Don't underestimate the power of dissent

It is not easy to raise your objection when no one seems to be bothered by that issue. It is not easy to question when it is only you who feels that whatever is happening is wrong, but everyone seems to be okay with it. It is not easy to fight against powerful institutions like traditions, culture, religion, society, and political parties alone. It is not easy to stand up against your family and friends. It is not easy to question our employer, especially, when our family depends on that job. It is not easy to speak up in a silent forum. It is not easy to resist a bully. I can add many more items to this "it is not easy" list, but I think you get my point, it is not easy to register your dissent when no one else is dissenting.

Dissent is not easy, it is scary and intimidating to go against the flow. It is hard to ignore that many chose not to speak and there must be some rationale behind it. However, if you are a sensitive person, it is hard to escape the guilt of not speaking up when you must have. It is impossible to look another way when you know whatever is happening is wrong. We only keep quiet if we underestimate the power of dissent. A single dissenting voice may not be enough to stop injustice at that moment, but it may be enough to catalyze something that may manifest into some movement in the near future. We should not underestimate the power of our dissent, even when we feel scared or intimidated. Things are not always smooth for people who choose not to ignore and speak up instead of keeping mum. Even if we gather all our courage and stand up, we may find ourselves without any support, or worse, surrounded by people who are not very receptive to our questions and objections, that is, we get attacked rather than being supported. These situations are not easy to handle. It sucks to be alone while taking on a powerful entity. Therefore, it is important to be convinced about our own stand and be sure about our own beliefs and strengths before testing them. We should test our beliefs regularly, read about them as much as possible, get to know all sides, verify, and get convinced that challenging the status quo is the right thing to do. Once we do our due diligence and conclude that we need to stand up, then what we do depends on our strength and courage. If we really believe in our values and principles, we don't worry if we are alone and no one supports us. Many changes and movements started because some courageous people decided to speak up. Remember, Galileo was alone when he challenged age-old beliefs, but he was sure about his ideas and knew that the prevailing beliefs were wrong. In the end, he was proved to be right, this is an example of the power of a single dissenting voice. Don't underestimate the power of dissent, we all can be Galileo in our own way, we just need that conviction and courage to speak up.

Change takes time. Often, it is a slow and painful process, some changes we desire may not be possible in our lifetime, but someone needs to initiate it, and that someone can be us. Voice of dissent is a powerful weapon to initiate change. When someone decided to speak up about voting rights for women the women's suffrage movement started the decades-long fight for women's right to vote in the United States. When someone decided to speak about segregated schools, the fight to outlaw school segregation began. There are countless examples of such courage and conviction where a dissenting voice catalyzed a movement that resulted in a mass movement to force the change that was once deemed impossible. Believe in yourself and your convictions. Believe in the power of your dissent, you might be at the cusp of starting a revolution.  

Thank you for reading and please share your views on this topic. 

© Vinay Thakur, All rights reserved, Vinay can be reached at thevinay2022@gmail.com   

The basic concept of "Liberty"

How do you explain the concept of liberty to anyone? Do we need to explain this term in today's world where we believe that humans have progressed so much that we all understand and respect individual rights? If we look around, I am sure we will find many occasions where the term liberty or freedom is used to curb human rights rather than to protect them. It is also true that many societies, like the USA, have shown tremendous progress towards creating an atmosphere where individual rights are respected considerably, but the basic concept of liberty is still very hard for many to get a complete grasp of. I agree that it is a difficult concept to grasp, it sounds very easy, but the real meaning of liberty is not that easy to fathom, especially if you are not exposed to the real benefits of it. I value individual freedom more than anything else and that is why the concept of liberty is so dear to me.

Liberty is a basic tenet of any progressive society. Human minds and efforts flourish when they have the freedom to think and express their thoughts. I got attracted to the concept of liberty when I realized the importance of having the ability to express my thoughts and live life on my own terms. The feeling of having individual freedom brought a radical change in my life and thinking, and I try my best to practice that within my own family. I sincerely believe that if we all create an environment of liberty within our homes, our society will automatically have individual liberty. The problem is, that most of us believe that our ideas, values, belief systems, religion, or political ideology are the best and others should also follow it, and if they don't follow then at least they should not criticize it. Without the freedom to criticize there can't be freedom to express. Criticism is one of the essential processes through which every idea and concept should go to prove its mantle. 

