India Tomorrow
New Delhi, July 19— Noted poets, authors and academicians gathered at the Press Club of India here on Thursday to express their solidarity with the ten Assamese poets, social workers and activists who were booked by the Assam police last week for sharing a poem criticising the on-going NRC exercise. The controversial poem is said to be part of local poetry genre called ‘Miyah’ poetry.
“I think the republic has crossed a new line by criminalizing poets. Where will be our country without poetry given our old traditions of Bhakti and Sufi poetry? What this world would have been without Black and Dalit protest poetry? The Bengali-speaking Muslims in Assam are pejoratively called Miyan and this poetry is about turning that term into an expression of their pride,” said rights activist and former civil servant Harsh Mander.
While speaking to India Tomorrow separately about the serious charges slapped by the state government on the Miyah poets he said, “Many poets have been charged with Section 153 (A) and that’s a grave charge. Not even Sadhvi Pragya or Amit Shah were charged with 153 (A).”
Under IPC Section 153 (A), an Indian citizen can be prosecuted for ‘Promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion, race, place of birth, residence, language, etc., and doing acts prejudicial to maintenance of harmony’.
After the poem carrying mention of NRC process and its fall-out were shared online, Assam’s police filed an FIR on July 10, on the complaint of a journalist in Guwahati, against 10 people, mostly young poets, social workers and activists, on charges of “spreading communal disharmony ahead of NRC publication,” according to Guwahati police chief Deepak Kumar who spoke to NDTV on the issue. One of them has got anticipatory bail. None of them have been arrested.
However, Delhi intellectuals do not seem to be agreeing with the Assam police viewpoint.
Addressing the media at the Press Club, author-activist Githa Hariharan said, “These poems have been written to describe the discrimination they face in their day to day lives. This power of this resistance means a new form of dignity politics. Miyan may be a slur but they have owned it proudly to boast of their identity.”
Later, answering to a question asked by India Tomorrow about the future of Miyan poetry, she said, “At a time, even the privileged writers and their publishers are intimidated and we have writers shot and forced to take back their books, now we have poets against whom FIRs have been launched. Poets have always been at the forefront of movements throughout history. So it is impossible this poetry of assertion and togetherness can ever die. No FIR can stop them (Miyah poets) from writing.”
Poet and literary critic Ashok Vajpeyi said, “There is a lot of othering’’ going on in a massive way. Literature tells that it is a false dichotomy of ‘us’ vs ‘them’, rather it establishes the harmony of ‘us and them’ and ‘them and us’.” Vajpeyi also read a line from one of the Miyah poems- the language of earth is the same everywhere. He then asked the readers to focus on the fact that the Assamese youths are talking about their lands and culture through their poetry.
Later, while speaking to India Tomorrow about why he showed solidarity with Miyah poetry, Vajpeyi said, “What I like about Miyan poetry is that it is power-packed and strong in its protest. When Miyan expressed their plight through poetry, according to me they re-established that India is a democracy. When people of a minority group take to writing poetry to say their minds it is a step towards democracy. And when a government acts against its own people for expressing themselves through even poetry then that action, according to me, puts our democracy in peril.”
Delhi University’s Prof. Apoorvanand said, “There was a time when Miyan was a respectable term for a person for eg. Miyan Tansen, Miyan Ghalib. Now it has been made into a derogatory term for Muslims. Dalits were the first ones to say that the term which is being used to disrespect we will own the term. This is how resistance begins. In the same way, Assamese Bengali-origin Muslims are now asserting that that they have proudly accepted the term ‘Miyan’.
“Litterateurs have the freedom to develop a new language and way of expression apart from the already spoken language,” he said while referring to some objections from liberals as to why a new expression is being used in poetry (Bengali language) instead of Assamese. “So instead of showing solidarity with the poets, they are targeting and vilifying them for asserting their identity. In all, FIR was lodged against 10 people. One has got anticipatory bail. This is done deliberately with the intention of keeping them involved in various charges so that their lives could be damaged.”
The 10 people named in the FIR are Hafiz Ahmed, Rehana Sultana, Abdur Rahim, Asharful Hussain, Abdul Kalam Azad, Karishma Hazarika, Kazi Sharowar Hussain, Kazi Neel, Banamallika Choudhury and Farhad Bhuyan.
Two of the poets named in the FIR are reportedly under the scanner of intelligence agencies for their “doubtful international link” according to a senior intelligence officer. The police have also contacted various social media websites to verify the authenticity of the controversial poem.
Assam NRC
Under the watch of the Supreme Court, Assam is preparing its National Register of Citizens. On July 30, 2018, second and final draft of NRC was released excluding over 40 lakh out of the 3.29 crore applicants. On June 26 this year, a little over one lakh more people were excluded from the NRC draft list – they were those included in the July 30, 2018 list. The final list of NRC is going to be released by July 31, 2019. Meanwhile, both the central and Assam governments have urged the top court to extend the deadline seeking sample verification of those included in the NRC list of July 30, 2018.
The ruling BJP has been advocating NRC update in the entire country in order to identify and deport all illegal immigrants from the country. In the Rajya Sabha on Wednesday, Union Home Minister Amit Shah said made a remark that all infiltrators will be identified and deported from every inch of the Indian soil. Commenting on Shah’s statement, Harsh Mander said, “I can’t think of more callous attitude. The democracy will be destroyed if that happens and we know that it will be targeted at one community only as other communities have been covered in the clauses of NRC. Despite the current floods, people are clinging to their houses and refusing to being rescued as their homes are the only physical proofs, apart from their documents, that they belong there.”
