Back in 2022, addressing the Rotary International World Convention virtually, Prime minister Narendra Modi had said “India is the land of the Buddha and Mahatma Gandhi who showed in action what living for others is all about.”
He, went on to say “India is leading efforts for environmental protection. Sustainable development is the need of the hour. Inspired by our centuries old ethos of living in harmony with nature, the 1.4 billion Indians are making every possible effort to make earth cleaner and greener”.
Modi noted also how we live in an “interrelated and interconnected” world, yet, alas, the Delhi Police seems not to have listened to his address, certainly not to what has been cited from the report above.
Had they so listened, the arch Gandhian and Buddhist, Sonam Wangchuk of Ladakh may have fared better in the nation’s capital.
Trudging on foot all the way from the Himalayas to New Delhi, along with some 150 satyagrahis, with neither banners nor lathis in tow, peaceful as you can get, Wangchuk, a Ramon Magsaysay awardee whose work in the area of environmental protection and innovation has drawn global attention, had hoped to pay obeisance at the samadhi of Mahatma Gandhi at Rajghat.
Only to discover that Gandhians and Buddhists, after all, may not be so in favour with the powers-that-be.
And note the irony that the satyagrahis led by Wangchuk were carrying to the capital precisely anxieties about “environmental protection and sustainable development” and the need to live “in harmony with nature” in relation to that most fragile and sensitive of regions called Ladakh.
It has been their grave concern that rapacious “wealth creators” have been eyeing the region for industrial exploitation – a course of action guaranteed to destroy the entirety of the Himalayan ecosystem.
Ladakhis were promised that the territory would be listed in the 6th schedule of the Constitution so that they would have the autonomy to possess their land, water, and all other natural resources with constitutional guarantee, just as tribal areas of Assam, Tripura, Meghalaya (all BJP -ruled) have (see Bharatiya Janata Party Manifesto of 2019).
As we have seen happen so often over the past ten years, promises have not been made necessarily for being kept. The Gandhian and Buddhist Wangchuk next determined to follow our hallowed Gandhian practice further to sit on a fast at Jantar Mantar.
The authorities in Delhi thought this a highly dangerous act and prevented him from camping in that space where for years on end now peaceful protests are allowed, albeit gingerly.
So, Wangchuk removed himself to Ladakh Bhavan to begin his fast. At which many Gandhians began to visit the site and join Wangchuk’s satyagraha.
Only to be unceremoniously detained and removed by the police. The satyagrahis next chose a sequestered park to carry out their silent and peaceful protest. But the police again would have none of it.
The danger to law and order from the handful of Gandhian and Buddhist satyagrahis was thought lethal enough to impose Section 163 (i.e. section 144 of the earlier Criminal Code), prohibiting the gathering of four or more citizens at any one place in the area.
Wangchuk was heard to ask a very telling question of a police officer: “Am I in India or in China”?
Just to note in passing that in totalitarian China, there exist designated places where such peaceful protests may be held; clearly, the Tiananmen episode of 1989 has been a learning experience for them.
In conclusion, it doesn’t seem that Gandhians and Buddhists are after all doing so well in this “land of Gandhi and Buddha.”
In contrast, protestors carrying instruments of harm, blaring hate-filled slogans, insisting on passing through sensitive lanes and bylanes of cities, to carry out the immersion of idols seem to fare far better than the Gandhians and the Buddhists.
In such places, and on such potentially violent occasions, no Section 163 is thought necessary, nor, perish the thought, the preventive detention of those who openly mean to disturb the peace. But have not historians written so often that it is as perplexing to unravel the complexities of Bharat as it is to fathom the making of the universe.
The Rotarians surely have had better luck than the real Gandhians for now. Having spent my baby years in Kargil, Sonam Wangchuk can rest assured that I know exactly where he comes from.
Badri Raina taught at Delhi University.