Actually, the basic concept of liberty is very simple. If you care and value your own individual rights, then you should equally care and value other's individual rights also. Unless other's rights are not protected, there is no guarantee that your rights will remain protected. I and my wife are poles apart as far as our religious and social views are concerned, but her freedom to practice the religion of her choice is equally important in our home as much as my freedom not to practice or even criticize any religion. If you can't imagine these things living side by side in harmony then you will find it very difficult to understand the concept of liberty. This concept has nothing to do with tolerance, that is another, separate virtue where we tolerate something even though we don't agree, and we don't need to encourage or protect those views that we tolerate. For liberty, you not only tolerate, but go one step further we protect the rights of people with whom either you don't agree or even strongly disagree. As a person who values liberty, I stand for not only my own rights but also others whose ideas and views might hurt my feelings, challenge my views, or offend me. Other's right to express their ideas is as absolute and important as mine, no more, no less.

I wish that in this growing atmosphere of political polarization and racial and religious divide, people understand the importance of protecting individual rights. I would like to end the post with a very famous quote by Voltaire which is shared widely, but hardly practiced in real life, "I disapprove of what you say but will defend to the death your right to say it." If we all understand the real meaning of these words and try to practice them in real life, this world will be a more beautiful place for each one of us.

Thanks for reading and please share your views on this topic.

[Copyright: Vinay Thakur. Please contact the author for re-posting or publishing]

The journey of Reena - from a shy village girl to an independent woman

Reena and I got married 18 years back and ours was an arranged marriage, full of all the uncertainties and concerns that any arranged marriage brings along with it. The journey was not an easy ride, we had our ups and downs and went through our own struggles to understand each other and adjust to each other. I learned a lot from her and I am sure she feels the same. I lived most of my life in a patriarchal society in India, where the status of women was not equal to men. I must also mention that in the USA situation is much better, but still, a lot of work is needed even in the USA so one can imagine the situation in India. I was raised in an environment of male superiority, but fortunately, it had the opposite effect on me. Patriarchy and rampant misogyny around me made me a feminist. I realized the importance of making a woman an equal partner in any relationship. I realized that in the modern world women are an equal stakeholder and they need to to treated like that.

Reena lived in a small village in Uttar Pradesh until her sixth grade and then she moved to Varanasi. Varanasi is one of the biggest cities of UP, but the situation of women is not that different compared to other parts of UP. Definitely, it is better than many villages, but the difference is not that much. So, when we got married, my first task was to make my wife independent of me. She came from a culture where the husband had the status of a demigod - the provider for her needs, the protector of her honor and dignity, and the controller of her life and destiny. I needed to break all these myths. This was not an easy task for me as well as for her. It was confusing for her and very complicated for me. There was no easy way for both of us to maneuver through the maze of cultural mess that arranged marriage and patriarchal culture brought into our lives. When I told her that she is an equal partner in our relationship, which means she has equal rights and has to share an equal responsibility. The second part was more confusing and complicated for her (about the responsibilities). I stressed both, rights and responsibilities because rights without responsibility is a useless endeavor. But I must say that she responded with a lot of courage and perseverance. She took on this challenge head-on after initial hesitation. Initially, she thought her responsibilities were limited to traditional household work which women were expected to perform, this was the way she was raised. But when she realized that her scope of duty involved many tasks that she never thought were women's jobs, she was a little hesitant. There was a struggle, and I witnessed that struggle. I refused to help on many occasions, but that was necessary for her to realize her own potential. She overcame many obstacles on her own, with no or very little help from anyone around her. I was just her companion, once she decided to take on this challenge, she did things on her own, and she deserves the credit for all her successes.

When we moved to the USA, it opened many more new doors for her. She was free from all the social and familial constraints that were present in India. This made her embark on an exciting and rewarding journey. Today, I live with a totally transformed person, she is a much more confident and independent person. We both support each other, and our relationship is more balanced now compared to what it was at the time of our marriage. She is a very confident person and an independent woman who doesn't need her husband's support for her survival, and I am glad to see that she can manage her life on her own. She is a pillar of strength and support for me along with the rest of my family and friends. We both complement each other as husband and wife rather than having a typical husband-dominated marital relationship. It is not easy to write about your partner or parents or for that matter any person in just one blog post, but I want my readers to get the idea that it doesn't matter who we are or from where we come, if we decide and get enough support we all can achieve many things which may look impossible.

