The History of the world is a chronicle of small events that have triggered cataclysmic changes in the socio-political structure of society and redrawn national boundaries. Marie Antoinette’s “If they do not have bread, let them eat cake”, was the bugle cry for the French revolution, it led to the execution of King Louis XVI and sounded the death knell for the French aristocracy at the guillotine.
The spark for the Indian struggle of Independence was the rumored use of cow and pig fat in the Pattern 1853 Enfield rifle cartridges. This was abhorrent to the religious beliefs of the Indian soldiers both Hindu and Muslim, as the cartridges had to be bit before being loaded. The fire ignited by the alleged bovine and swine lard ultimately drove away the British imperialists from the shores of Independent India 90 years later. The story of India’s Independence is entwined with that of Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi’s humiliation and his subsequent fight against racism. In 1983 Mohandas was thrown off a train at Pietermaritzburg after refusing to move from the first class to a third-class coach while holding a valid first-class ticket, this profoundly affected him and was the turning point in his life and the Indian freedom struggle.
The genesis of the American Civil Rights Movement, was the arrest in 1955 of Rosa Parks, a middle-aged tailor's assistant for refusing to give up her seat to a white man. Her arrest led to protests against racial segregation in Montogomery, Albama’s bus services. The fight against discrimination in American transportation system, which started in Alabama finally culminated a decade later into the 15th Amendment to the US Constitution, The Voting Rights Act of 1965, which gave the US blacks their voting rights.
And even as we watch history is being made in the Middle East and Africa where totalitarian regimes are clinging to the tattered threads of power, which can give way at any moment. The catalyst for this was the self immolation of Mohamed Bouazizi. Bouazizi a Tunisian street vendor set himself afire on December 17, 2010, in protest against the confistication of his wares and the humiliation of being slapped by a female municipal official. The flames that engulfed Bouazizi have ignited the Arab world and reduced to rubble the barriers of fear which were restraining the Arab mind. Bouazizi’s act is the catalyst of the Jasmine Revolution, which has toppled the Tunisian Government and ousted its President of 23 years Zine El Abidine Ben Ali.
The whiff of the Jasmine Revolution has spread across the entire Middle East. The first to fall is Hosni Mubarak in Egypt. He is fighting a losing battle to retain the reins of the Government. And even as Egypt burns rumblings of discontent can be heard emanating from Yemen, Libya, Jordan and even Saudi Arabia. The events in Tunisia and Egypt have sounded the warning bells for the Monarchies and self styled rulers of the Middle Eastern countries. Hopefully they will now be open to a more representative and democratic Government, the only way ahead if these rulers want to avoid the fate of Eli Ben. And if Bouazizi’s sacrifice has resulted in this radical change for the people of Middle East, then it has not been in vain.
by Neera Kishore
Courtesy Hindi Milap
