How to subsidise the arts (and artists) without interfering with artistic independence and integrity is an interesting discussion - open to much debate. But within our donor dependant context, I've always very much admired Watatu for the very fact that it did have to struggle, just as other types of businesses do, in order to succeed. Isn't struggle a part of becoming a genuine success? I'd even go so far as to say that Watatu's commitment and willingness to face market realities has been an important part of what has made it credible and consequential. Unexceptional is otherwise much too often the norm. Moreover Watatu has had to compete for sales against galleries, which did receive subsidies. This always struck me as unfair

Bruce Strachan

Your magazine does a truly remarkable job in integrating Asian community related issues
with national and international matters within the context of a progressive, humanistic orientation. The balance between culture and politics, and the interrelationship between these two fields of human endeavor that it displays has few parallels today. It is an essential magazine to read in these challenging and exciting times. Please keep up the outstanding job you and your editorial team are doing.

Professor Karim F. Hirji, D.Sc.

Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics
School of Public Health and Social Sciences
Muhimbili University of Health and Allied Sciences
Dar es Salaam, Tanzania

Greetings from freezing Switzerland while people are roasting in the heat in Kenya.
I wish to tell you that the periodical AWAAZ that you sent to us, has arrived. Thank you very much for it. We like the front cover and the placing of Willy's photograph at the top right corner. The article on the glasses and stud reads well. I did not know this publication. I am impressed by the nature of articles in this issue and its attractive format. Among other things, I like it that it gives a welcome voice of Indian concerns and views within the Kenyan identity. It is necessary to hear such voices that help to enhance and strengthen relationships, and to inform / educate one another across ethnic, religious, and cultural backgrounds. Do you Tazim sometimes write for this periodical? I hope it reaches a wide international readership.

I try to keep up with some of the "exciting" goings-on in our country, and I am always intrigued to see mention and / or photograph of Willy - congratulations! There is none of the sentiments expressed last year about the stud.
Peace and health,

John (Mbiti)

By Aamera Jiwaji

Shahid Parvez Khan is a sitar soloist. He gracefully plucks at the strings of a sitar, an instrument which dates back to the 15th century, and with increasing grace and momentum builds to crescendo after crescendo of melody. At his performance at the Oshwal Auditorium on Saturday 25th February, Khan was accompanied by Pritam Virdee on the tabla who met sitar note with complementary drumbeat through to the final resounding note of the composition. The effect was one that Ravi Shankar, renowned sitar player, describes evocatively: “… the dazzling and rapid dialogue between sitar and tabla, has the power to enthrall even the most uninitiated listener with its thrilling interplay”.

Pankaj Udhas’ ghazal performance at the KICC on Saturday 3rd March illustrated how “Indian music is a vocal, not only an instrumental art” (Scaruffi, 2003). His “milk and honey” voice singing couplets of Urdu poetry blended with the sounds of six instruments: the mandolin, flute, harmonium, dholak, tabla and keyboard.

Both concerts, as forms of Indian classical music, were monodic and not polyphonic like Western music (Scaruffi, 2003). “The first is based on melody-single notes played in a given order while the second is harmonic: a group of notes called chords played simultaneously” (Mansukhani, 1982).

Petr B, a classical music enthusiast, summarized it thus: “Eastern music is monophonic, All about one melodic line spun into multitudinous variants, with a system of rags (ragas) as like in comparison to western musics' modes and scales, descended from the Indian. Its conventions include one note at a time, no part harmony, lines varied through improvisation by a highly trained player, kept moving by complex simultaneously played layers of rhythmic patterns of different lengths.” (Petr B, 2011)

Western music on the other hand, he said, is “only somewhat and sometimes about melody. Some of it is dependent upon its sense and meaning only by following a number of lines (polyphony) some or all of which may be more - or less - melodic. Western music ultimately developed into the use of polyphony (extensively), and into formalized set forms ...” (Petr B, 2011)

This difference between the monodic and polyphonic identities may be illustrated further through the different emphases that each places on orchestration and harmony. The Khan and the Udhas concerts were based on “melody and rhythm” (Shankar) and not on “harmony, counterpoint, chords, modulation and the other basics of Western classical music” (Shankar).

