ఓ తెలంగాణ మిత్రమా..! మనది ఆఖరి పోరాటం కాదు..ఇది ఆగని పోరాటం

మన జీవనం
ఆగిపోతే పర్వతం
కరిగితే మంచు
ప్రవహిస్తే సెలయేరు 
పరిభ్రమిస్తే సుడిగాలి
సంక్షోభిస్తే విపత్తు 

నిన్నటి జ్ఞాపకాల కలలో లీనమైతే
రేపటి దిక్కుగా నీ ప్రస్థానం సాగదుగా 

అపజయాలెన్నో అడియాసలు రేపినా
నడిచే జీవితం అడుగైనా ఆగదుగా

పుట్టే పొద్దుకు కన్నులు స్వాగత పత్రాలని
చీకటి వెన్నెలలో కలలు కనటం మానుతామా

సృష్టి నాడిలో అనుక్షణం చావు చప్పుడున్నదని
తల్లి బిడ్డకి జన్మనివ్వటం ఆపుతుందా

పెను తుఫానుల అలలను తిప్పికోట్టినప్పుడే
నేల తల్లి తీరం స్థిరంగా నిలిచేది

గొంతు మూగ పోయిందని భావాలు మూతపడవు 
నరాల రెక్కలతో విహంగ విన్యాసం చేస్తాయి

నీ ప్రాణానికి కదలిక ఆగిపోయిందని
ఉదయించిన నీ ఆశాజ్యోతులు ఉరకలేయ్యటం ఆపుతాయా

ఆశల తెరల మధ్య నిరాశల పొరల మధ్య
సాగే సుఖదుఖాల తరంగాలే మన జీవన ప్రవాహం

ప్రస్థానంకి ఎప్పుడు ముందు చూపే,
జ్ఞాపకానికి మాత్రం వెనక
తల్లి కడుపులోకి మళ్ళీ పోలేంగా
కానీ ఆ పేగు బంధం ఈ పెగుతో పెనవేసుకుని పోతుంది
విశ్వ యవనికతో భూమి శృతి కలిపినట్లు....

ఈ జీవన ప్రస్థానంలో
ఒడిదొడుకులు సహజం
క్షణికావేశంలో
ప్రాణం విలువ మరువకు

"మిత్రమా మన పోరాటం 
ఆఖరి పోరాటం కాదు.. 
ఇది ఆగని పోరాటం.."

నాటి మేడారం సమ్మక్క సారక్క గద్దెల సాక్షిగా
నేటి గన్ పార్కు అమర వీరుల స్తూపం గుర్తుగా
"స్వయం పాలన, ఆత్మ గౌరవం" కోసం
తెలంగాణ ప్రజలు రాజీ లేని పోరాటం
800 ఏండ్ల నుండి చేస్తున్నారు

దానికి రాష్త్ర సాధన
ఒక ముగింపు కాదు
ఆరంభము కాదు,
ఒక మహా అధ్యాయం మాత్రమే !!

ఈ తెలంగాణ మహా ప్రస్థానంలో
ఇంకా ఎన్నో మహోధ్యయాలు
లిఖించాల్సి ఉందని మరువకు...!!

ఆత్మహత్యతో నువ్వు చరిత్రలో నిలువవు
మిగిలేది నీ కుటుంబానికి పుట్టెడంత దుఖం
నిన్ను కన్న అమ్మకు
ఈ తెలంగాణ తల్లికి
తీరని గర్భ శోఖం

నిజమైన ఉద్యమకారులు
అపజయంతో క్రుంగి పోరు
విజయాలతో పొంగి పోరు
కలబడి నిలబడి కొట్లాడిన వారే వీరులు
అలాంటి వారే చరిత్రలో మిగిలేది నిలిచేది

ఓ కొమురం భీం.. ఓ రాంజీ
ఓ జయ శంకర్.. ఓ కాళోజి
ఓ కోటన్న.. ఓ జార్జి రెడ్డి

వీర తెలంగాణ
పోరు తెలంగాణ
జై తెలంగాణ
జై జై తెలంగాణ

--
నిశాంత్ దొంగరి
(మేరీ క్యూరీ రీసెర్చు స్కాలర్)

George Reddy -- Unsung Hero of the Nation

George Reddy Amar Rahe !! It's pathetic that people know who played the role of Michael's character (Surya/ Ajay Devagan) in Manirathnam's Yuva movie, but very few know that it is inspired from his life story. George is the most unsung hero of the nation and many of us don't even heard his name. It's our responsibility to make sure that George does not remain unsung, if not unwept and unhonoured -- April 14th 2012 marks his 40th anniversary.

