Both the first and second fasts of Anna for pressuring the Government to pass the Jan Lokpal Bill into law have given rise to a veritable tsunami of bitterness and anger in the Northern states, with Delhi, naturally, being the epicentre. The demonstrations of solidarity with the fasting septuagenarian have been both spontaneous and spectacular, with no political party, established organisation or central guiding hand behind them.

There has been nothing in living memory, except, perhaps, at the time of the Quit India movement, that comes anywhere near the mammoth procession of a lakh or more taken out in Mumbai. Even cities such as Guwahati, Jammu, Chandigarh, Bhopal, Gwalior and Chandigarh witnessed large gatherings demanding the passing of the Jan Lokpal Bill.

Everywhere, the milling throngs went to great lengths to add spice to their participation by means of innovatively designed posters, graffiti and slogans, evocative skits and tableaux, mimics of Mahatma Gandhi and other past national leaders and similar novel methods that captured the people's imagination. The effect of “I am Anna”, inscribed on the Gandhi caps worn by everyone, and coming out of the mouths of even children, has been electric.

These, combined with the waving of large national flags by the gargantuan gatherings, have contributed to the spell cast by the fast with its powerful message against corruption resonating in every Indian citizen. The most striking feature of the Anna phenomenon is the way it has appealed to the students, youths and professionals, drawing them out in huge numbers as never seen before.

SPORADIC AND SMALL

This is understandable in view of the idealism, dynamism and sensitivity that are invariably associated with youth. (It is quite another matter that the younger group of politicians is lying low, not daring to let the party elders know where exactly it stands.)

Despite the efforts of the Indian media to convey the contrary, there has been no noteworthy groundswell in the Southern states to Anna Hazare's fast.

The truth is that voluntary organisations and citizens' groups have been finding it rather difficult to rouse the sentiment of the people and mobilise them in appreciable numbers to join in the public protest.

There have, no doubt, been sporadic and small gatherings at scattered venues and some instances of fasting in the spirit of the cause Anna is espousing, but these have all been notional, if not listless. To all appearances, the situation in Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Kerala as well, is no different.

One does not need to go too far back to notice this singular inability of the South either to feel turned on about the happenings in the North or to take part in them with the expected zeal and zest.

The South was not in the same league as the North at the time of the first War of Independence.

SOLACE AND ASYLUM

The share of the South in the freedom struggle too does not compare well with the epic scale it attained in the North.

Actually, not only the British, but also the leaders of the nationalist movement in the North, dubbed the Madras Presidency “benighted”, and its denizens mild, meek and moderate, with an infinite capacity to put up with atrocities and indignities.

The South looked askance at Jayaprakash Narayan's total revolution, leave alone throwing itself into it with its might and main as many Northern states did.

Its reaction to the Internal Emergency imposed by Indira Gandhi, was also a muted one, and in the election of 1977, when the entire North resoundingly booted the Congress out, the South did exactly the opposite by providing it solace and asylum.

Is there something in the character and culture of the South that holds it back from any outpouring of exuberance and frenzy into which Northern states can work themselves in a trice?

Is it also that the South, having throughout history been insulated from the upheavals and conflicts that have characterised the North, has unconsciously developed a tendency to stand aloof from the national mainstream?

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