With western classical music, the instruments blend together with a harmony between and within instrument groups, whereas with Indian classical music, each musician’s job is to “enhance the beauty of the concert and the music of the featured musician” (Krishnamurthy, 2002), to “punctuate, emphasize and accentuate what the featured musician does” (Krishnamurthy, 2002), whether it is the sitar player or the ghazal singer.

Dr Rabindranath Tagore, nobel prize winning polymath describes the difference with a philosophical analogy. He said, “They are as day and night, unity and variety, finite and infinite”. He expands the analogy thus: “Our [Indian classical] music draws the listener away beyond the limits of every day human joys and sorrows and takes us to the lonely region of renunciation which lies at the root of the universe, while European music leads us to a variegated dance through the endless rise and fall of human grief and joy.” (Tagore in Mansukhani, 1982).

Another key variation between the two forms of music is in the power dynamics between the members. In Indian classical music, the singer or the featured instrument is all-important and much more powerful than the conductor of a Western orchestra. S/he can improvise at will, and the band or accompanists need to be highly attuned to these cues.

“He or she makes all the important decisions - e.g. which songs to sing, in what sequence. She has the maximum latitude in structuring the concert. She could decide on the songs an hour before the event. If she wished, she could change the order of the songs during the concert. She decides how long each piece is going to be and when to take the intermission - if at all.” (Krishnamurthy, 2002).

Indian classical music therefore allows for “a much greater degree of personalization” (Scaruffi, 2003) as compared to western classical music. It is deterministic, and this may be attributed to the way in which Indian classical music is an oral tradition. It is “taught directly by the guru to the disciple, rather than by the notation method used in the West” (Shankar). It is the guru’s interpretation and improvisation of a melody which he communicates to his student, in turn encouraging him or her to imbue their understanding of the music with their own personality.

The relationship between the Indian musician and his guru is therefore vastly different from that of a Western musician and his teacher. “The Guru-shishya tradition responsible for the deep attachment and dedication of the student to the teacher. In the West, usually a music teacher is just a person hired for giving lessons and there is no intimacy between the teacher and the taught.” (Mansukhani, 1982).

“As much as 90 percent of Indian music may be improvised and because so very
much depends on understanding the spirit and nuances of the art, the relationship between the artist and his guru is the keystone of this ancient tradition. From the beginning, the aspiring musician requires special and individual attention to bring him to the moment of artistic mastery. The unique aura of a raga (one might say its "soul") is its spiritual quality and manner of expression, and this cannot be learned from any book” (Shankar). It is a process that has been described by various accomplished musicians as breathing life into an art form; a description that heavily underlines the personal connection between the musician and the creative process that s/he is involved in each time s/he performs.

This quality feeds into the style of vocal singing. In Indian classical music, it is “an act of worship … In the West, the singing of a song is a secular and formal exercise, not involving devotion or piety” (Mansukhani, 1982).

The continual process of interpretation and understanding that an Indian musician is involved in also influences the structure of their performance. Indian classical music performances are spontaneous and unpredictable. They do not work from a set program in contrast to the typical Western classical music concert which has a program that is decided in advance and stuck to in a regimental manner.

Each Indian classical music performance is therefore a new one. While the interpretation involved in a Western performance is completed long before it is ever performed and “Listeners judge a performance on how faithfully the musicians rendered the vision of the composer”, with Indian classical music, each performance is a new understanding of the music. “The musician rediscovers and reinterprets the nature of the composition every time it is presented (Krishnamurthy, 2002).

Ravi Shankar said, “The improvisatory nature of Indian classical music requires the artist to take into consideration the setting, time allowed for his recital, his mood and the feeling he discerns in the audience before playing”, and this highlights how the identity of the key musician in Indian classical music differs from that of Western classical music since he is a performer and a composer at the same time. Further, “The audience is able to appreciate the improvisational skills in real time, often responding to particularly adventurous phrases with applause.” (Blackburn, 1998).

