Miya Poets Are Not Asking People To Rise Against The NRC Process
Editor-in-Chief of indiacommentary.com. Current Affairs analyst and political commentator.
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By Sunil Garodia
About the Author
Editor-in-Chief of indiacommentary.com. Current Affairs analyst and political commentator.
View all posts by this Author
The
case registered against 10 poets for writing poems -traditionally known as Miya
poems in Assam -describing the pitiable condition of Bengali Muslims who despite
residing in the state for ages, are being hounded for being âforeignersâ (
during the NRC process ) is not correct. Miya poems have traditionally been the
voice of angst. They describe the hardships being faced by the people. Often, they
sound anti-establishment for the reason that most of the sufferings of the
people are due to administrative negligence and social apathy. Hence, if the
current poems are against the NRC it is only because the issue is affecting
their lives now, threatening their very existence. Almost all of the literary expression is
a reflection of what the poets see around them. If at present the poets see the
troubles being faced by the people as a result of the NRC, the fear in their
minds of being declared foreigners and sent to detention camps and their
drooped shoulders, they are going to write about that. As long as the poet is
not a habitual pamphleteer who arouses people against the state, his writing is
to be viewed through a broad prism and should not be censored or penalized.
The
poems are in no way a call to arms or an uprising against the state. They state
the misery of the people and the darkness before them. That is the truth. Every
nation has the right to identify, detain and deport infiltrators. The NRC seeks
to identify infiltrators who slipped into India before, during and after the
liberation war in Bangladesh on the plea of fleeing from an oppressive regime
and then stayed on. India has the right to identify them and declare them
aliens. No nation can allow its limited resources to be shared by infiltrators
who also change the demography of the region and do not fit in with the local
population. Human rights issues come much later but the plain fact is that
these infiltrators were allowed to stay and residency documents were made for
them by successive regimes in the past only to develop them as a vote bank.
Having said this, these alleged infiltrators also have the right to express
anguish at their situation. There is no sedition involved in this. The
government must allow literary expression and release the poets.
