The
book that I’m reading now is An Orchestra of Minorities, the new novel
by the Nigerian writer Chigozie Obioma. The eponymous orchestra does not refer
to any musical composition; it refers to a lament. This orchestra is a collective
lament by a brood of chickens produced when they lose one of them to a hawk. When
the hawk carries away one of the chickens, the others produce the same sound
together, “like a burial song for the one that has gone.”
The
protagonist’s father calls that lament an orchestra of the minorities. The
chickens belong to the minority of birds that are “fragile” and “very unlike
the wild birds”.
These
days India is witnessing a lot of orchestras of minorities, protests against
the apparently ill-motivated Citizenship Act. The country’s extraordinarily powerful
leaders keep telling us that the Act is good for the country. But millions of
citizens refuse to trust them. Trust cannot be extracted through barrels of
guns.
A
few days back, on 23 Dec to be precise, a young man named Mohammed Raees died
In Uttar Pradesh. He had been shot in the stomach by the UP police three days
prior to his death. He was a street hawker who happened to be present at the
site of a protest against the controversial act.
“Did
he die because we are Muslims?” His father Mohammed Shareef asked Vikas Pandey of
BBC. “Are we not citizens of this country? I will keep asking this question
until I die.”
The
chief minister of the state who is a self-proclaimed yogi threatened to take “revenge”
on the protesters by confiscating their property to compensate for the losses
incurred by the state. There is no harm in making people pay for the damages
they cause. But is that revenge?
 |
| A 'Wanted' poster put up the Kanpur police The 'criminals' can be identified by their dress, as the PM said the other day. Source: BBC |
When
the government wants to take revenge on its people, orchestras will rise in the
air. Plaintive orchestras like those of the fragile chickens? Or assertive
orchestras of rightful citizens? Either way, It’s a bad situation. The New Year
doesn’t seem to hold bright promises.
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