Both Khan and Udhas alluded to this element of their performance:
“When I go onto the stage, even I don’t know what I will play,” Parvez said. “It is inspired and spontaneous.” While Udhas said, “I never sit on a stage with a mindset of what my opening or ending sequence is going to be so there is no fixed routine.”

While this may make the Indian classical music concert seem unplanned and less formal, critics argue that “This must not be confused for less rigor. It must also not be mistaken for less sophistication” (Krishnamurthy, 2002).

There is a sense of mystery at the start of the composition that prompts listeners into a guessing game, and then later a sense of elation when it has been guessed correctly.
As a result, the nature of the relationship between Indian classical musicians and their audience is affected. “Interaction between the musician and the listener in Western concerts is very formal. “The musicians play the piece, the audience applauds and everybody goes home. There is absolute silence when the concert is in progress. On the other hand, there is a certain playfulness in the interaction between the singer and listener in the Indian tradition … To understand the concert experience, one must simply get into the right spirit of celebrating the music and then, the joy is considerable” (Krishnamurthy, 2002).

The cremation on 31 January, 2012 marked exactly 70 years of Satish Gautama’s practice as an Advocate of the High Court of Kenya; it also marked the passing of one of Kenya’s most eminent jurists. The presence of Kenya’s Chief Justice, Dr Willy Mutunga; the Minister of Justice, Hon. Mutula Kilonzo; a representative of the Prime Minister, Hon. Anyan’g Nyong’o;  and the Chair of the Law Society of Kenya, Kenneth Akide; spoke volumes about the late Satish Gautama. Much has been said, and much more needs to be written, about his brilliance as a litigator and his total commitment to the Rule of Law and justice for ALL in Kenya.

Satish Gautama acted regularly for the two former presidents, Jomo Kenyatta and Daniel arap Moi and appeared in the Courts of Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania and Zanzibar. He was chair of the Law Society of Kenya (1962-3) and was inducted on to the Roll of Honour of the Law Society of Kenya in 2001. He was appointed Senior Counsel by H E Excellency President Mwai Kibaki on 7 March, 2003. At one point he courteously declined the offer of the post of Chief Justice of Kenya. He was held in the highest esteem by both the Bar and the Bench.

And yet, in spite of the high position he held, his concern about provision of justice to the poor and less educated never faltered. He has been described as ‘a patriot who could not tolerate injustice’. He advocated strengthening the East African institutions with the aim of harmonising the laws governing commerce in the region, and was convinced that this would create greater prosperity for its peoples.

Satish Gautama hails from an illustrious family of committed Kenyans. His brother, Romesh Chander Gautama was prominent in the anti-colonial struggle and has a road in Nairobi named after him. Later another brother, Krishan Gautama, became Chair of the Law Society of Kenya and a Member of Parliament. Bindu Gautama, Satish’s ???? was a vibrant teacher.

It was therefore not surprising that Satish dabbled in politics. From being the secretary-general of the East Africa Indian Congress, in 1960 he took charge of its successor, the Kenya Indian Congress and remained so until the Congress was wound down in 1966. In his lengthy presidential address delivered at the 26th Session of the Kenya Indian Congress,  he gave a detailed overview of  the role of Indians in Kenya’s struggle for independence. ‘We Indians’ he said, ‘have every reason to feel happy at these prodigious changes for our people have played a crucial part in bringing them about.’

Satish Gautama inspired and nurtured many lawyers. He will be remembered by friends and colleagues as a fine human being – approachable and kindly, witty and immensely knowledgeable; always willing to lend an ear. The saying: ‘It will be many a year before we see another like him’ is a true accolade for this great Son of Kenya. Our sincerest condolences go to his widow, Sushila; his children Ashok, Bharat and Suniti; and his grandchildren.
AwaaZ

Remarks by the Rt. Hon. Raila Odinga, Prime Minister, at the funeral service of the late Satish Gautama
As read by the Hon Anyang' Nyong'o, Minister for Medical Services and ODM Secretary-General

I join in spirit all those who have gathered here to mourn the passing of a great Kenyan.

