If There is a God Above

by Prakash Kona

The cottage industry, so vital for India’s existence, has been ruined by incredibly heartless and inhuman processes... Little do town dwellers know how the semi-starved masses of India are slowly sinking to lifelessness. Little do they know that their miserable comfort represents the brokerage they get for the work they do for the foreign exploiter, that the profits and the brokerage are sucked from the masses... I have no doubt that both England and the town dweller of India will have to answer, if there is a God above, for this crime against humanity, which is perhaps unequalled in history. — Mahatma Gandhi, 1922, District and Sessions court, Ahmedabad, India

If there is a God above. Perhaps there is one. Perhaps none.
If there is a God above the powerful must account for their deeds,
The rich must explain where their wealth comes from
if not the sufferings of the poor,
The United States must explain why it supports fascists everywhere,
For the countless deaths of children in Iraq,
for a history of slavery and genocide,
Israel must answer for the colonization of Palestine,
for persecuting the ones who resist,
And rendering them homeless in their own homes,
Europe must answer for its colonial greed and anti-semitism,
India for centuries of oppressing the so-called ‘polluted’ castes,
The World Bank and IMF for their conscienceless manipulation
of Third World economies,
And putting the poor in a state of perpetual debt and servitude,
The good must account for silence in the face of injustice,
for pessimism and lack of resolve —
The beasts that devour the overtly sensitive,
Every man must answer for the subjugation of every woman,
The media for drugging the masses with untruths upon untruths,
The murderers of Patrice Lumumba and Chris Hani
Rosa Luxemburg and Gandhi,
Must seek forgiveness for the unforgivable;
Surely it must be an inordinately patient God that can listen
to so much explanation,
And remain unaffected by contradictions,
Perhaps there is one above. Perhaps none.