Book Review
Title: Why do you fear my
way so much?
Author: G N Saibaba
Publisher: Speaking Tiger,
New Delhi, 2022
Pages: 216
G N Saibaba breathed his last on 12 Oct 2024 at the
age of 57. It may be more correct to say that he was killed by the government
of his country just as Rev Stan Swamy and a lot many others were. Stan Swamy
was an octogenarian, suffering from severe Parkinson’s disease and other
ailments, when he was arrested under the draconian UAPA. He died in prison at
the age of 84 labelled by his government as a traitor.
G N Saibaba was a professor of
English in Delhi University when he was arrested in 2014 under UAPA for alleged
links with treasonous Maoist groups. Polio had rendered him absolutely
incapable of free movement right from childhood. The prison authorities
deprived him even of his wheelchair, making life incredibly brutal for him in
the Anda cell of Nagpur Central Prison. The egg-shaped cell (‘anda’ means egg
in India’s putative national language) is high-security confinement
meant for highly dangerous criminals. Saibaba, who is 90% disabled by
medical criteria, who could do very little on his own, was deemed a serious
threat to the government of India!
What did Saibaba do to merit such a
punishment? In his own words in a letter to his wife Vasantha, “We dreamed of a
better society, we hoped for an end to the inequalities, for human rights,
freedom, civil and democratic rights of the oppressed people, Dalits, Adivasis,
women, the disabled, the minorities. We continue to uphold these values and
work for the betterment of the marginalised sections of the people…” That was
the dangerous crime this 90%-disabled professor had committed.
This book under review here is a
collection of poems and letters written by Saibaba from jail. He sent the poems
to his wife and some of his friends. Most of the poems deal with the various
kinds of injustices and oppressions that the poor and the marginalised people
of India are made to suffer. There are political commentaries in some. A few
are autobiographical.
The title of the book, Why do
you fear my way so much? comes from the great classical poet Kabir.
Kabir finds a mention in many of the early poems of this collection. The poet
says that he is a messenger of love, like Kabir. Then why do the powerful
people fear his way so much?
Love has been declared a war, says
one of the poems. Those who love others are branded as traitors in the country
where hatred has become the most prominent political virtue. “The hall of songs
and dance / where we made vows of love / has been demolished / by the
worshippers of hate.” [‘Your Song of the City of Love’]
Even the monks in this new political
system are monsters wearing religious garbs. “When you famously declared /
shunning of all passions / you began to spread hatred / among the communities
of people / And finally, you grabbed / the seat of power / in the name of the
Almighty.” [‘Tell Me, O Monk’]
Certain malicious forces have
accumulated political power with the help of religion. “The monks howl and
prowl / shitting along the holy riverbanks / preaching cleansing of democracy.”
[Aphorisms of Our Age’] In this country governed by ‘shitting’ religious
leaders, data is more abundantly available than food. “The farts of a
democratic / dictator smell sweet.” [Ibid]
Music has died in such a country.
“The poets are poisoned / The historians are buried alive / The scientists are
coaxed / The philosophers are sent to the gallows.” [‘A Nightmare in My
Dystopian Prison Cell’] “Now, democracies breed fascism / Nazism, majoritarianism
/ They set in automation self-destructing human machines…” [‘When is the New
Year?’]
This anthology is a painful narrative
of how a government makes a section of its citizens helpless, shackle their
emotions, imprison their loves, fetter their thoughts, chain their words, and
steal their languages. The poems are written in very simple words without
taking recourse to elegant poetic devices. These are hard-hitting verses
written by a man who was confined to fetters by an unjust and inhuman system.
In March 2024, ten years after his
arrest, Saibaba was adjudged innocent by the court. It was too late, however.
His health had deteriorated incurably by then. His spine and left-hand muscles
had degenerated beyond curability. The government of India did that to him. In
love. Love for the nation. Love for culture.
G N Saibaba’s death was an “institutional
murder.” And you know which institution killed him. 
G N Saibaba
X
Hari OM
ReplyDeleteI was delighted to find that this book is available to me via Amazon; even reading the good lady wife's letter to her husband that forms the introduction to the book is heartrending... and it is miserable to think that now, with recent results, America may follow suit in such measures with the talk of mass deportations and shutting down on dissenters. This world... YAM xx