Lindsay Pereira: Where's our Meryl Streep, you ask?

Meryl Streep during her speech at the Golden Globes earlier this month. Pic/AP

Meryl Streep during her speech at the Golden Globes earlier this month. Pic/AP

Here's a fun fact we should all consider: Speaking out is frowned upon in contemporary India. Shutting up is encouraged. We are urged, by our gov­­ernment and other powers - in subtle as well as direct terms - that it is best to put our heads down and carry on as best we can. To speak out against anything - be it perceived injustice, a very real threat or blatant misuse of power - is now enough to get a whole lot of people irate and bothered. In fact, some people are now paid to get annoyed on behalf of other people.

Unfortunately, this isn't restricted to India. Actress Meryl Streep realised this the hard way a few days ago when she dared to question the behaviour of a man running for the highest office in the United States. She won millions of supporters too because, just like India, not everyone in America has decided to shut up and accept what's given. Interestingly, even as her passionate speech cropped up on our timelines, a number of people wanted to know why we in India have no Meryl Streep of our own.

Why, they asked, do our stars never take a stand against anything? Why, they persisted, should we turn to the West for role models when we could have a couple too many right here? As someone who has little to no respect for anyone from the Hindi film industry, I agreed with this for a while, until I realised that it isn't exactly true. A number of stars tried to speak up in the past, but they were asked to shut up, by the powers that be, almost immediately.

Aamir Khan, for instance, said what anyone with a brain ought to have uttered, when he professed fear about where India was headed. He shared that his wife had wondered if they should leave the country because she feared for the safety of their child in our now well-established climate of insecurity. Within hours, he was attacked by everyone from politicians and their minions to a bunch of otherwise fairly respected folk, who thought it unacceptable that the actor (or an actor) could question India and its functioning in any way. Thereafter, Aamir had to issue a statement saying neither he nor his wife had any intention of leaving the country.

Another actor had to apologise too, for daring to say that India was increasingly becoming an intolerant nation. The irony of that statement was lost as thousands of supposedly patriotic folk insisted that Shah Rukh Khan take back what he said. The actor was soon compelled to issue a statement saying India was anything but intolerant. And then there was Om Puri, a man venerated by all and sundry after his untimely death a few weeks ago, and also a man vilified by members from within the film fraternity as well as outside because he dared to point out - correctly, as it happens - that India's soldiers are not forced to join the army. All he asked, on a televised debate, is whether everyone watching wanted India and Pakistan to become Israel and Palestine. For that, Om Puri was attacked relentlessly, brought to tears and even­t­u­ally forced to retract every word he had uttered.

There were others too - from filmmakers and sportspersons to economists - who were all vilified for not bowing down to what some people had to state. A couple of days ago, soldiers were banned from speaking out too. They were told that there were official channels for complaints but, let's be honest, when was the last time any government-affiliated department ever took a complaint seriously?

The thing about speaking out is this. If we don't do it for ourselves, there's usually a whole bunch of people who are more than happy to speak for us. The fact that sane voices are increasingly being drowned out by the use of force is no longer worrying because we have forgotten that our right to speak up is entrenched in our Constitution. Attacks in public, private and social media have now convinced us that questioning anyone in power is against our interests, allowing us to forget that these people have been elected specifically to promote our interests.

To not speak up is to admit defeat and let our governments do as they wish. To not speak up is to acknowledge the fact that we are citizens who have condemned ourselves to accept our fate. To not speak up makes it impossible for us to then ask, 'Where is India's Meryl Streep?'

When he isn't ranting about all things Mumbai, Lindsay Pereira can be almost sweet. He tweets @lindsaypereira Send your feedback to mailbag@mid-day.com