Satish gave long and distinguished service to this country's legal profession, to which he was totally dedicated and in which he earned all the top plaudits. But he was much more than an advocate. He was a patriot who could not tolerate injustice. He also was a great human being - a warm, witty and caring person who lit up every meeting and conversation in which he took part.

These qualities endeared him to one and all, and underpinned the contributions he made to our legal profession with his piercing intellectual acumen and passion for justice.

In a profession that invariably ends up serving the well to do and powerful clients, Satish never lost focus on the obstacles that stood in the way of the provision of justice for the poor and the less educated. He fought to remove impediments that stood in their way when they tried to obtain justice.

Often, their cases would be disqualified on technical grounds, for example when they were represented by advocates who were not fully qualified. In this he helped set a major judicial precedent that clients should not suffer for the mistakes of lawyers.

It was this passion for justice which saw him represent one of the defendants charged along side our late Prof. Wangari Maathai in 1981.
He was also a foremost promoter of regional integration. Launching a legal career in the colonial era exposed Satish to the strengths that we have as East Africans. He advocated for the strengthening of the East African institutions, such as the Court of Justice, seeing in it a powerful instrument for the harmonisation of laws governing commerce in the region. He was convinced that the Court's hearing appeals from national cases would provide a huge boost for regional trade and investment.

I would also like to pay tribute to Satish for the role he played in nurturing our legal institutions. In the course of his long practice, which continued past his 90th year, he inspired and nurtured many lawyers who went on to give so much to this country. He was considered the oldest practising advocate in Africa.

My heart today goes out to Sushila, with whom he shared 67 wonderful years of marriage, and his children Ashok, Bharat and Suniti, as well as to the rest of his family, which produced so many talented Kenyans, including the late former Member of Parliament Krishan Gautama, and the vibrant teacher Bindu Gautama.

May God rest his soul in peace.

A serene African sunflower
Rooted, gently fluttering
Defying sun, wind, shower
Growing, seeking, daring

A people friendly sunflower
Golden petals a sparkling
To student, villager, worker
Joyful, generous, endearing

An anti-imperialist sunflower
Hardy rough stalk unbowing
Pan-Africanist against power
Deftly, tenaciously resisting

An erudite global sunflower
Fibonacci structured packing
Keen social reality revealer
Factual, dialectical theorizing

A soulful socialist sunflower
Oil, seeds, stem a nourishing
For all -- food, health, shelter
Practical pearls propagating

A fragrant African sunflower
Henry Mapolu was a blooming
Amidst sweat, love, laughter
Pondering, debating, struggling

A seed to a delightful sunflower
A bountiful harvest portending
Youth, compatriots world over
Justice, peace, equality arising


Henry Mapolu was a founding editor of the radical student magazine Cheche and its successor MajiMaji  at the University of Dar es Salaam in the early 1970s where later, he was a lecturer in Sociology. His pioneering research on rural development and industrial relations in Tanzania  received wide acclaim. Among his signal works is the book Workers and Management in Tanzania (Tanzania Publishing House, 1974) he edited. A classic in the field, it contains two of his papers. His analysis of rural stratification is pertinent, in method and substance, to this day for understanding the impact of globalization in rural Africa. Subsequently, as the worker education officer at the largest industrial enterprise in Tanzania, he initiated and ran a one-of-a-kind, popular multidisciplinary worker education program. A dedicated socialist and leading public intellectual of independent Tanzania, he led a more secluded existence as a consultant in the recent years. He passed away on January 29, 2012 at the age of sixty seven. He is survived by wife Mwanahamisi and son John.  Our poem encapsulates his life and vision.

Karim F Hirji and Shiraz W Ramji (February 23, 2012).

