Ravish Kumar > Quotes

“The act of speaking out makes you alone.”
― Ravish Kumar, The Free Voice: On Democracy, Culture and the Nation

“The reason for their silence was simple. They understood, ‘If the mob can do this to these people, it can do the same to me.’ People joined the mob to silence others; what they did not realize was that they had also learnt to become and remain silent.”
― Ravish Kumar, The Free Voice: On Democracy, Culture and the Nation

“दोनों की मुलाक़ात छत्तरपुर के मन्दिर में हुई। मगर अच्छा लगता था उन्हें जामा मस्जिद में बैठना। इतिहास से साझा होने के बहाने वर्तमान का यह एकान्त। ‘करीम’ से खाकर दोनों मस्जिद की मीनार पर ज़रूर चढ़ते। भीतर के सँकरे रास्ते से होते हुए ऊँचाई से दिल्ली देखने का डर और हाथों को पकड़ लेने का भरोसा। स्पर्श की यही ऊर्जा दोनों को शहरी बना रही थी। चलते-चलते टकराने की जगह भी तो बहुत नहीं दिल्ली में!”
― Ravish Kumar, Ishq mein shahar hona

“Communalism turns human beings into bombs.”
― Ravish Kumar, The Free Voice: On Democracy, Culture and the Nation

“Youngsters who do not know what it is to be in love and marry the person of their choice remain cowards forever, timid for life.”
― Ravish Kumar, The Free Voice: On Democracy, Culture and the Nation

“Be a film star's fan, or cricketer's, but never be a politician's fan.”
― Ravish Kumar, The Free Voice: On Democracy, Culture and the Nation

“The young no longer want to understand why a system made them spend lakhs of rupees studying to be engineers when at the end of it all they could not find jobs that would pay them even ten thousand. They took loans to gain admission and study in colleges that promised them training and placements. Those colleges don't exist anymore, but the loans are still being repaid.”
― Ravish Kumar, The Free Voice: On Democracy, Culture and the Nation

“Fake news engenders fake debates, and fake debates result in fake politics. It is a means to take the focus far away from the real problems that affect people.”
― Ravish Kumar, The Free Voice: On Democracy, Culture and the Nation

“Citizen or robot; democracy or tyranny - the choice is ours.”
― Ravish Kumar, The Free Voice: On Democracy, Culture and the Nation

“Those of us who do not learn lessons from history will become assassins for the history that is yet to be recorded.”
― Ravish Kumar, The Free Voice: On Democracy, Culture and the Nation

“If politics transforms society to such an extent that it calls the dissenter a traitor, putting a barbed wire of intimidation between itself and citizens, then that is a form of violence too.”
― Ravish Kumar, The Free Voice: On Democracy, Culture and the Nation

“The way things are in India, couples invariably find little love and far more hatred in the course of their love. That they still dare to love is worthy of our salutations.”
― Ravish Kumar, The Free Voice: On Democracy, Culture and the Nation

“While a ribbon awaits Usain Bolt at the finishing line, for people like us, there is a concrete wall. When you reach the finishing line, you run straight into that wall.
Everything, your job, your credibility, your life itself, is at stake.”
― Ravish Kumar, The Free Voice: On Democracy, Culture and the Nation

“To have faith is a good thing, no doubt. But that faith should rest on the foundation of facts, not emotions.”
― Ravish Kumar, The Free Voice: On Democracy, Culture and the Nation

“Who knows which case one will be embroiled in, and then one will be forced to make the rounds of the courts for years. This is very easily done in India.”
― Ravish Kumar, The Free Voice: On Democracy, Culture and the Nation

“नहीं सुनना भी एक तरह से नहीं बोलने देना है।”
― Ravish Kumar, Bolna Hi Hai : Loktantra, Sanskriti Aur Rashtra Ke Bare Mein

“एक दूसरे के आने और मनाने के इन्तज़ार में दोनों बहुत दूर चले”
― Ravish Kumar, Ishq mein shahar hona

“News channels have worked tirelessly to kill India's democratic ideals, with the result that vast numbers of the Indian people follow channels that ask no questions of the government. These channels have trained their viewers to watch only a particular kind of TV where nothing is demanded of them, except a willing and complete suspension of belief. And absolute amorality. Elected representatives can garland killers, ministers can lie, news anchors can read out government press releases as news. It bothers no one enough.”
― Ravish Kumar, The Free Voice: On Democracy, Culture and the Nation

“We must also strive to understand the nature of mobs. A mob has its own constitution. It has its own country. It drafts its own orders and directives, and identifies its own prey.”
― Ravish Kumar, The Free Voice: On Democracy, Culture and the Nation

“These exhortations to keep safe have made people cowards.”
― Ravish Kumar, The Free Voice: On Democracy, Culture and the Nation

“In Jharkhand, on 17 June 2019, a young man called Tabrez Ansari was tied to a pole sometime around midnight and beaten by a mob till six in the morning. As he was being battered, Tabrez Ansari was asked to say 'Jai Shri Ram'. He did. It did not save him. He died four days later.”
― Ravish Kumar, The Free Voice: On Democracy, Culture and the Nation

“In India, there is no love without a wall. Love may be possible without a mehboob, the lover-beloved, but it is not possible without a wall!”
― Ravish Kumar, The Free Voice: On Democracy, Culture and the Nation

“If I were a neta, I would have built a love park in every city and would have happily lost the next election. Naturally, society would not have approved.”
― Ravish Kumar, The Free Voice: On Democracy, Culture and the Nation

“Honour killing is a cocktail made of prejudice, hate and misogyny to which the colour red is contributed by religion, caste, father or brother as the occasion may demand.”
― Ravish Kumar, The Free Voice: On Democracy, Culture and the Nation

“Religion and caste have always condemned us to a lifetime of fear. In a customary moment of love we may sing a note or two about taking wing like birds, but the truth is we continue to be trapped in the cage of religion and caste. The way things are in India, couples invariably find little love and far more hatred in the course of their love. That they still dare to love is worthy of our salutations.”
― Ravish Kumar, The Free Voice: On Democracy, Culture and the Nation

“If any of the big fish still want to file a defamation suit against me, I have a small request to make: please do not slap a lawsuit of Rs. 100 crore on me. By all means file a suit, but let it be in the range of sawa rupaya - one and a quarter rupee - after all, an offering of sawa rupaya is enough to please our gods.”
― Ravish Kumar, The Free Voice: On Democracy, Culture and the Nation

“You cannot put yours and yourself in danger just to overcome your fear.”
― Ravish Kumar, The Free Voice: On Democracy, Culture and the Nation

“नौजवान 140 कैरेक्टर के ट्वीट और पावर प्वाइंट या मीम की जुबान में ही समझ सकेंगे, क्योंकि उनकी समझने की क्षमता का इतना ही विकास होने दिया गया है।”
― Ravish Kumar, The Free Voice: On Democracy, Culture and the Nation

“Truth be told, if you say you are not an objector, you are ranged against democracy. If you have a different point of view, say you are a dissenter. Post ten things on Facebook daily and say openly, 'Yes, I have a difference of opinion.' Being an objector is no crime.”
― Ravish Kumar, The Free Voice: On Democracy, Culture and the Nation

“साहस की कोई अंतिम मंज़िल नहीं होती।”
― Ravish Kumar, Bolna Hi Hai : Loktantra, Sanskriti Aur Rashtra Ke Bare Mein