Sabah Maharaj, Snehashish Das on Sharjeel Imam: Cultivating Morality In A Broken Democracy
Sharjeel Imam, speaking from the grim trench-lines of the anti-CAA protests, was widely seen to have crossed a line in the sand. But what line? The only answers forthcoming were in the shape of the UAPA and sedition laws. The incident proved to be a pivotal moment for India for two contrary reasons. It was the first in a series of hard actions by the state that inaugurated a story of persecution of anti-CAA protesters, but it was also the one incident that proved the most vexatious outside that realm, the one speech act most difficult to get support for. People from various shades across the ideological spectrum swiftly condemned him and disassociated themselves from him. The left-led student union of Sharjeel Imam’s own university, JNU, itself condemned his words in the initial statement they released.
There onwards, it became a settled routine. Activists with
social and political capital continued to maintain a careful distance from
those marked out as ‘radical elements’, generally understood to be Muslims
speaking from beyond the pale of a consensus in civil society. By emphasising
their common membership in that consensus along with those adhering to the
ruling ideology, the activist world was seeking to not incite the state’s
wrath. However, very soon we learned that such ideological insurance policies
did not hold much merit for the state. As long as you were part of a group
demanding equality and justice for India’s Muslim citizens, your criminality
was to be registered.
But that was later. As the episode rolled, many outright
avoided speaking against the draconian targeting of Sharjeel, many offered
watered-down testimonies of support, condemning his words and dissociating from
him at once. Thus, we failed Sharjeel last winter, and by this winter we had
paid its price. All those who furthered Sharjeel’s criminalisation and public
trial by distorting his speech are now themselves living in the fear of
criminalisation, all those who were silent have no way out except speaking up
now, all those who dissociated from him are in need of association - to be
backed, defended and saved when their turn comes. A solidarity in many ways refused
to Muslims - Sharjeel being emblematic of that denial….
https://www.outlookindia.com/website/story/opinion-cultivating-morality-in-a-broken-democracy/376417
The Universal Declaration of
Human Rights (1948)
