New Era of Jingoism: Wheelchair-Bound Activist Bears the Brunt

Poet, writer, and disability activist,Salil Chaturvedi, who is wheelchair-bound since 1984 due to a spinal injury, was beaten up and abused by a “nation loving” couple. The incident took place on 19th October at a multiplex in Goa. The national anthem was playing in the theater and everyone stood up besides Mr. Chaturvedi because he is paralyzed from waist down. A couple, in the row behind him, witnessing this smacked him, their way of asking him to stand up apparently.The couple didn’t know that he was a differently able person, and when they found out they were apologetic and left the theater. Ever since, few state governments made it mandatory to play the national anthem before the screening of films at theaters, similar incidents of violence have been recorded. The real issue here is not that a wheelchair bound person was unknowingly asked to stand up while the national anthem was being played; the issue is that why a person was being asked to stand up at all as this isn’t a constitutional obligation.

Article 51 A(a) states that It shall be the duty of every citizen of India to abide by the Constitution and respect its ideals and institutions, the national Flag and the National Anthem. Nowhere has it been written that standing up shall be the proper and the only way to pay respect. To stand while the national anthem is playing or being sung does not necessarily mean that the person is being respectful, neither does it mean that they are not. ‘Respect’ need not stand on two feet.

The incident was condemned by various people, activists, and writers. Indian Writers Forum’s GithaHariharan said, “The first time I met SalilChaturvedi, he told me about he was collecting stories by various writers on trees. That's the sort of person he is -- a sensitive poet and photographer who responds to nature and the ways in which we relate to it. It's ironic that he has overcome his disability with courage and intelligence so that you barely notice it. It's the people who reduce citizenship to flag or religion or violence who are really disabled”.

Respecting our national symbols, in an appropriate manner, has been a topic of discussion for a while. How one showsrespect toward something or someone is in itself a complicated subject. When this complex issue is thrown into the mix with pseudo-nationalism and jingoism, the end product is volatile and lethal. What we are experiencing today in our country is that this lethal combination is being distributed at every nook and corner among the common people through glorification of a certain kind of nationalism and labeling everything besides the said nationalism as anti-national. This is precisely the ideology that generates enough anger in a person that even an act of violence does not seem inappropriate.

In schools I, like all other students, was taught to stand in straight queues while we sang the anthem every morning. The fear of being disrespectful, even by mistake, was so severe that many students try to control their breathing so it would not be counted as a sudden and inappropriate movement. This is, by no means, patriotism. This is an authoritative act to keep one’s ducks in line, literally. We are citizens of this nation; we are obligated to abide by the constitution of this country. We need not reaffirm our love for our country on a daily basis by mundane activities such as singing or listening to the national anthem every time we go to watch a movie.