You may write me down in historyWith your bitter, twisted lies,
You may trod me in the very dirt
But still, like dust,
I’ll rise…
Out of the huts of history’s shame
I rise
Up from a past that’s rooted in pain
I rise
I’m a black ocean, leaping and wide,
Welling and swelling I bear in the tide…
Wrote indomitable precious Maya
Angelou in ‘Still I Rise’. These lines were painted over Rudyard Kipling’s poem
by conscientious youngsters in one of the UK university. They argue that “Kipling
stands for the opposite of liberation, empowerment and human rights –the things
that we students stand for”. They add this act as “a statement on the reclamation
of history by those who have been oppressed by the likes of Kipling for so many
centuries, and continue to be to this day”. This is what right kind of
education and awareness does to young. They consolidate values that stand for
what is right, unblemished by cynicism and manipulation of the outside world.
Insular, unaware, cynical neoliberal goal oriented youth is death of humanity. Maya
Angelou was one of the most significant voices of protest and memory of
oppression. I am deeply moved by her writing. I feel she wasn’t adequately
recognized by the world outside US despite the fact that she remains immensely
popular in articulating voices of subjugated masses and protesting people
across the world. Unlike Kipling, who chose to be the voice of colonial power
and exploitation, authenticated racism ‘white man’s burden’ -the extractive system (surely it cannot be inclusive), adequately rewarded him (he is also the
youngest Nobel laureate in Literature! Incidentally prodigious Chekov was very much
alive. No writer has taken me in as much as Chekov). He was born in India (so
was one of the greatest writer George Orwell -who’s significance surges each
day) at Malabar hills -not to be mistaken for Malabar region in Kerala -that
would make Kipling a Keralite (!!), the name traces from spice traders who
settled from malabar (Malabar hill in Mumbai -one of the costliest locations in
India even has Cochin street, Calicut street so on). Kipling was very much
influenced by India, clearly as an extractive abstraction since his writing had
many racist references eulogizing british colonial empire, and to justify it in the context of times he lived in estimates him as of low intelligence and exonerate
his lack of basic humanity least from an immensely talented writer.
So, I was reading britishery of
british media. Jingo imperialism marches on lacking basic humanity or universal
concern, insular in entitlement, continuing arrogance of
theatre of medieval absurdity wriggling into modernity. It so happened that
british ‘royals’ are visiting (touring is the word used) Australia, and
continuing with the anachronistic colonial entitlements they also are head of
state. Incidentally British monarchy is head of state of 15 countries, and if you go through
the list, except Australia, Canada and New Zealand, all the remaining 12
countries are insignificantly small or too poverty ridden and weak to
assert itself. So what is it about Australia, Canada and New Zealand? Well, these
are white dominated countries, the same white people who were part of colonial
britishers who decided to settle in the land after appropriating resources and decimating original inhabitant into
insignificance. They did it in USA too but white americans were enterprisingly
independent and self-respecting to seek degrading monarchy. They revolted, and
so began one of the most resourceful experimentations with idea of democracy,
after French revolution, that catalyzed humanity in significant ways.
To put it in context, imagine if colonizing britishers decimated most of Indians and left us insignificantly less in
number and weak, and so the powerful white people with exploitative control and
brutal majority decides to continue to have british monarchy as our head
of state in India. Imagine that! And now imagine that the same horror perpetrating
system (ofcourse nurtured on the foundation of racist exceptionalism) is maintained with same pomp and gala (as
if nothing has happened in last few centuries, some kind of bad dream that could be wished away with sway of narration control!) and we are asked to receive the hereditary
entitled as head of state on occasional tour. This is what has happened to aboriginal
people (semblance of pride through first nation people), indigenous, natives as
also sane people who reject these feudal anachronistic theatrics in Australia,
Canada and NewZealand. There is a reason why likes of VS Naipaul -a brilliant
writer, someone whom I read with great relish and significantly impacted my
ideas of writing, chose not to eviscerate monarchy, which he could have easily.
Associating and aligning with powerful narration controllers comes with
benefits. He cleverly chose to work feudal as stabilizing force, a precursor to
consolidating culture and science so on into systems, and if truly competent, appropriating the best from across the world for critical inquiry -as science got consolidated
in Britain in an inquisitive inclusive value system of logic and critical
thinking ofcourse within the framework of racist and gender discrimination. That
doesn’t explain continuation of these extractive systems and degrading values
in contemporary world. Silence on these matters is how you trace the control of
powerful narrations.