Reena's journey so far is not only a success story in its own way but also a source of inspiration for me. She still has many more challenges and many more obstacles to cross, but now she can do these things on her own. There are many successful people around us, but we fail to notice them. Normally we only recognize success or failure based on media reports and very often ignore many inspiring stories of people around us. Many times, no one bothers to tell stories of common people like us. Many times, we fail to notice some inspirational struggle or success story happening right in front of our eyes. We ignore that just because these people don't become celebrities or they don't end up making millions of dollars. I am fortunate to notice and appreciate many such success stories around me. My family members, friends, and colleagues faced many challenges and fought hard to overcome them. For me, all these struggles and triumphs are very inspiring. All these stories along with many others provide me the required self-confidence and optimistic outlook towards life. Reena's journey is one such story. We all have someone around us who is making progress day by day and if we learn to recognize that struggle and draw inspiration from their struggle, life will be beautiful. My life is more beautiful because of Reena and I hope she feels the same.

Thanks for reading.

[Copyright: Vinay Thakur. Please contact the author for re-posting or publishing]

Kiss of love - protest against attack on individual freedom not against any culture

Recently protest movement against moral policing, "Kiss of Love" was in the news. This protest was given this name because people decided to kiss each other as a form of protest against moral policing. Interestingly, this protest started in the state of Kerala and rapidly spread to other parts of India. As expected many organizations associated with Hinduism and Islam opposed these protests calling them against Indian culture and a violation of the civic code of conduct. Moral policing is not a new phenomenon in any country, some fanatic, self-declared culture protectors try to impose moral or cultural values which they think are right. These organizations don't care whether it is legal or illegal to impose these things on other people against their will, they do it in the name of protecting ancient culture or traditions. Very often protests like Kiss of Love are blamed on the influence of Western culture, however, ironically India is the country that has produced works of Khajuraho and texts like Kamasutra. The extreme response of these organizations to these protests is not surprising to me but their violent reactions and justifications offered for such violent attacks are major concerns.

Actually, protests like Kiss of Love are not in any way an attack on any culture. These protests are not meant to insult anyone or hurt anyone but this is a way of protesting against unjust moral policing. This protest is a simple way of conveying the message that you can't force your values on others. If someone is breaking the law arrest them and punish them legally, torturing them or harassing them in public is not the solution or a way to protect any culture. Moral values differ from person to person, for some eating non-vegetarian food can be an immoral thing to do, but that doesn't mean they go and beat all people who choose to eat non-vegetarian food. They have the right to propagate the benefits of vegetarian food and the drawbacks of non-vegetarian food but they don't have any right to force their dietary choices on others. In the same way, someone might think females not wearing a burqa is an immoral thing, or drinking alcohol is a sin, or eating beef or pork is a sin, these people are entitled to have whatever beliefs they want but they have no right to force it on others. There is a machinery and system in every state and country to take care of things that are against the law and let them do their job. In a democracy, people even have the right to protest peacefully against any law if they feel it is an unjust law. Peaceful protests, debates, and discussions are signs of a healthy and inclusive society. Moral policing is not a sign of a progressive, tolerant, and open society rather it is a sign of a regressive, intolerant, and backward society. India claims itself to be a very tolerant and progressive country so people should be ashamed of such attacks on the personal liberty of people in their own country.

Indian culture or for that matter any culture is not so weak that it can be threatened by people kissing in public. It is the same culture that has produced Khajuraho temples and books like Kamasutra, so why such a violent stand against a mere protest? And if any culture has some bad elements or repressive traditions then what is wrong in changing those traditions? What is wrong in protesting against any regressive practices that are still practiced? Such protests should be welcomed rather than condemning them, and any attack on personal liberty should be opposed. I hope these types of protests are taken in the right spirit rather than considering them as an attack on any culture. Individual liberty is a very important aspect of any society. I hope individual liberty and fundamental rights are respected and protected, if not then as a society we should be ready to witness many more such protests. Let's see how many attempts are made to crush such protests and what is the ultimate result of such bold protests.

Thanks for reading and please share your views on this topic.

[Copyright: Vinay Thakur. Please contact the author for re-posting or publishing]