I am re posting an extract from my earlier blog concerning Hartals that I posted in 2010 . Shocking to say nothing much has changed in the last 2 years.
Hartal is a form of civil disobedience movement. The word has it's origin in Gujarathi which was imbibed by the great Mahatma as an effective tool of civil and mass disobedience movement and an effective protest.
BANDHS (REFER WIKIPEDIA)
Bandhs in hindi means closed. It is perhaps the most feared form of protest where in a political party call for protest and it is expected that the public will comply, in most cases forcibly complied.
The most affected are the states of West Bengal and Kerala which is ruled by the left parties which has seen the maximum number of hartals and bandhs. In Kerala, the Honorable High Court had banned bandhs. The political parties being ingenious re branded bandhs as hartals and this form continues unabated.
In a bandh or hartal, the most affected is the common man, the very person whom these parties claim to represent and whose interest they claim to protect. For eg, take Vijayan. He is engaged in the sale of vegetables by taking the same in push carts from house to house in a town in Kerala. He is the only bread winner for a family of which includes his aged mother, wife and three children. Now he gets his lively hood and income from the day to day sale. If he does not go to work for a day, his entire family goes hungry. Or Palani, an immigrant worker who is engaged in manual laborer engaged in daily wages. These countless unrecognized faces are the most affected by these forms of protests.
The parties get steady form of hands for their jobs from youths who come from under privileged families. For them these parties becomes their support group and they are brain washed early on in impressionable age. They are the main force through the diktat of political parties are enforced
After Independence, we have come a long way. During hartal or a bandh, the main form of protest is to attack a government institution or a government property. What we ought to realize is that these are public properties and if one is destroyed, we the common man are the losers.
It is time we changed our outlook towards these protest methods. What ought to be recognized is that people close shops and establishments not because they concur with these parties but because they fear for the reprisals. An effective method to counter such hooliganism ought to be devised after effective consultation with all the forces involved and a consensus arrived at. it is time there was a change and let this be the time for a new beginning. Otherwise time will never forgive us for our acts.
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