By Pratap Naik, SJ
Don’t cry for me India
When we were in tears, pain, homeless, displaced refugees
Perpetrators of violence and destruction intentionally kept silence
Intellectuals, secularists, those who shed crocodile tears preferred to remain silent
Those who dared to speak were silenced by threats and harassment!
Don’t’ cry for me India
Animals have greater respect, dignity, rights, and protection in this land
We marginalized community has to suffer pinching, punching, pissing, molesting, groping, acid attack
lynching, murder, rape, gang rape, burning, naked parading, persecution, segregation
Intimidation, humiliation, suppression, oppression have become the culture of the nation!
Don’t’ cry for me India
When our houses, belongings, places of worship were burnt, destroyed, looted
leaders were engrossed to erect giant statues, monuments, to build “houses of gods”
on public lands utilizing public funds, for self-glory and boost their ego
All this they did in gods’ names to establish hegemony and one identity.
Don’t’ cry for me India
The history which we studied in our school days is set aside
Myths and newly created fantasy stories forced on us as truth
The principle of “Unity in diversity” is replaced by
‘Unity in uniformity” in all domains systematically, steadily and boldly.
Don’t’ cry for me India
Instead, we cry and pray for you losing your credibility and past glory
You are heading towards dictatorship, fascism, fundamentalism, fanaticism, anarchy
You have reached to the brim of annihilation, a stage beyond redemption
Through the destruction of all that we achieved for decades.
Don’t’ cry for me India
You are broken, wounded, torn apart, fragmented by casteism and other isms
Hatemongers, fundamentalists, extremists, terrorists, children of darkness
multiplying, and allowed to sow the seeds of hatred, division, and violence
they lead citizens from light, peace, and truth to abyss of destruction!
Don’t’ cry for me India
We cry for your godfathers, respected butchers, criminals whose hands are soaked with blood
yet they label us as anti-nationalists, terrorists, when we expose their wicked crooked deeds
Their weapons are threat, dismissal, imprisonment, torture, killing, mesmerizing speeches with lies
Yet, they too will meet the same fate of great dictators whom God crushed them to eat the dust.
Don’t’ cry for me India
You are the cradle of multi religions, regions, languages
cultures, ethnicity, food habits, clothing, traditions
philosophies, theologies, skin colours, and many other lively features
your beauty and integrity are rooted in the unity of lovely multiplicity.
Don’t’ cry for me India
We your children who were timid, silent, and frightened so far, will become the voice of the voiceless
Now we refuse to be caged, we will no longer remain as silent spectators
Now we will rise as prophets of hope and sing the great song of freedom
“Where the Mind is Without Fear…” to free and rebuild our shattered Motherland.