“Rajesh” by Emiliano Locatelli: a story of exploitation and the struggle for justice

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We are publishing an extract from the novel “Rajesh, lord of kings”GFE Editions) by director and screenwriter Emiliano Locatelli.
Rajesh, the sixteen-year-old son of Sikh immigrants originally from Punjab, contributes to the sustenance of Family. When a dramatic event irreversibly disrupts their daily equilibrium, they find themselves at a crossroads: choose the path of dialogue or be dragged into the spiral of Violence. In this first chapter, during the Sikh festival of Vaisakhi Sikh, Terracina it fills with colours, music and identity pride, while many Italians observe with hostility. Rajesh, a sixteen-year-old of Punjabi origin, participates with his parents, torn between religious tradition and egalitarian political ideals. Until the tension takes over.

Sikh Festival

The colours were vivid – those of the brightly coloured garments; the deafening noise of the crowd; the floats and the joy of the participants were exhilarating, taking one’s breath away. The streets of Terracina were literally swarming with Indians celebrating Vaisakhi. Men, women and children wore the turban typical of the Sikh faith – not merely a headdress, but a religious symbol representing the relationship between the believer and God, and the gratitude owed to the Creator. The joy on the faces of those celebrating was palpable; it was their celebration. Their pride. The clang of the scimitars in the re-enactment in Piazza Mazzini echoed amongst the shouts of enthusiastic schoolchildren singing in unison “Aar Nanak Paar Nanak”, a song by the Punjabi artist Diljt Donsanjh, which was all the rage at the time. There were no Italians to be seen. The city belonged entirely to the Sikh Indians; the festival was for them, their people, their identity, which they asserted with pride but without any sense of superiority. Sikhism firmly holds that, since God is present in every person, everyone is equal before God, regardless of race, skin colour, nationality or gender; therefore, Sikhism is rooted in religious tolerance, freedom and an awareness of social equality. That was certainly not the Italians’ time. It was not their celebration. The Italians were shut away in their homes, and those who watched from their balconies or from behind their shutters did so with contempt, judging others and considering themselves morally and ontologically superior. “The white man is evil,” a character in a film said to his son. One need only have a basic knowledge of world history and the undeniable atrocities of Western colonialism and imperialism to rightly consider that statement by no means without merit. Rajesh, sixteen years old, with chocolate-coloured eyes and a very dark, barely visible stubble. He was one metre eighty tall and well-built despite his young age. He walked amongst the revellers alongside his father, Kabir Singh, aged fifty, with a very long, greyish beard and the deep-set eyes of someone who has lived through countless hardships. His mother, who walked beside them, was called Ravi Kaur, she was wearing a brightly coloured dress typical of their community; she always had a smile on her face; she was a little overweight but had a well-proportioned figure; a long black plait fell over her right shoulder. Every Sikh man’s name must end in Singh. Historically, this was decreed by Guru Gobind Singh to all Sikhs on Vaisakhi, 30 March 1699, when he inaugurated the Khalsa, the Sikh community. Retaining the surname Singh signifies freedom from any caste, because on the South Asian subcontinent, a surname identifies one’s caste. Therefore, by using a single surname, Singh, any discussion of caste within Sikh families is eliminated. Every Sikh man has borne ’Singh“ as part of his name ever since. This was also a way of instilling a spirit of brotherhood amongst the Sikhs. A true Sikh is obliged to wear the distinctive symbols, the five Ks: the kesh, that is, long, uncut hair; the kangha, a comb; the kara, an iron bracelet; the kachera, loose-fitting, short trousers worn under one’s clothes as a sign of purity; and the kirpan, a dagger symbolising justice. Finally, with a full beard and a turban tied securely around his head, a Singh demonstrates high moral and ethical standards. ”Kaur’, on the other hand, is the name associated with all Sikh women. In Punjabi it means ‘princess’ and is widely used as a middle name by Sikh women. As with men, this custom was also introduced on Vaisakhi by the tenth Guru, Guru Gobind Singh. This action further confirmed the gender equality championed by the founder of Sikhism, Guru Nanak. The name ‘Kaur’ grants Sikh women a status equal to that of all men. Rajesh’s father was very religious, as was his mother. He, on the other hand, had little faith and, although he respected customs and traditions, he did so mainly so as not to disappoint his parents’ sincere devotion; they had the merit of never having forced their faith upon him. According to Sikhism, no one should, in fact, be compelled to follow a religion, but must feel a sincere interest in the faith. He harboured a deep respect for his parents, for their faith, their identity and their people. They were originally from the Punjab and had emigrated when he was very young; for this reason, Rajesh also felt Italian, even though he had not yet obtained citizenship; indeed, in accordance with his convictions, he considered himself a citizen of the world. A citizen of the world, not in the sense of liberal-capitalist cosmopolitanism, but in the socialist sense of the equality of all people, as envisaged in a future world where social classes have been definitively abolished. It was this aspect that most closely aligned him with the followers of the Sikh faith, which had emerged in stark contrast to the caste system of Hinduism. The Sikhs were a proud and combative people, as they demonstrated in the 1984 when, in opposition to Operation ‘Blue Star’, initiated by Indira Gandhi, came the famous Sikh uprising, a dramatic and extremely violent act that truly showcases the determination of the Sikh people. Rajesh, however, more than for Sikhism and Punjab, his homeland, had a profound admiration for Kerala, the Indian state that was the first in the world to democratically elect a Communist candidate. E.M.S. Nampoothiripad became the Chief Minister of Kerala in 1956, following the reorganization of state borders after India gained independence in 1947. Kerala boasted an literacy rate of ninety-one per cent, the highest in India, and the lowest corruption rate in the entire country. Rajesh always proudly reiterated these facts on the rare occasions when his friends discussed politics. He was a sixteen-year-old atypical for his age, more mature than most of his Italian peers, dazed by propaganda a neo-liberal driven by success at any cost, even selling one's privacy or body online. Nine times out of ten, he found himself refuting their arguments about the supposed Western supremacy in freedom of thought and action compared to countries with alternative systems to capitalism. He often concluded with a famous quote by Sandro Pertini: «Freedom without social justice is merely a fragile conquest, which for many amounts to the freedom to die of Fame»He was a deep admirer of Karl Marx and for that reason couldn't stop thinking that his parents, however much he respected them, had somehow had their minds clouded by the ’opium of the people“. Pasquale Vitiello, a distinguished-looking man in his mid-forties, bald like his ill-famed idol who was hanged upside down in Piazzale Loreto, with a grim look and a physique pumped up by various anabolic steroids, a cheating husband and aspiring entrepreneur-influencer, had turned right with his Porsche from via San Rocco into via Giacomo Leopardi and had ended up right in the middle of the Sikh festival. He had found himself stuck between the floats and the celebrating people. He began to rant, curse, and insult as.