He is the inspiration for student revolutions across India, especially in Telangana and the founder of PDSU. It is almost forty years since we lost the hero of India, son of the Hyderabad soil and a true revolutionary. I salute George, who laid down his life in the movement to inspire the young India.

Some of his professors, peers, colleagues, and friends (some are now IAS, IPS etc.) were of the opinion that had he continued his researches in Theoretical Physics, he would surely have gone on to win a Nobel Prize. But he chose instead, another, truly arduous path, stemming from his convictions and sustained by something akin to ‘missionary zeal’.

Although graduated from IIT, I give much more respect for the Osmania University/OU (a holy place for me). It stems from the fact that, IITs might have produced the best technocrats among the world, while the OU has produced many statesmen, leaders and revolutionaries who influenced the Indian society for the past 60 years and it is still producing. One among them is George Reddy: in the mechanized world, students were simply becoming lured by materialistic opportunities, while George wanted to become a messenger for the future generations.

The context and the setting in the late sixties and the first half of the seventies were markedly distinct, and individual personalities played such a crucial role that their imprint on the history of the 'movement' can never be blotted out. George was one such personality. He was influenced, like many others, by the events and happenings of those times, from peasant resurgence in parts of the country, unrest in Telangana, and the unemployment problem, to the 1968 student revolt in France, the Vietnam War, and of course, Che the revolutionary.

In Satyajit Ray's film “Pratitbandi”, the protagonist - an educated unemployed youth - goes for an interview. The interviewers ask what he thinks is the significant event of the decade. He answers: 'The Vietnam War'. The interviewers ask if he is a Commie, and the protagonist gets up angrily and walks out. That is the true picture of those times. George grew up in this milieu, and become an extraordinary personality who made his own mark on the movement, and shaped its growth in those times.




-----------------------
"Death at age 25"
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On the evening of 14th April 1972, George died from multiple stab wounds (32) inflicted in broad daylight, near the OU Engg. College hostel, by a gang of armed students from an opposing faction, who had buttressed their forces with hired killers from the bootlegging underworld. Going there to assist a college student who was being intimidated, threatened, and roughed up, George was surrounded pounced upon, and furiously battered by the fully armed gang, and repeatedly stabbed by multiple persons. He died on the spot. Though he fought them off bravely, it would have been a miracle had he came out of there alive.

All this took place in full view of the police posse posted just outside the college hostel to prevent just such an incident. If one could pinpoint a weakness in George, ironically, it would be his utter contempt for danger. It appeared almost as if he had ‘transcended fear’. It is said that Fidel Castro, while describing Guevara as an intelligent, daring, and exemplary leader who "had great moral authority over his troops”, further remarked that Guevara took too many risks, even having a "tendency toward foolhardiness”.

This is particularly important to underscore, as in the years after his death, the Revolutionary movement in Andhra Pradesh welled up strongly and many organizations claimed his legacy. It was commonplace to see him being praised as a hero and martyr, in gatherings of rival organizations. Anyway, as a result, George Reddy was transformed into a powerful symbol of the democratic, progressive and radical student protest in the state, and a memorial debates, anniversaries and related gatherings in his remembrance continued to be held regularly. Many students, youth, activists and others, who went on to play key leadership roles, proudly acknowledge the influence George Reddy had on them.

"I will banish from the earth your narrow, bigoted creed
I will uproot the bane; destroy its source & seed
My hopes will surge ahead poised on honest pride
Brushing aside on the way the blight of communal spite"
[Josh Malihabadi]

Shutting the school doors on the Muslim child -- Hem Borker

That a news report in The Hindu titled “In Delhi's nursery classes, Muslim children are a rarity” (March 19, 2012), found mention in the Rajya Sabha the same day, leading to “heated arguments” and a “verbal duel” in the Upper House, is symptomatic of the polarisation of public discourse on the education of Muslims. Almost any discussion on the subject slides into binaries: religious vs secular, exclusion vs appeasement, rights vs politics, reality vs rhetoric, and conservatism vs systemic discrimination. 

A study 

In 2009-10, as part of the National CRY Fellowship Programme, I had conducted a series of interviews with 20 Muslim families residing in Zakir Nagar, New Delhi, on the question of what shaped their schooling choices for their children. Unanimously, the parents regarded modern mainstream education as the single most important factor which safeguarded their children's future and clearly articulated a preference for sending their children to reputed private schools. However their narratives echoed the contesting dilemmas many faced on account of “being Muslim”; dilemmas which illustrate the manner in which the increasing communalisation of social space subtly limits choices or renders them non-existent in something as fundamental as education.

