Reading and writing my grandfather’s story has been somewhat of a surreal experience for me, as many narratives that unfolded through his p...
Reading and writing my grandfather’s story has been somewhat of a surreal experience for me, as many narratives that unfolded through his pages were also playing out in front of me in real time. A plethora of issues – cow slaughter, religious conversions, linguistic autonomy, Hindi as a national language, minority appeasement and majority dominance; charges of sedition, public safety, treachery and defamation; allegations that the nation is in danger from its own proselytising or assertive minorities, or from “Macaulay’s Liberals”; sinister divide-and-rule policies of those in power – eerily resonated and flitted between the two time-frames.
On one occasion, as charges of sedition were slapped with indiscriminate alacrity for punishing dissent under Section 124A of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), I was reading about Jagat Narain Lal being charged under the same sedition law, the same section of the same penal code, a century ago.
In another instance, when the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) was being imposed on dissenting citizens with predatory zeal, I was reading about Jagat Babu being hauled up for unlawful activities.
In many other instances when puritanical notions of culture, and “bhartiya sanskriti”, of what is obscene and profane were playing out in real time (“offensive” depictions of...
