A Dose of History by the Hospital Bed: A Dream

By Ratnakar Tripathy

14th July 14, 2006! TV news tells me that the Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is in Mumbai visiting the victims of the recent commuter train blasts and will spend time at their bedside in a hospital in Mumbai. After eating a modest pizza meal I dozed off over my beanbag for no more than three minutes and saw a dream that seemed to last over forty five minutes, standard length for a high school period.
Manmohan Singh approached the wounded commuter and said ‘I am sorry, my fault’!
Commuter – why are YOU sorry? I was a victim of terrorism.
MS – that’s true. But we are the ones who created the terrorists.
Commuter – that can’t be true. You are trying to kill them or at least calm them down.
MS – we are trying to kill them now. But we created them through much hard work in the last 60 years.
Commuter – last sixty years? I thought you were busy studying and teaching and then advising the government. I know your life story.
MS – you don’t get the point. I didn’t create them personally. My forbears did.
Commuter – how?
MS – Let us say our nation builders wanted to make sure that Kashmir remained with them even though they did not know if Kashmiris wanted them.
Commuter – yes, because Kashmir would have gone to Pakistan. Anyway, what did the Kashmiris want?
MS – that is where the problem started. We knew we wanted Kashmir. Pakistan knew it wanted Kashmir just as badly. But Kashmir did not know what it wanted. May be it wanted to be on its own.
Commuter – then why didn’t we let them be? Why didn’t we hold a plebiscite?
MS – because we were sure they wanted to be with us.
Commuter – in which case the plebiscite was a good idea anyway.
MS – you see our great leader Nehru was a displaced Kashmiri. And you know how displaced people feel about their motherland. I hear you are a Gujrati diamond merchant. You know how the NRI [US, Canada, UK based Indians] Gujratis feel about India?
Commuter – yes, they are more Indian than us is how they feel.
MS – then there was the little question of precedent. What if all other parts of India decide to say goodbye to the main country?
Commuter – did they?
MS – they might have.
Commuter – did they?
MS – they might have. And then we had all this poetry about the beauty of Kashmir…and it made it difficult to believe that the paradise of Kashmir, the greatest summer getaway could go to any one else.
Commuter - you mean Kashmir belongs more to the rest of India than the Kashmiris themselves.
MS – yes, remember all those Shammi Kapur songs. They bonded us inseparably to the valley.
Commuter – you must be joking!
MS – No I just underlined the sentiment that hangs like a mist over the valley.
Commuter – But if I don’t want to live with you how will live with me?
MS – if I REALLY want to live with you I will make sure you live with me.
Commuter – is this your view of nationhood or marriage?
MS – Nationhood! You see people occupying the land tend to develop proprietary feelings and can often come in the way of great ideas. Just like your dam oustees in Gujarat!
Commuter – isn’t that very human?
MS – it may be human but it’s not political. A state has to be strong.
Commuter – I thought terrorism is weakening us.
MS – that’s an illusion. You remember the story from Mahabharata when Bhima came face to face with a demon that grew bigger and bigger as he got angrier?
Commuter – yes.
MS – similarly the Indian state grows bigger after every terrorist attack. You remember we were a soft state at some point. We formed our muscles through external and internal wars. Pakistan’s hate inflates us in stature and strength.
Commuter – so the state grows stronger when there is more bloodshed and crime?
MS – isn’t that obvious? If there was no crime, the state would wither.
Commuter – I am developing respect for all those underworld guys who harass me on the phone. If you believe all this, why do you apologize?
MS – you sound like an ingrate. I apologize not because we made a mistake. But because you are unlucky! You were there.
Commuter [yells] – I thought you apologized for having created terrorists.
MS – I said it to you in private. Now you are violating the sanctity of the personal.
Commuter [becalmed] – you said you created terrorism to make the state stronger. Why do I get hit in the process?
MS – that’s collateral damage that goes with every cause good or bad.
Commuter – I understand um.um…collateral damage. But why me and not someone else?
MS – you were there.
Commuter – in which case I don’t understand collateral damage.
MS – can I move on to the next patient?
Commuter – no, you answer a few questions before you budge.
MS – like?
Commuter – you said you created terrorists, and now you are busy killing them. Why?
MS – eternal question with no answer. Let’s say God did not have to create the devil but he did. Why?
Commuter – this is an evil analogy, Mr. Singh.
MS – it’s not. Don’t forget, I wasn’t around when they were creating terrorists. But I am here when it’s time to eliminate them and ensure a safer life for you. I am the good guy, remember. I am in a hurry now.
Commuter – No, before you move on, how did your predecessors create terrorists?
MS – you really don’t know! It’s an eternal game. When people are aggrieved, you make sure to divide them. The British did it to us. Israelis did it to Palestine. Who created Hamas? We did it in Kashmir, Punjab, and Northeast. When they start killing each other you intervene with guns to protect them from each other. And then you drive them into a common battleground where you can shoot them down together. See how smart Gandhi was? He refused to get drawn into a battle and provide the British guns a target.
Commuter – so how does all this end?
MS – what end? Life must carry on.
Commuter – you mean the spirit and the resilience of Mumbai. Mumbai carries on!
MS – precisely!
Commuter – then why come all the way to see me?
MS – because I want you to understand that I am not part of the doing but the undoing.
Commuter – then why don’t you rid us of Kashmir and all the violence?
MS – we should have done it long ago. But now it’s too late.
Commuter – when it should have been done, no one did it it. And now it can’t be done! What logic is this?
MS – this is how the state thinks. And by the way, the state always adds up to more than all of us.
Commuter – the whole is bigger than the sum of the parts, I know.
MS – yes, as individuals we are dispensable. Even collectively we amount to less than the state.
Commuter – I must be sick. I am thinking of a state without citizens. Is that possible?
MS – you walk out of this hospital you are ready for a masters in political science. The state is immortal. People come and go.
Commuter – wait, I am not gone yet. Who do I blame for my plight?
MS – you can blame India and Pakistan.
Commuter – you forget that I was in a train far away from Rawalpindi and Delhi. I was hit by terrorists
MS – No, you were not hit by terrorists. you were there, that’s all. Don’t tell me you are paranoid enough to believe that all the plotters and planners across the border and in Mumbai saw you as a worthy target.
Commuter – I don’t. But I refuse to become a ‘collateral’.
MS – every citizen is a potential ‘collateral’ – the very first asset the state is willing to sacrifice. That’s an inherent risk unless you want to become a homeless gypsy.
Commuter – and go where?
MS – a typical gypsy question that occurs on starry roofless nights.
Commuter - why tell me such a long tale when you don’t even have a word of sympathy for me?
MS – because you need to know history. As an ex-teacher I know you will never read it. And about the only time you will hear of it is when you lie wounded in a hospital bed.
The commuter moaned with physical agony and teleological despair as the TV cameras flashed and woke me up.