DUDLEY JOSEPH THOMPSON. 1917 – 2012

On 20 January, 2012 Dudley Joseph Thompson, the indefatigable fighter for African Unity, reparative justice and socialism joined the ancestors. Born in Panama, raised in Jamaica, the son of migrant working parents; he served as a frontline activist for African Liberation. Thompson spent the past 70 years of his life working to end domination and exploitation of the African people at home and abroad. He was 95 years old. After graduating from Oxford University, Thompson moved to East Africa (Tanzania) and from there worked tirelessly for the liberation struggles in that region, acting as one of the coordinators of the defense team for Jomo Kenyatta and other leaders of the Kenyan independence struggle. Thompson returned to Jamaica in 1955 where he participated in the political movement for decolonisation. He could not escape the poisonous political atmosphere existing in the Caribbean during this period of the 1970s and worked to promote anti-imperialist positions. He was a member of the government of the People’s National Party (PNP) led by Jamaican Prime Minister Michael Manley.

This was a moment when the Jamaican political leadership articulated a program of democratic socialism. After serving in the Jamaican government (1974 to 1980), he was appointed as the ambassador for Jamaica to Nigeria, West Africa. Along with Professors Ali Mazrui and Samir Amin, Graca Machel, Ade Ajayi and others, Thompson promoted the cause of reparations for the Atlantic Slave trade; he linked reparations to socialism and a new social system. One outcome has been the international recognition of the transatlantic slave trade as a ‘crime against humanity’. At an advanced age, well after his three scores and ten, he was travelling all over the world promoting the unity of Africa. Despite its limitations, the African Union honoured him in 2011 by making him the first citizen of Africa and they gave him a passport. This was in recognition for his work for building a stronger, more vibrant continent as a base for the liberation of Africans at home and abroad.

Thompson, like the celebrated Pan African fighter Tajudeen Abdul Raheem, was a student at Oxford University but did not allow the trappings of Oxford to blind him to the realities of the ideas of chauvinism and domination. Thompson studied law at Merton College, Oxford, and was called to the bar in the United Kingdom. So organised were the Pan Africanists in that era that when Thompson finished his training and was called to the bar he consulted with the other Pan Africanists to find out where he should practice. Padmore and the other activists recommended that he relocate to East Africa so that he could support the anti-colonial struggles in that region, especially Kenya.

In 1951, using Moshi as a base of operations, he worked closely with the freedom fighters in Kenya who had formed the Land and Freedom Army. In his book, The Making of A Pan-Africanist Lawyer, Thompson explains how former British officer and expert in low intensity warfare, Frank Kitson, used Kenya as a laboratory for the kind of divisive ideas of tribal divisions and gangs against gangs that continue to plague African societies.

Thompson embraced that branch of the Pan African Movement that supported inclusiveness and ensured that the young understood that, although Issa Shivji was of Indian descent, the Pan African Movement was an inclusive movement for all of those who were fighting for social justice in Africa. ‘The United States of Africa is the goal of the current Pan African thrust,’ he wrote, ‘It is the view that in a multipolar world, Africans cannot continue to maintain the borders that were created by the imperialist partitioning of Africa.

The article is extracted from an obituary written by Horace Campbell for Pambazuka News 2012-02-08, Issue 569.

By Rafiq Hajat

He changed our flag,
With cavalier insouciance,
He stood proudly to brag
While we gaped in stunned trance,
Like a rampant stag,
It was the height of arrogance,

He changes our laws with seeming impunity;
He twists them to suit his ends,
He changes the equation with intractability,
While his puppets amend;
We regress inexorably;
While sycophants defend;

He calls us stupid and drunk,
He's on a power trip,
He's bitten off a hunk,
His mind has flipped
He's so full of spunk,
He's got a shoulder on his chip;

Absolute power carries great responsibility,
The wielder must beware the craze,
Lest he fall prey to hubristic gravity,
And stumble into an egocentric maze,
Lose touch with reality;
In a narcissistic daze;

He's the quintessential power tripper,
And it ain't no joke,
He's an asset stripper,
A pig in a poke,
He's an insatiable beak dipper
Never seems to choke,
He's an illogical skipper,
We're headed for broke.