“We want schools that do not discriminate against our children.” 

This statement highlights the increasing sense of helplessness and exasperation parents feel at the difficulty their children face in gaining admission to private schools. Many talked about their “feeling” that private schools have some sort of a “prefixed quota of just this much and no more Muslims”; some parents cited how the neighbourhood points seemed to have marginal weightage in the case of private schools nearby, while others talked about having to use “jugaad” to get their children admitted saying that this was not an option available to the ordinary Muslim.

Respecting minority sentiments

Many talked about consciously opting for Christian schools rather than the Hinduised regular public schools, as, at some level, Christian schools are “good” and respect minority sentiments. They also explained the choice in terms of pragmatism as Christian schools are generally convents, have a better command over the English language, and have a strong emphasis on discipline.

Parents shared experiences of their children being “unnecessarily picked on, classified in front of their peers and harassed by teachers.” In many of the interviews, parents repeatedly made references to derogatory comments made by teachers on the eating and dressing habits (headscarf or extra-long skirts) of Muslim children. This was corroborated by the children when I asked them about things they did not like about school. Many of them talked about how they did not like being singled out (on account of their religion), examples being a teacher adding “Miyan” to the child's name while taking attendance (“I don't know why my teacher keeps adding ‘Miyan' to my name ... everyone has started saying that”) or the cricket coach's insinuating reprimands (“Isko bouncer mat dena, sar tod dega ... ye sab garam mizaz ke hote hain”) or as a 10-year-old girl said, “Nobody in school wants to play hide-and-seek with me. Everyone says Muslims cannot be trusted with secrets.”

 

Parents described themselves as being very “conscious,” “mindful” and “careful” about the choices they were making vis-à-vis their children's education — what the school environment was like, where to send their children to play or for dini talim. The choices available often lay at two ends of the spectrum — “excessively religious” people in the neighbourhood who kept on preaching Islamiyat or the excessively modern who tried to act like “everyone else.”

For many parents the biggest worry was how to straddle these two extremes. Their responses constantly brought up the dichotomy of the “Good Muslim” and the “Bad Muslim” and the difficulty they faced in ensuring that their children are brought up in “Muslim ways” without falling into the “conservative trap.” In fact this concern was shared at various points in the interviews. Parents would juxtapose their own education back home (generally where they were a part of larger families in a more “Muslim milieu”) with that of their children's education (in a nuclear set up in Delhi, where, as parents, they consciously tried to familiarise their children with the culture). Many parents mentioned how in their families, “family values” included orienting their children towards religion and conformity with a certain moral discipline. These situations often put the parents in an awkward position limiting their options to Muslim managed schools which respected their culture but did not provide the secular grounding required for the children not to feel alienated in the future. 

Educating the girl

Many parents expressed the difficulties they faced in choosing appropriate schools for their girls. For parents, many of whom aspired to remain true to their native roots located in rural or semi-urban Bihar and Uttar Pradesh, it was difficult to locate schools which ensured that their girls could avail the benefits of a modern secular education that provided some degree of certainty of access to respectable marriages and, if need be, appropriate employment but did not corrupt them into western ways; an institution which was not co-educational , had a modest dress code and was located nearby to ensure that the parents could reach them quickly in case of a “threatening” (danga-fasad) eventuality. I noted that in the case of girls, unlike boys, in the event of an absence of a combination of these criteria the parents generally made compromises on the quality of schooling and sent the girls to nearby (often unrecognised) schools within Jamia Nagar which promised girls education (not co-education), held classes in Urdu and sometimes imparting dini talim, and had the salwar kameez as the uniform. But the drawback was that these schools were not necessarily recognised by boards such as the CBSE/ICSE or had classes up till class 12.

While these daily struggles are in no way representative of the Muslim experience of education, they do highlight the vicious nature of the problem. On one side the policy discourse refers to educational backwardness as one of the main causes for real and/or perceived alienation of Muslims and acknowledges inclusive education as a panacea; on the other, these real life situations demonstrate the everyday issues Muslims face in accessing these very opportunities, leading to further isolation, exclusion and excessive reliance on “Muslim managed services and networks.” 

(Hem Borker is pursuing her D.Phil in Education at the University of Oxford. Email: hemborker@gmail.com) 

Courtesy: www.thehindu.com