And so it continues. Linda Thorpe, an
indigenous leader, protested at the presence of british monarch in
Australia’s parliament. If you know the heartbreaking horror of british history
(headed by the monarch) in the region you will empathize with her. But instead,
what you see is classic example of britishery. It needs to be recorded to
consolidate the idea of britishery (the way they consolidated thuggery, pariah
so on with brute force into language). It is quite a sophisticated sophistry,
there are two strains of narration going on here, one is how they describe
Linda Thorpe -crude unsophisticated ‘new-caught sullen peoples, half devil and
half child’, and second is the ‘royals’ -nuanced, ‘nostalgia’(of what?), indeed
almost ephemeral apparition in ‘warm bubble’ of kindness unblemished by humanly
concerns.
Take a look at this pic of news ‘reporting’. They couldn’t get photographs
of Ms. Thorpe in snarling sinister angle -that creates revulsions among readers,
these are usual tricks neoliberal media use to construct narration in the garb
of news. So while ‘royals’ ‘entered’ Thorpe had ‘positioned’, her ‘outburst’ it
is assumed ‘created sympathy for the royals’ as she was ‘not being polite to
the guests’ (the attempt to ‘decency’ implicit in wording of ‘guest’ must be
noted, factually ‘royal’ here is not a ‘guest’ but ‘head of state’ hence head
of the parliament). There was a comment on her sartorial choice as also sarcasm
over “indigenous sovereignty’, general jokes and banter to keep the ‘royals’
amused by parliamentarians presenting as agreeable plebs, one said ‘People have
had haircuts, people have shined shoes, suits have been pressed. And that’s
just the republican’. They all laughed, kind of quaint sea sparkling gallant of
saved civilization.
In recent times there are documented incidents of racism by british ‘royals’ -put this in context to life of most people in 21st
century who live in much evolved value system, as also elderly people in all possible luxury carrying such mindset, it
is not accidental, they 'don't drop from the sky'. These are crucial bearings of feudal values that nurture
extractive primitive institutions and devalues humans. They will favour the
powerful or contrive narration of benefits. Mr. Charles even supports fatwa by mullahs of
Iran on Rushdie (as quoted by Martin Amis). Now juxtapose this with 'disrespectful' Ms. Thorpe. Such is the disconnect. It is
natural for primitive feudal institutions to align with oppressor over liberty
and freedom. They fancy stability and control over human rights as it threatens
their legitimacy. They authenticate and normalize feudal oppressive forces from across the world,
and yes also take expensive gifts from equally dubious -surely to influence narrations undermining
democratic institutions. Therefore, media can easily be ‘sexed up’ and
manipulated when needed. General degradation of Britain and absolute arrogance
of its leaders can be traced to these feudal systems. Regressive institutions
will create regressive ecosystem, is there a surprise?
To be fair I don’t use
past-history, to evaluate present. Present can be understood with insight of past,
the relevance stops there. There are no lessons since the present is not past,
it has no parallels unless ofcourse people are herds who have just replicated
through time. History repeats when people are herds. Vibrant living humans
evolve with contemporary knowledge and understanding, they become better. They
are not the same to repeat. History is primed to repeat if you maintain the feudal
system from past, a regressive infrastructure, like a virus, activates when
conditions are conducive. History, as an understanding and evolving involvement, is lost in morass of revivalism as it galvanizes primal fear and repeats
horrors of exceptionalism and supremacist ideas into modern institutions and
discourse incapacitated to factor the possibilities of present. The reason why
Britain continues to nurture feudal extractive systems that degrades democratic
institutions and nurture inegalitarian value system is because they are being
cushioned by luxury of colonial extravagance. Their patronizing is from the
position of plenty or atleast the arrogance of its memory of exceptionalism -feudal
hangover. The extractive feudal ecosystem will eventually set the rot in as it
is too compromised to deal with modern values. When reality strikes, they will
eventually realize the need to reform and dismantle restrictive institutions
with inclusive egalitarian reflecting essentials of democracy and
equality.
*full disclosure: Before I started reading too much and entered murky world of racism, colonialism so on I was quite naïve fellow and really liked 'If' by Kipling (it is quite a nice poem if you don't bring in the context of poet, views and so on) so much so that I got it framed and gifted it to one of the organisation I was part timing for. They put it at the reception. I also liked 'Jungle Book' -didn't read but saw the movie/cartoon serial.
