Minnesota moment we missed

Activists stage a protest against the Lakhimpur Kheri violence, near the residence of Home Minister Amit Shah. Pic/PTI

India missed harnessing its Minnesota moment to paper over social faultlines. That moment lasted for 10 minutes at Minneapolis in the state of Minnesota, United States of America on May 25, 2020. During those minutes, a white police officer knelt on the neck of George Floyd as he was handcuffed while forced to lie on his chest on the road. "I can't breathe," Floyd wailed before dying.

A video of Floyd's death shot by Darnella Frazier went viral. America was horrified. A powerful movement swept the country against racial inequality and police brutality. Whites were as much part of this movement as Blacks. America was united and rejuvenated.

On October 3, in Lakhimpur Kheri, Uttar Pradesh, a convoy of SUVs ploughed through farmers returning from a protest. A narrative, in contrast to that of farmers, was crafted: The convoy had come under heavy stoning by farmers; one of its drivers lost control and crushed four. The farmers, in fury, lynched three.

Ambiguities arising from contradictory narratives were ironed out as soon as a video surfaced. The Kheri moment was as stark as the Minnesota one - the convoy had deliberately mowed down the farmers who were walking with their backs to the direction from where the killing machines came thundering in. The guilty were Bharatiya Janata Party activists, allegedly led by Ashish Mishra, son of Ajay Mishra, the junior Union Home Minister.

This was the moment India should have risen against the barbarism of Ashish, no less revolting than the death of Floyd. This was the moment India should have demanded the arrest of Ashish (who was, six days later) and dismissal of his father from the Union Council of Ministers. This was the moment for us to forge camaraderie across the faultlines of class, caste, religions and urban-rural. This was the moment we should have emoted as human beings to the horror we witnessed on our smartphones and TV sets.

India remained quiescent until Chief Justice of India NV Ramana chose to act upon letters of two lawyers on Lakhimpur Kheri. We know why India has failed to react to Lakhimpur Kheri: The Mishras are wealthy Brahmins, the powerful caste which, with exceptions, will not spearhead protests against one of their own. And to think, they were so upset with the police for gunning down Vikas Dubey, a Brahmin gangster.

We know the urban middle class, dominated by the upper castes, will dismiss Lakhimpur Kheri as typical of the badlands of rural India. Since Sikhs constitute the vanguard of the peasant movement, the slaughter of farmers cannot hurt Hindu pride. Only disputed places of worship and meat of pigs and cows outrage us, not dead bodies with marks of tyres on them.

Contrast India's attitude to America's response to the killing of Floyd. After analysing the survey results of four polling agencies, The New York Times ran, in July 2020, a story - Black Lives Matter May Be the Largest Movement in the US. These four agencies estimated that anywhere between 15 million and 26 million people participated in demonstrations over the killing of Floyd.

The surveys were based on self-reporting. The NYT noted, "While it's possible that more people said they protested than actually did, even if only half told the truth, the surveys suggest more than seven million people participated in recent demonstrations." This number, political scientists agreed, made it the biggest protest movement America had ever witnessed.

The surveys showed 40 per cent of all counties in the US had a protest. Of these, nearly 95 per cent had a white majority and nearly three-quarters were more than 75 per cent white. The largest share of protesters earned an annual income of more than $150,000, which meant they were middle or upper class. Americans transcended class, race and geography because, as Professor Daniel Gillion, who has written books on protests, told NYT, "If you aren't moved by the George Floyd video, you have nothing in you."

We Indians either have "nothing in us" or our anguish is selective. Barring civil society groups, the lynching of Muslims has only seen their community protest. Dalits were predominant participants in the Bharat Bandh organised in 2018 against the Supreme Court's dilution of the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act. Citizens have yet to express collective outrage against academicians and activists entangled in the 2018 Bhima-Koregaon violence and the 2020 Delhi riot cases.

We have become a nothing-in-us nation because of the hypocrisy of the Hindu middle class, which dominates the media. This class reacts only when its interests and living spaces are threatened. It was enraged at the 2012 gang rape of the Delhi-based physiotherapist because she was waylaid in circumstances every middle class woman negotiates daily. The India Against Corruption movement was spawned in TV newsrooms, triggering the self-righteous anger of the middle class before it enveloped all sections. Protests often flounder because of the apathy of the middle class.

Our nothing-in-us nation proves wrong Prime Minister Narendra Modi's claim that India is the "mother of all democracies". His retention of Ajay Mishra in the Council of Ministers proves we are indeed a nothing-in-us nation.

The writer is a senior journalist. Send your feedback to mailbag@mid-day.com
The views expressed in this column are the individual's and don't represent those of the paper.