striving for that majority we citizens must conceive, design and implement strategies that are non-violent in word and deed; engage in dialogue and relentlessly pursue the path of conflict resolution towards consensus in a world replete with combative language and violent deeds.

In times of moral and ethical poverty in all walks of life we require to engage the conscience of fellow citizens and work towards a consensus no matter how cumbersome and insurmountable the task might appear.

We might not wish to engage in active politics for myriad reasons but we can easily restore to ourselves a citizens’ democracy built on the foundation of transparency, ethics and compassion.

Love Your Neighbour Day / Padosi Divas_ March 1

Dear Friends

A fellow film maker proposed the commemoration of the Gujarat Riots on Feb 27th as Anti Hate/ Anti Violence Day

On the same day I was asked if I could conjure up a strategy akin to 'Cellular Silence' to address the issue of widespread communalism.

My immediate response was that there is an increasing de-sensitisation and indifference to terms like communalism, which also results in an immediate polarization of views and opinion thus making most efforts counter-productive.

However, twenty fours later, a strategy did occur to me which could be significantly enhanced by our nationwide community of film makers, photographers, visual artists - professional and amateur - which I now propose to share with you.

In English, it would be "Love Your Neighbour" day and I believe "Padosi Divas" would be an appropriate Hindi translation.

If this is something we could commemorate annually hereafter, then we need a 'clean date' like March 1st. Besides, March 1 is a Sunday in 2009.

While we commemorate and reflect on all conflict, not just anti-Sikh riots, Mumbai 1993, Gujarat 2002 or Kandmal or Mumbai 2008. We employ non-violence as a pro-active strategy to neutralise those that attempt to profess hatred, violence, division, separation and alienation in any form.

We make flowers out of any recycled material be it paper, cloth or plastic. or even edible flowers as an acquaintance suggested.

We choose to make a single flower or a garland.

We might even choose to send a virtual flower or garland by email within India or to anyone anywhere you consider a neighbour.

We choose to give that flower to a neighbour next door, or exchange it with a Pakistani citizen at the Wagah border or a Bangladeshi or Chinese citizen for that matter, at any of our international borders .

We choose to send flowers to Narender Modi, the Bajrang Dal, Raj Thackeray, SIMI, the LeT, Maoists, Ajmal Kasab or to anyone else who supports, professes the language of hatred, violence and alienation through thought word and deed.

For those who have lost loved ones or been at the receiving end of violence, in any form this strategy might be anathema and repugnant but the question is where and when will this escalation of violence and hatred end, unless someone says "NO MORE"

If we film makers, photographers, artists and members of the media work in tandem with individuals, groups, NGO's, who might wish to voluntarily participate in this initiative, we could document this day and provide a sense of security and encouragement to those who wish to participate

Once again, I might be a voice of one but I would like to know if there are others who would want to make this work. If so, I would be only to happy to facilitate the process.

This is an 'open source' strategy, so you are most welcome to 'tweak' it as long as it is pro -actively non-violent, in word and deed.