By Pankaj Prasoon

Poetry becomes a weapon
Against the tyrants and imperialists
In Tunisia, Egypt and Syria
Yemen, Bahrain and Russia
For those who raised the flag of independence!
Who composed the music of revolution!
In a different note
Against injustice
Against exploitation
Against those who boast- truth will die
It says- truth will always remain alive
For dignity
Who dreamt of the spring of hope!
Welcome to that intoxicating spring
I salute
We salute
Let's salute those
Who martyred for truth!
Salute the Zanj Rebellion
A series of small revolts
500,000 slaves
Led by Ali Ibn Muhamad
and shook
the mighty, despotic, and debauch empires
from Iran to Iraq
in the ninth century

1579
Salute
Gaspar Yanga
The slave brought from Gabon, Africa
The son of a king of Bara
Led the slave rebellion in   Mexico 
Along with his slave friends
Against the Spaniards
Defeated them
Established the independent town of the slaves
Hundred salutes to Yanga

1712
The inhuman torture of enslaved Africans
Kept under abusive and harsh conditions,
Angered 23 slaves
They came forward, showed courage
Attacked and killed nine whites by showering bullets
The criminal white colonists
Hired mercenaries
caught seventy blacks
threw 21 rebels on fire-alive !
like poultry on barbecue
Executed one on breaking wheel
It was the first slave rebellion
Salute to those 21 burnt alive

1757
East India Company unleashed a reign of terror
Barbaric inhuman rule
Fakirs and Sanyasis (ascetics) couldn't tolerate it
They defied
Took arms
All ascetics- Dushnami Nagas, Madari Sufis
Hindu, Muslims all united
started the early war for India's independence from foreign rule
around Murshidabad and Baikunthupur forests of Jalpaiguri .
150 fakirs were killed
Salute to the Sanyasi-Fakir revolt
Salute to Majnu Shah, Bhabani Pathak, Debi Chaudhurani

1798
Midnapore, Bankura, Jangalmahal
The forest land
The forest dwellers
Adivasis-tribals
Raised their bows and arrows
against the feudal landlords
and British colonialists
who insultingly called them chuars -the mouse-eaters
And called their revolt- chuar rebellion
The Adivasis were brutally killed
Their leader Durjan Singh was murdered
Salute to them

1784
Johar
Salute
Baba Tilka Manjhi!
The first freedom fighter of India
The first warrior against the colonialists
Who launched full scale war-the first war
And wrote the first poem of independence
By bow and arrows
He was killed and hanged in a tree
Salute to him
Whom we have easily forgotten

1787
Salute to the Shays' rebellion
Which gave nightmare to the robber barons
Living leisurely in the rich-dwellings of Massachusetts
1000 Shaysites arrested
Five killed
Rebellion crushed
But it erupted again as people's anger
In 2011
Against the filthy rich area of New York
Reincarnated as Occupy Wall Street movement
1806-1816
The revolutionary flames
Engulfed the sal (Shorea robusta) forests of Midnapore
It kept on burning for ten years
The enemies of people killed those valiants
Achal Sinha and his 200 fellow martyrs
Salute to all of them!

1858
Johar!
Salute!!
Veer Narayan Singh Binjhwar
It was 1856
A great famine swept the forest region of Chhatisgarh
People starved to death
Landlords and merchants of Sonakhan
Stocked in their godowns food grain
usurped from the poor
He looted their warehouses
Distributed the food grain among the poor
The feudal and colonialists conspired
Arrested him
And publicly hanged him

