Protests, Literature and Teachers’ Day

As we celebrate Teachers’ Day in India on September 5^th, one of the greatest challenges remains to be a teacher who can stay true to values and ethics, keep the spirit of protest against injustice alive, and resist the pressure to be a popular or politically correct face. Often, idealistic teachers are not immediately appreciated. But, when their ideals shape lives for the better, the sacrifices made are always worth it. No wonder, literature remains a great friend of such teachers who fight for values and ethics.

Can you imagine protest without literature? Can you imagine a human being without a brain and a heart? Protest without literary guidance and enthusiasm often remains soulless and directionless. No wonder, writers and thinkers, poets and storytellers and genuine teachers remain the most feared enemies of dictators and tyrants. Here is the great American poet Ella Wheeler Wilcox writing on protest.

Protest

Ella Wheeler Wilcox

To sin by silence, when we should protest,

Makes cowards out of men. The human race

Has climbed on protest. Had no voice been raised

Against injustice, ignorance, and lust,

The inquisition yet would serve the law,

And guillotines decide our least disputes.

The few who dare, must speak and speak again

To right the wrongs of many. Speech, thank God,

No vested power in this great day and land

Can gag or throttle. Press and voice may cry

Loud disapproval of existing ills;

May criticise oppression and condemn

The lawlessness of wealth-protecting laws

That let the children and childbearers toil

To purchase ease for idle millionaires.

Therefore I do protest against the boast

Of independence in this mighty land.

Call no chain strong, which holds one rusted link.

Call no land free, that holds one fettered slave.

Until the manacled slim wrists of babes

Are loosed to toss in childish sport and glee,

Until the mother bears no burden, save

The precious one beneath her heart, until

God’s soil is rescued from the clutch of greed

And given back to labor, let no man

Call this the land of freedom.