Being a writer activist.
By Malik Altaf
A writer is the person who writes literary works, magazines, books, articles and columns, exposing emotions, ideas and varities of issues prevailing in his habitat. Being a writer is one among the better jobs in world. Taking up the responsibilities of society or state by using a pen is subtly good service.The age we live in, has co-ordinated print and electronic media to social podiums of media which has such a huge market of followers, publicizing every printed issue to the accountable authorities and get addressed with quick in time. Pen has always been dominating with significant amount of power and that a writer’s pen has more power than the trigger of a gun that it can shake the world with the sense of jotting down the facts, bankruptcies, thefts, frauds nepotism, money laundering, drench politics and other legal and illegal issues prevailing around him. But with all this might, a writer owes heaps of responsibilities.
Responsibilities to his community, his state and the Constitution indeed.
Thrusting one with a responsibility, means he has a duty to do something, that if he fails, he is accountable to an authority. Most writers in the world take this profession as a choice. Means that they are free to express what they want to, for welfare of people. So they have writing as an instrument to express it as a part of their role.Thus if you take responsibility by choice that means you entrusts yourself a bag of obligation of his people, society, which he needs to pay without breaking down and disobedience any of the Constitution. A good writer takes every initiative to reach out to the community he is habitant of and exposes the crux of crises, scarcity and domestic violence or gender issues, intellectually public so that the authorities would take due notice to sort them out. The issues like road facility, drinking water, transport, health, education, electricity deserve an immediate action and only a writer can cover these issues to deal them done with the due interventions of concerned authorities. Domestic violence against women has been a grave issue in our societies and these issues do not get any better coverage by media. But a good writer can put these narratives on paper and make the entire population aware about their responsibility towards the rights and dignity of women. Child labor and primary education to all is one more rising concern in our country. The economically backward people send their children to work in hotels at a very tender age which I witnessed in Srinagar and elsewhere hotels. These kids don’t only mess up their childhood but also ruin their primary stage of learning school education. Drug abuse in our society, which is now rising rapidly and gulping youth is another grave issue and a writer needs to space it on daily basis. Recently I got through a news paper and read an alarming line” Our one generation was lost to bullets and our future generations might be lost to drugs”. Thus drug abuse too needs a great quantity of ink and paper. And there are a range of topics prevailing in our societies to be taken up as a write up, which hopefully will assist to a greater extent to settle them.
Greater kashmir, the leading newspaper of Jammu Kashmir had a news report on 1st May 2019 which terribly shocked me down. It said ” Close to India – Pakistan border near Rajasthan’s Pokhran lies a village where residents are slowly succumbing to cancer, perhaps paying the price for the two nuclear tests conducted in its vicinity. However none of the concerned officials have so far paid attention to the health travails. The nuclear tests were conducted in 1974 mere 10 kilometres away from Kartholi village and in 1998 only three kilometres away from the village. These issues are more than grave thus needing ink. Responsibility to Constitution.
The citizens of India need to uphold the Constitution of the country and so is the duty of writers. They too need to maintain the boundaries of Constitution. The Constitution of India grants the freedom of speech and expression under Article 19(1a). But the Constitution restricted the freedom of speech if it is against the interest of the state, it’s sovereignty and integrity, national security, relationships with the foreign states ,Public order (morality), the honorable Courts, defamation or incitement to an offense. Writers need to be careful of the above mentioned restrictions and to confine themselves to write for the welfare of the state.
Above all this, if a writer writes against some of the government plans, which public opinion is not in favor of, or the decisions of government that lead to agitations and unrest or sometimes some initiatives of the government disturb the law and order situation, the term activist adds to the name of the writer. Being an activist is not even harmful because he doesn’t do anything illegal, he rather works for the uplifting of his state or society. An activist observes government schemes, plan’s, budgets and agreements and searchs loopholes to lampoon over them. Because activists are devoted to development and improvements in their nation. In the midieval times the worldly rulers would hire court poets or poet laureates. These poets were supposed to write poetry or any other work in favor of ruling party. At the same time they would also give messages to the rulers in terms of needs and crises if any, in the state. So they worked as agents for both the king and the subjects. At that era time witnessed both the writers and activists. But with the passage of time the system changed quickly and media took the responsibility of channelising the govt and it’s development, schemes, plans and etc.
In this world we have access to every source of media and so can we reach to the work of writers. Newspapers, magazines, journals and others sorces reach to all by direct or indirect means and thus seek the readers information.
Thus a writer has a big role to play and an activist in him makes him more vigilant, keen, responsible and patriotic to his people, his nation and his Constitution.