1862
Johar
U Kiang Nongbah
After income tax in addition to the house-tax.
Tax was going to be imposed on betel and betel-nut.
Jaintias rose again in a fierce rebellion 
The leader, guiding spirit was U Kiang Nongbah
a young man,
He said:
Ka Jinglaitluid ka long ka kyndon ba donkam
tam ha ka jingim U briew bad ka Ri kaba khlem ka jinglaitluid
ym lah tang ban ong ba ka long kaba im
(Freedom is the most important factor of a Human's life
And a country without freedom cannot be claimed to even be alive)
Hundreds of Jaintias were killed
U Kiang Nongbah was betrayed, captured and put to the gallows publicly
From the scaffold he announced prophetically-
‘If my face turns east when I die on the rope,
we shall be free again within hundred years,
If it turns west we shall be enslaved forever’
How true was his prophesy!
India became free within a hundred years! 

1885
Johar
Four Murmu brothers
Of an insignificant village-
Bhagnadih, Dumka
All revolutionaries-
Siddhu, Kanhu, Chand , Bhairav
British colonists ,money lenders, zamindars
Usurped their land
Disgraced their women
Turned the innocent Santals into slaves
Cheated and insulted Santals
Led by Siddhu, Kanhu, Chand , Bhairav started
Sonthal rebellion
It swept across the Santhal country
Giving nightmare to those criminals
destroyed all semblance of British rule
Those criminals cheatingly
Killed Siddhu, Kanhu, Chand, Bhairav
Killed 10,000 Santals
Crushed the rebellion-
The Hul-revolution
…but the legend of the Santal Rebellion lives on

1871
Four Arab slavers with guns
entered the market 
in   Nyangwe , Congo
1500 people were gathered,
most of them women.
Fired shot after shot
on the terrified fugitives
Six hundred innocent killed
Salute to those who were killed!

1900
The volcano of revolution erupted
flowing lava
Birsa Munda – Dharti Aba (father of the earth)
Launched the Munda rebellion- ulgulaan
Torching the dikkus(outsiders)
Police stations and churches
Raided the property of moneylenders and zamindars.
Raised the white flag -
The symbol of Birsa Raj
The colonial government was shaken
Munda warriors assembled at Dumbari Hills
The British attacked them
Slaughtered them
Thousands of freedom fighters were killed
Dumabri became Topped Buru-mound of dead
Birsa Munda was captured
Killed in Jail
He was only 25
He was killed
But ulgulaan –
The revolution - continues
Long live ulgulaan
Long live Birsa Munda-Dharti Aba

1921
Revolution spread on the streets of Istanbul
Revolutionary cadre roamed
Mustafa Suphi was their leader
The paid agents of the dictator
Killed him by dagger
And threw his corpse in the Black Sea
Black Sea became red
Salaam to Mustafa Suphi
Marhabaa!
Salute!
22 January 1905
Zdravstvujte
Salute
To the simple soul
priest George Gapon
who was moved to see
the sad plight of workers of
Putilov plant
It was Czar's Russia
Cruel, despot, tyrant, oppressor
Bloody Nicholas II was reigning
He issued the diktat -
Workers would work for hours twelve
On Saturdays ten
He raised the price of everything
Reduced the wages of the workers
Gapon was an innocent man
Thought he- Czar doesn't know this
This is the work of his subordinates
Father Gapon organized the workers
Thousands of workers
Marched towards
The Czar's winter palace
To give a petition
Showering bullets welcomed them
Killing one thousand of them
The workers were silenced
The movement failed
But it fuelled
Gave birth
To that revolution
That wrecked the vicious monarchy of the world
25 October 1907
The revolution
The biggest one of the 29 th century
Of workers and peasants
The October revolution
Led by Lenin and Stalin
Red salute to that revolution
In the poetry of revolution new pages were added
Red pages
Russia , China , half of Europe
Cuba , Vietnam , Laos
All became red
Salute to all of them!!

