[Reader-list] (no subject)

[avinash kumar]

Somebody asked for a first hand report of the London march. Here you are. The march took place in a curious situation out here with the major political parties, both Labour and conservatives strongly in support of war. Only the Liberal democrats, who are a minor force anyway, came out openly against it with their leader Charles Kennedy speaking to the gathering alongwith Jesse Jackson and others. The situation is curious because it is by now clear that an overwhelming majority of Britons (according to one estimate 89%) is against the attack for various reasons, more ably demonstrated through the march and this has led to serious repercussions both within the Labour (on the verge of a public split) and the conservatives.
Anyway, the ground for march was set many days earlier by the media, print, radio, t.v., debating the issue round the clock, further precipitated by a missile attack scare at the Heathrow (also leading to speculations that it was another of the pressure tactics used by the Blair govt.). Daily Mirror, strongly supporting the cause against the war on Iraq, came out with a cover showing Bush jr. and Saddam in a smooching posture with the caption ‘Make Love, Not War’, a prominent poster displayed throughout the march.
At SOAS, School of Oriental and African Studies, Centre for South Asia had organised a film-screening on the nuclear proliferation between Pakistan and India and a follow-up discussion on the eve. Made by a Professor of Physics, Parvez Hoodbhoy, it was cogently argued, engagingly made and executed and could perhaps give a lesson or two to some of our ‘professional’ documentary filmmakers. He was himself present for the discussions along with Amartya Sen, Prafulla Bidwai, Khalid Naqvi and John Snow, the BBC Channel Four presenter. The gathering was huge and follow-up discussions went quite till late in the evening.
Many of the participants in the march camped at SOAS itself in the night to catch the procession early even though the stipulated time was 12:00 noon. Since it was one of the two points in central London (the other being the Embankment at Thames) where people converged before marching towards Hyde Park via Piccadilly, it was convenient for them.
We joined the march late, around 1:00, and could only reach the destination after 4:00, even though the distance was barely 3-4 kilometres. The march did look immense, reported by the organisers over 2 million, reported by the London Police around three quarters of a million, reported by ‘Independent’(s?) over a million. Take your pick; they are not really different from us Indians in so far as making varying and conflicting claims is concerned. 
It was like witnessing a large mass of people out picknicking (many of them in fact did use the occasion with their families and friends) or a carnival march with bands, songs (both from the portable music systems as well directly coming from the throats of the people), loudspeakers, different kinds of attires (some of them scary, forecasting our future in the grave!), masks, thousands of children holding anti-war placards pushed in their prams by their vigilant parents, old women and men in wheel chairs pushed by their dutiful sons and daughters or maybe sons, daughters in law, students with their faces painted with slogans and ever ready to pose if you wanted a snap; policemen standing very ‘respectfully’ in their luminous covers (along with several volunteers stationed at different points in fluorescent jackets) to help you out if you lost your way though there was hardly a chance (you couldn’t do it even if you wanted to!); shops surprisingly open along the streets (though some of them gingerly) including Marks and Spencer but people preferred superstores like Sainsbury’s, particularly those who had forgotten to get their food from home.
It was a march with all sorts of placards (a more ambitious one requesting ‘F*** the World’ while the sober ones asking you to ‘Bomb Bush and Blair’ and not Iraq!) and pamphlets distributed (some of them telling you to know more about the murky deals between the arms industry and the Labour or how radical Islamic critique of capitalism could only save the world!). People would often get carried away at the ‘prospect’ of a huge audience and not waiting for their ‘free Sunday speech at the Hyde Park corner’ they decided to jump on whatever was available in the name of ’high pedestal’ to shout sermons, speeches at the passing crowd. It was a march where radical Islamic groups professing the cause for Palestine were followed closely on the heels by the sex-workers of a certain locality (I forget which), followed gingerly a step behind by the Communist Party of Britain. Is it a change of order one was witnessing? It was a march where very old women and men could be seen holding their placards in one hand and their walking sticks in the other. We could be back only around nine in the evening.
Having come from India only a month ago and being a part of this march set me thinking. When was the last time a truly representative civil society had come out in the streets of India? Emergency 1975 or Quit India 1942? I wouldn’t remember the former, being too young and know of the latter only through history books. We come from a country not immune to rallies and marches. I remember having come across the mother of all ‘Garib Railla’ organised by Laloo Yadav a few years ago. But apart from a mass of people literally herded by their local, regional musclemen leaders, have we really witnessed a ‘truly democratic representation’ of late in such marches? I am not asking English speaking middle classes to come out en masse on the streets (they are too busy sitting in their comfort, ready to bark at you the moment you pass in front of their cars with a placard in hand), but is it asking for too much to see families, friends, social groups coming out as political units? Or is it possible only when we have to participate in pogroms like Gujarat?