Member-only story
The personal is the political
Writing personal essays is a form of activism
Last week, I received a comment from a reader on a blog post written in 2019. The piece highlighted my immediate thoughts after the populist party in India had a landslide victory in elections. I was angry, afraid and defeated as I watched Indians cheer in the victory of a right-wing party. A party that had brazenly taken steps against the minorities, the poor, and the dissenters. In my article, I urged the readers to recognise that this election was a defeat of India’s inclusivity. The comment instead questioned my intellect, almost calling me blind and small-minded, to not recognise the larger problem, that of a depleting sense of humanity within our community.
The over-arching nature of the comment was to point towards a grave need to address the ego-mindset of a population that was driven by hate and anger. However, the comment also assumed that I had been unaware of the underlying currents of bigotry and was living in a bubble until then. That made me think, to what degree should I express my personal feelings in the public domain? How much do I need to put on the plate for someone to know where I come from? Do I really need to justify how I feel?
Currently, personal essays make nearly 80% of my writing portfolio. And while I immensely value my private life…
