Chaitanya jumped out of bed and hurriedly switched off the alarm on the mobile phone that her father had gifted her. It was his present to her for getting through one of the most prestigious colleges in the country. Running out of the house she picked up a toast and tried not to let her bag fall off her shoulder. Reaching the bus stop she couldn’t but feel annoyed with herself for having missed the university special bus for the third time in a row.
Chaitanya jumped out of bed and hurriedly switched off the alarm on the mobile phone that her father had gifted her. It was his present to her for getting through one of the most prestigious colleges in the country. Running out of the house she picked up a toast and tried not to let her bag fall off her shoulder. Reaching the bus stop she couldn’t but feel annoyed with herself for having missed the university special bus for the third time in a row.
She now had to face the difficult task of travelling with the amm janta. Somehow managing to get onto the 540 she pushed her way to the back and stood next to the exit door. That was her favorite place in a bus; she could stand there for hours and watch the hoards of men and women squeeze into the bus while giving her looks of disgust for blocking their way.
While this day was like any other, Chaitanya knew it was going to be slightly nerve racking. She had made the mistake of saying something contrary to what the professor had stated in class two days ago and this was seen as ‘back talking’ to her professor who promptly suggested that Chaitanya produce an assignment on her views. The professor added saying “Ms. Chaitanya will enlighten us all by reading the assignment out loud in lecture hall B, two days from now”. This was no ordinary task and her professor was merciless. Her professor’s round face and large optical lenses kept flitting in Chaitanya’s mind, the thought of being ridiculed in front of her friends and class mates made her stomach churn. Finally her stop arrived and she jumped out of the bus with her bag darting towards her college gate. She had made it on time! A sigh of relief and then more nervousness worrying about the response she would get from her audience. She reassured herself that her group of friends would cheer her even if what she said didn’t make any sense. She was extremely thankful to have such friends, who knew that she always spoke out of line and didn’t agree with most of what was taught to them as history.
The sign read ‘Hall B’, Chaitanya clasped the sheets of paper in her hand tightly, took a deep breath and entered the hall smiling warmly at everyone. Her professor and classmates were already in their seats and ready for ‘fun time’! The room had huge desks and benches, the walls had ceiling high windows and the room was well lit. It was not one of those dingy dark rooms.
The professor nodded at Chaitanya to proceed with reading out from the pages. Chaitanya smiled and began “my dear friends and respected teacher, today I am going to present to you my views on British rule in India and it’s over romanticized contribution to the modernization of our country”. The hall resonated with echoing claps from the last row which was filled by Chaitanya’s friends. The professor immediately turned around and shouted in a stern voice, “Could we please have silence in the hall!” There was complete silence in a matter of seconds. Chaitanya looked at the professor nervously and continued. “I was urged to write on this topic when my views on British rule in India were seen as baseless and unnecessary. Even so, at different points in our lives we will have to justify our words and actions and I welcome this opportunity to be heard with such enthusiasm. I thank you all for coming today”. She relaxed her pose and turned to read from the pages in her hands.
Chaitanya began talking about how modern inventions in Europe were brought to India with a motive. The motive was not to empower India with the latest technology or to make it modern, but to suppress the masses of people and use them against each other. She took up the example of the introduction of the railway system and said “the British used the railways to transport goods and their armies across the country; we would be naive to think that they wanted Indians to travel in comfort and style (she smiled)”.
After forming a few parallels with modern day Capitalism and British Imperialism Chaitanya looked towards her friends and said “What kind of modernity are we living in anyway, this system diverts me from thinking for myself every single day, it makes me want to stop thinking and only take care of my own interests, it makes me want to not care for anyone or anything else, it isolates me from others. Why then should I accept that it was a good thing that the British came and looted and plundered my land but left behind a chu-chu train!”
Chaitanya felt emotionally charged and vulnerable, but she also felt liberated. She concluded her paper “Thank you all for your patience, it is wonderful to be heard and I would like to thank professor Bina for making it possible for me to give voice to my views. Views are an important part of Indian society. Teachers are gifts never to be underestimated and this fact was not learnt by me because we were once colonized.” Chaitanya looked at her professor and smiled genuinely, her professor’s previously angry face had turned calm and she smiled back with awe in her eyes. For the first time in 6 months Chaitanya was no longer afraid of her professor’s words or glasses. She was happy because she felt young and alive fighting for her right to be a conscious thinking person.
Surkhraj Kaur is a working professional