Art of Resistance – Page 4 – Once in a Blue Moon Academia

Many Tongues, One Resistance: Plea to the Distressed DHFL Victims

This plurilingual public appeal by OBMA addresses the defrauded depositors of DHFL, emphasizing the systemic failure of justice under crony capitalism in India. While recognizing the limitations of domestic legal remedies, it calls for peaceful civil resistance and international intervention through the UN Human Rights system (OHCHR). The article encourages mass mobilization via petitions, specifically targeting celebrity endorsement accountability (Shah Rukh Khan) and audit-credit rating failures. It frames this as a collective struggle for visibility, justice, and institutional memory. Multiple translations amplify inclusivity and reach.

Is change.org a Reliable Petition Public Platform for Justice?

This article interrogates the structural contradictions and opaque operational logic of Change.org, a platform widely regarded as a grassroots petition engine for justice. Drawing on the author’s lived experience with unexplained signature count reductions and suspected content suppression, it situates Change.org within the broader economy of digital activism where public outrage is algorithmically packaged for visibility and monetization. Despite popular assumptions of its progressive orientation, this paper argues that the platform’s apparent ideological tilt is symptomatic not of political commitment but of profit-maximizing emotional amplification. Furthermore, the piece contextualizes these concerns within a case study of the OBMA campaign for DHFL victims, where legal intimidation and social media censorship—allegedly linked to corporate interests—highlight the fragility of digital dissent. The article challenges both the ethical legitimacy and the epistemic reliability of Change.org as a site of justice-oriented mobilization.

MEMO SUBMITTED: Demand for a Judicial Truth Commission on the DHFL Verdict

This article announces the submission of a people’s memorandum to India’s highest constitutional and judicial offices, demanding a Judicial Truth and Accountability Commission to probe the DHFL Supreme Court verdict—a decision that legitimized the corporate expropriation of thousands of depositors’ life savings. The memo exposes judicial silence, regulatory complicity, and the erasure of dissent. Backed by a rapidly growing online mass petition, this is a collective cry for justice, transparency, and the restoration of democratic integrity in the face of systemic betrayal.

Justice via Intimidation? A Financially Abused Citizen vs. the Corporate-State Nexus

The author of this open communication to the Hon’ble Bombay High is a victim of the DHFL financial scandal. He reports receiving a Bombay High Court suit (No. 42 of March 17, 2025) unusually via the Mumbai Sheriff, which contained identity errors, redundant or blank pages, and a mere five‑day response window, compared to the 90 days apparently allotted to corporate plaintiff Mr. Ajay Piramal. He argues that this situation appears to constitute legal intimidation by a powerful corporate‑state nexus that has left him impoverished and unable to secure counsel within such a short temporal window. He highlights his right to self‑representation and demands clarity on the apparently vague allegations, framing the situation as Kafkaesque. Additionally, he draws attention to alleged corporate malfeasance linked to Ajay Piramal—insider‑trading fines, environmental violations, political donations, and controversial acquisitions such as DHFL, along with real‑estate deals—and contends that the political executives enforce the law selectively, favoring elites and infringing upon constitutional rights and international human rights norms. This open communication is intended to defend the fundamental freedom of speech and expression, which constitutes an exception to defamation as guaranteed under Article 19(1)(a) of the Indian Constitution.

The Suicidal Futility of War: A Mourning for Civilization and a Call for Disarmament

The article “The Suicidal Futility of War: A Mourning for Civilization and a Call for Disarmament” explores the devastating consequences of warfare on humanity, civilization, and the planet, arguing that war represents a self-destructive cycle that undermines progress and moral integrity. Drawing on historical and contemporary examples, the piece examines the immense human cost, environmental destruction, and societal regression caused by armed conflicts. It critiques the perpetuation of war through political, economic, and cultural mechanisms, highlighting the futility of seeking lasting solutions through violence. The author advocates for global disarmament as a moral and practical necessity, emphasizing the need for collective action, diplomacy, and non-violent conflict resolution to safeguard civilization. By mourning the losses inflicted by war, the article issues an urgent call for humanity to reimagine a peaceful future grounded in cooperation and mutual understanding.

A Snarky Ballad of a Certain Rabble

This satirical poem delivers a sharp, biting critique of a dominant socio-political religious faction in India—depicted as a loud, opportunistic “rabble” cloaked in religious symbolism yet driven by greed, division, and authoritarianism. Through mock-heroic verse, vivid imagery, and scathing humor, it satirizes their manipulation of faith, incitement of violence (e.g., “cow cops,” pogroms, “Love Jihad”), suppression of dissent (notably referencing the murders of freethinkers like Gauri Lankesh and Kalburgi), and collusion with media, courts, and corporate interests. The poem also lambasts the distortion of heritage—cherry-picking myths and demolishing sacred sites in the name of “progress.”

