Hartal …Few
people in the world knows what it stands for .Step in to Kerala and you could have a first hand experience. It is supposed to be a non violent mode of protest. Unfortunately it is seldom so. The
Hartal could be organized by any political group, organization or as they funnily put it, in Kerala, a group of even 4 individuals could organize one. All shops, offices and transportation come to a standstill and literally you are stuck if you had any serious plans that day. Each Month typically, you could experience almost 2 hartals on working days. One wonders whether these help in any way as form of protest since everybody has accepted it more as a break from working long hours than bringing radical change in the system.Kerala with its high literacy rate can do better if they abolish this crude form of dissent. In fact, if you observe, a keralite working outside the stateand who has known only the hard way up, seldom approves of hartal.Usually it is people who are unemployed and poor who on political instigation get carried away to try changing the system although the issue for which they protest may hardly affect their or anyone’s life. They should realise that they have their destiny in their own hands. If they need upliftment in society, Hartal is hardly any solution