Pseudo-Nationalists
By Rashmi Sawhney
Go, we don’t need you.
Your nationalism,
Made for abuse and murder
Manufactures history at will
You’re not welcome here, leave
You build your homes over graves
Hide the skeletons of farmers
Beneath shiny lies
Before our spectre haunts you, disappear
If done with exploiting
Migrant labourers
Done with your sneers
Before we chase you out, vanish
We will gather in hordes
To throw you into a hellfire
Go, prove your innocence
Run, before you are made to leave
by the women
You call prostitutes
Who resist your devilry
Go. We reject you
We know where you hide.
Killers of Dalits
Whose breath you stamp out,
Spirits you cannot buy
Retreat into your cowsheds
Roll in the hay
Soon our dreams and desires
Will set your fascist nation on fire
There will be nowhere to hide
Unleash, deploy all might
Coerce, bribe, threaten, it won’t help
We’re watching you
The way you watch us
Bio:
Rashmi Sawhney is an academic and occasional writer, currently based at The Srishti Institute of Art, Design and Technology in Bangalore. She was formerly Associate Professor of Cinema Studies at the School of Arts and Aesthetics in JNU.
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