The critical analysis beneath the poem unpacks its thematic layers—religious hypocrisy, institutional complicity, cultural vandalism—while interpreting its formal elements: mock-epic structure, colloquial tone, sharp wordplay, and rich metaphor. It positions the text as a potent Foucauldian counter-discourse, exposing how power constructs and enforces narratives, and encourages readers to resist hegemonic truths through satire and intellectual dissent.

Thy Hand, The Great Monarch

“Thy Hand, The Great Monarch” is a scathing satirical poem that critiques an authoritarian Indian leader, portrayed as a self-aggrandizing “titan” ruling through delusion, paranoia, and hypocrisy. Drawing on Alexander Pope’s The Dunciad, Nirad C. Chaudhuri’s Thy Hand, Great Anarch!, and V.S. Naipaul’s India: A Wounded Civilization, the poem constructs a discursive narrative of India’s descent into a “Duffer Zone” of mediocrity, where populism, cronyism, and majoritarianism erode democratic values. It accuses the leader of orchestrating violence (e.g., Gujarat riots, Pehlu Khan’s lynching), enabling economic exploitation (e.g., Rafale, DHFL scandals), and undermining constitutional principles through policies like demonetization and CAA-NRC. The poem’s psychological portrait aligns with Adorno’s Authoritarian Personality, highlighting traits like conventionalism, aggression, and anti-intraception, while Foucault’s concepts of panoptic surveillance and biopolitics frame the leader’s control mechanisms. Through vivid imagery and historical parallels (Mussolini, Hitler), it calls for resistance against a regime of deceit, urging a recall to reclaim India’s diverse soul from theocratic and neoliberal decay.

Spect-Actors of the Dust and Debris: A Play

The play, perhaps set in a dystopian, satirical India, employs a fluid theatre troupe in Khalasi Tola to present a radicalized performance that critiques and “plays out” systemic corruption, authoritarianism, and social injustice. Drawing primarily on Brecht’s alienation effect and Boal’s Legislative Theatre, it thematically intertwines real-world issues—such as the DHFL scam, the 2002 Gujarat riots, Adani-Ambani cronyism, and pseudo-science—with activated characters that blur the lines between fact and fiction, engaging interactive spect-actors in the process.

Oligarchs, Jokes, and a Pinch of Democracy: An Agit-Prop

This agit-prop is a sharp, satirical theatrical performance set in a dystopian 2025 Mumbai comedy club, blending the traditions of Charlie Chaplin, Bertolt Brecht, and Dario Fo to mount a fierce critique of India’s current political and media landscape. Using the techniques of “total theatre” and “epic theatre,” the play breaks the fourth wall and demands audience engagement, creating a space where humour becomes rebellion. Anchored by Akash Banerjee’s scathing monologues and featuring an ensemble of comedians like Munawar Faruqui, Vir Das, and Kunal Kamra, alongside journalists such as Ravish Kumar and Dhruv Rathee, the performance employs alienation effects and direct address to spotlight the nexus of politics, propaganda, and profit. The stage becomes a visual battleground of symbols: a Modi impersonator lies in a hospital bed gripping a vial of sindoor, surrounded by forged degrees from “Entire Political Science” and “WhatsApp University”; demonetized ₹500 notes bear the mocking stamp “Black Money Not Found”; a Pegasus spyware phone labeled “Snoop Mode On” links to a rigged EVM; and a “Godi Media” mic is manipulated by puppets of corporate moguls. Even the audience is not spared—projected as part of the performance, they are handed placards reading “Truth is Anti-National” and “Laugh or Be Hacked,” implicating them in the spectacle. With dark comedy and biting wit, the agit-prop exposes the erosion of democracy, the complicity of the media, the surveillance state, and the stranglehold of oligarchic power, urging spectators to become participants in resistance rather than passive consumers of spectacle.

Licensed Thieves & Shady Transactions: Sarcastic Posters Exposing the Systemic Rot in the DHFL “Scam”

This im/passioned collage of posters from many of the Indian citizens highlights the systemic corruption and financial abuse exemplified by the Dewan Housing Finance Corporation Limited (DHFL) scam, portraying it as a symptom of a broader BJP-headed autocratic regime’s collusion with crony capitalists like Ajay Piramal and others like Ambani and Adani. India’s low score of 38 on the 2024 Corruption Perceptions Index underscores the pervasive corruption that enables such financial heists. The misuse of the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC) of 2016, coupled with the Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) appointment of a complicit Committee of Creditors (CoC), facilitated the orchestrated plundering of DHFL depositors’ savings. Against this backdrop, sarcastic book covers and posters serve as powerful tools of resistance, exposing the roles of the RBI Governor and CoC members in alleged bribery, audit fraud, and data manipulation. These creative expressions are not only a critique of financial misconduct but also a broader condemnation of human rights violations, where systemic greed strips citizens of all senses of dignity and security. The narrative calls for justice through satire, urging accountability in a nation suffocated by regulatory apathy and political patronage.