In July 2018, Ranbir Kapoor stated in an interview, “I don’t make any political statements because I don’t follow politics. Politics makes no difference in my life. I’m not at the brunt of anything. I live a luxurious life. I don’t have water or housing problems. I don’t have any issues, so who am I to comment on politics?”
Well, good for him but not everyone lives a luxurious life in this country.
Many people around us claim to be apolitical. If you ask them about their views on politics, you’ll hear statements which are synonymous to, “I don’t like politics”, “Indian politics is a mess, don’t want to be a part of it” or “Why should I care?”. But the moment they cross a dirty street they will complain about the garbage on the road, they see a beggar and they will question the existence of poverty, they hear about violence and they will tweet, condemning it, sitting in their comfortable homes, where there is fresh water 24×7, there is electricity throughout the year and all the amenities that one can think of.
But no, they are not political, they do not like politics.
Being political is not a trend, it is not “mainstream”, it is extremely important.
Being political does not mean that you have to be pro-government or anti-government, being political just requires you to take a stand, whatever it may be, take a stand, there are real issues that require people to talk about it, to have an opinion.
If in the 1900s, Bhagat Singh, Rajguru, Sukhdev and many more like them would have declared themselves to be apolitical on the pretext of politics being messy and the system skewed, then today we would not be having the privilege of calling ourselves apolitical when we are asked for opinions on national matters.
Being apolitical is a privilege, specifically a class privilege. Not everyone has this privilege, the privilege of being disengaged, the privilege of being lackadaisical. An urban poor will never say that he is not political, nor will you hear a rural person say so because unlike Ranbir Kapoor and others like him around us, they are at the brunt of things and also have water and housing problems.
But is being truly apolitical possible?
Politics is not just about partisan politics.
Yes, voting for a party (or not) is definitely a political act and an act of responsibility, after the 2014 elections there has been a major political awakening in India but it should not take an election or a socio-economic tremor to wake people up from their so-called ‘apolitical trance’.
Every choice you make is political, whether you call yourself apolitical or not. The mode of transport you use is a political choice you are making; public transports, construction of roads are municipality/government initiatives, buying a house is a political choice; your house might be standing on a deforested land or might have led to displacement of communities, marriage is a political choice; whether it is an inter-caste marriage, an interracial one or the same gender one, anything out of the norm, faces immense backlash and bias, the political atmosphere around you determines who you marry, it is an outcome of systemic oppression or upliftment of certain sections and so is something as self-indulgent as shopping in a mall; almost all industries have political linkages so you are indirectly financially endorsing them. People tend to think of their choices in a small and narrow ecosystem which just consists of them and their close ones in a small bubble. But you are a part of a larger system where the services you avail are indeed an outcome of a political arrangement, they have not appeared magically out of anywhere.
Given that every single decision of yours is inevitably political and has political consequences, is calling oneself apolitical logical at all?
You may not be on the roads, sitting for dharnas and protesting against any kind of injustice but you are a political being, born into a system where every act of yours political. You are either actively political or passively but being apolitical is not a choice nor is it a possibility.
In such a situation is it not better to take advantage of the political person within you to actively speak out, to engage, to learn and most importantly have an opinion?
It is not a proletariat characteristic to be political, it is a human one. The elite may not be at the core of issues or at the brunt of things but living in a fool’s paradise of apoliticism and still making political choices unconsciously has an impact on the political society one lives in and that is something to be taken care of.
If nothing, then we owe it to the men and women who sacrificed their lives fighting for this country in a hope that the youth would carry their legacy, that each one would be political, fearlessly and unapologetically, that each would take a stand and fight for what one believes in for the country.
“Ab bhi jiska khoon na khaula,
Woh khoon nahi paani hai,
Jo desh ke kaam na aaye woh bekaar jawani hai”
– Chandrashekhar Azad