K G Kannabiran, My Source Of Inspiration
By Mahtab Alam
09 May, 2011
Countercurrents.org
He, who has gone, so we but cherish his memory, abides with us, more potent, nay, more present than the living man. -Antoine de Saint Exupéry
A Lot can be said about K G Kannabiran. But I am not the right person who can tell you much about his life and work as I don’t know him personally except what has been told and written on various occasions by his friends and comrades. Nevertheless, for me, he is one from whom I take inspiration and try to follow in his footsteps. Being a civil rights’ activist and eager to join the profession of law, not to make money but to fight against injustices, Kannabiran is one whom I consider to be my role model. So, it was quite obvious that when the news of his death reached me, I was taken aback. This news, so soon after Surendra Mohan ji’s death, was very distressing.
I first met Kannibaran in August 2008 at Hyderabad, in a peoples’ tribunal on the Atrocities Committed against Minorities in the Name of Fighting Terrorism, in which, he was one of the jury members. His name was familiar to me much before meeting him. He was one of the few people I had heard of when I entered the field of civil rights’ activism. He was the National President of PUCL then. In fact, till the demise of Kannabiran, many of the activists across the country still thought that he was the President of PUCL, though it was not so as Prof. Prabhakar Sinha had been elected the President in November 2009. I am mentioning this because on his demise when I informed many activist friends of mine their response was, Oh, Kannabiran Sahab…PUCL ke national president !
At the tribunal, he was one you could easily single out in a strong gathering of 150 people. Kannabiran was sitting on the dias with other jury members, listening to the victims or their friends, family members or comrades, very calmly and in between asking questions when required. It has been more than two years since the tribunal but i can still recollect Kannabiran sitting there in front of me and the proceedings of the tribunal going on. Recently, when the final report of the tribunal was published, it brought back memories of Kannabiran and the observations he had made at the tribunal. He had mentioned, at the end of the tribunal that, “The tribunal raises a serious question as to how plural societies have to be governed. India is a plural society and the constitution is designed to govern plural societies but governments do not reckon the existence of plural societies and that is why you will find that the dominant community's attitude determines whether there is peace or not in the country. And this particular method of governing and targeting the minorities is not going to be put to an end by inflicting assaults on them, denying them the advantage of rule of law, denying them equal opportunities and subjecting them to tremendous repression, assault on minorities is not going to put an end to terrorism. In fact such governance produces rebels”.
He further added, “After hearing the torture and other things all these days, I am concerned that it was an old hat I have been fighting against for a very long time. This is the only way they know of putting down people. After 9/11 what has happened is Muslims are portrayed as terrorists. In this country in 1984, when Sikhs were massacred on the streets of Delhi we recognized that there is another minority. Till the Sikh riots happened we thought only Muslims were a minority. They have attacked Dalits, they have attacked Sikhs, they have attacked Muslims and Graham Stein, a Christian was killed and the next jump is to that position. So, unless we now intervene and claim that minorities have an equal right to live in this subcontinent, have an equal status with the Hindu community, we will not be able to eliminate this kind of violence, it will become endemic and almost all the countries it has been made endemic by foreign interference, for instance, Sri Lanka, Buddhists and Tamils, very much near home. So if you want to avoid these ethnic fights it is not your law and order menu that is going to save it but it is your change in structure in your governance suitable to a society of plural communities and our constitution has made excellent provisions in that regard.”
He was so famous and he deserved it as well, that in his life time only, a part-biography, part-history documentary was made on him. Titled ‘The Advocate‘, the 130-minute film, directed by Deepa Dhanraj, documents the contribution of Kannabiran, the then national president of the People’s Union of Civil Liberties (PUCL), in challenging the Indian State to uphold the rule of law in institutions of governance, justice and political praxis. The film covers the period from 1968 till 2005 and tries to cover his landmark cases, his work as secretary of the Tarkunde Committee and the Bhargava Commission. He was not only popular amongst human rights’ activist, lawyers or students interested in these issues but amongst people who are not a part of the human rights movement. And I remember a friend of mine who was not a human rights’ activist or even part of ‘social sector’ being shocked by his death.
But despite this popularity and fame, he was not interested in showing off. Few years back, many organistions of Delhi organised an event at the India Habitat Centre, in honour of him, recognising his great work. He was supposed to be there but could not come giving health reasons. But I perceive that this could not have been the real reason which could have been that he was really not interested in the demonstration of his work. The best proof of this was his last wish that his last rites should be simple, speedy and secular.
Needless to say, his demise is a great set back to the civil rights movements and democratic struggles across the country. In his death, many organisations have lost their patron, advisor and philosopher. People like me have lost their mentor and one of the greatest sources of inspiration. But I am also reminded by his words, which he wrote to me after the demise of his friend, Prof. Iqbal Ansari in October 2009, “I suppose all of us are waiting to be put back in the closet one by one.” We can hardly belittle these words of his as it is a universal truth. So, it is better that we start working harder and harder, because that is not only the best tribute to Kannabiran but also the need of hour.
(This article first appeared in the Special Issues on K G Kannabiran of a Bi-lingual (Urdu and English) magazine on Human Rights, Civil Liberties’ Monitor published from Hyderabad. The writer is a civil rights’ activist and independent journalist. He can be reached at [email protected].)
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