1923
The splinter of freedom
Became a raging forest fire in Andhra Pradesh
Salute to Aluri Sitarama Raju of Chintapalli
Salute to Rampa rebellion
1950
Selamat siang
Salute to Sudisman
Great mobiliser
created
Twenty million defeated persons into
Revolutionary - a dynamic force
In Indonesia
But the revolution failed
Thousands of comrades were massacred
Sudisman was sent to gallows

1952
From the jungles of Kenya
came the slogan
Mzungu Aende Ulaya,
Mwafrika Apate Uhuru
Let the European go back to Europe (Abroad),
Let the African regain Independence .
Children, old all thundered -
Uma Uma
get out, get out
-expression of unrestrained emotion
nationalist response to the unfairness and oppression
freedom fighters, the ‘Mau Mau'
vowed to free Kenya from colonialism....
the Mau Mau Uprising
Habari!
Salute
to the   Kapenguria Six   – 
Bildad Kaggia ,   Kung'u Karumba ,   Jomo Kenyatta , 
Fred Kubai ,   Paul Ngei , and   Achieng' Oneko  !

17 January 1961
Salute to Patrice Lumumba
The first democratically elected Prime Minister of Congo
Who fought for African identity. Said he:
For a thousand years, you, African, suffered like beast,
Your ashes strewn to the wind that roams the desert.
Your tyrants built the lustrous, magic temples
To preserve your soul, reserve your suffering.
Barbaric right of fist and the white right to a whip,
You had the right to die, you also could weep.
The criminal colonial Belgium
Robbers of the precious copper, gold and uranium of Congo
Conspired with the champion of democracy
-the superpower- US of A
Lumumba was arrested, beaten and tortured
Was lined up against a large tree
Then fired
And killed him
His body was hacked into pieces
Then dissolved into acid filled drum
Shame to those criminals
Who still preach and sing peons of democracy
11 September 11, 1973
In the Chile Stadium
While he was tortured
His fingers were being cut
He wrote the last poem of his life
Which remained unfinished
By the oozing blood of his fingers
-the swan song
Amidst bullet hurled on him
He wrote -
How hard it is to sing
when I must sing of horror.
Silence and screams is the end of my song
Salute to the great soul
Victor Jara

17 December 2010
There was a street vendor named Mohamed Bouazizi,
in small town Sidi Bouzid , Tunisia ,
He gave free fruit and vegetables to very poor families
Affectionately he was called Basboosa - the sweet halwa
He himself was poor
Running a family of six siblings
He didn't have a licence.
Police wanted bribe
Municipal staff wanted bribe
Confiscated his wares
Fed up with the harassment and humiliation
he procured a can of gasoline
standing in the middle of traffic,
He shouted ‘how do you expect me to make a living?’
He immolated himself alight with a match 
He died
5,000 people participated in the funeral procession
the angry crowd chanted ‘Farewell, Mohammed,
we will avenge you.
we weep for you today.
we will make those who caused your death weep’
Thawrat al-Karamah - Dignity Revolution started
Ultimately called Jasmine Revolution
Jasmine - the national flower of Tunisia
Dethroning the dictator   Zine El Abidine Ben Ali 
Mohamed Bouazizi
wa 'alaykum is salam!

17 June 2011
Salaam -
Yacoub Dahoud of Mauritania
who dared to set fire
himself in Nouakchott
Just in front of the President Palace
he burnt himself for a better Mauritania
where all people will enjoy justice
and revolution descended in the Arab world
in Egypt
Salaam Asmaa Mahfouz
in Syria
Salaam Razan Zaitouna,
In Yemen
Salaam Tawakkul Karman
And so on…
The fire of revolution never subsides
It cannot be subsided
It may remain dormant for a while
Yet it will be burning inside
Its only companion is poetry
Poetry never bends
It always remains
And burns
Sending flames
with the revolution
In the frontline
It still continues
the epic of revolution
still unfinished
no one knows when it will be completed
Till then several new names would be added
in the new blood soaked chapters
Salute to all of them
Salute
And salute…

Pankaj Prasoon, 62, is a well known Hindi poet with one anthology to his credit. He has authored over 50 books on international relations and diplomacy. He is the Director, Centre for India Political Research and Analysis, a Delhi based think tank on political economy.

28 December, 2011
Countercurrents.org