Banging pots & pans not just an Indian thing, Brazil using it to protest against Bolsonaro

In Brazil, and other South American countries, banging pots and pans as a mark of protest is a longstanding tradition.

A cacerolazo in Buenos Aires in 2004 | Wikimedia Commons

New Delhi: Indians might be banging pots and pans as a show of appreciation for the medical community and essential service providers, but in Brazil, citizens have been using it to protest against their president, who has been criticised for his lukewarm response to the coronavirus pandemic.

After 15 days of protests, it appears to have changed President Jair Bolsonaro’s stance. From once dismissing it as a “little flu”, he referred to the pandemic as “one of the greatest challenges of our generation” during a television address Tuesday.

Bolsonaro said the “virus is a reality” that the world is facing and added that Brazil had a “mission to save lives”. The president had earlier downplayed the severity of Covid-19, claiming other viruses had caused far more death, and referred to the shutdowns in Brazil as a “crime” that was destroying the country.

In Tuesday’s speech, he also said citizens must be careful and take precautions, especially the elderly. However, he also maintained that jobs should not be forgotten, and there was a need to fight against the rapidly growing unemployment levels.

Banging utensils an old tradition

The citizens’ protest is part of a longstanding political tradition in Latin America called panelaços or cacerolazo. For weeks, thousands of protestors in different cities across the country have been showing their anger towards Bolsonaro by banging their cookware and chanting slogans like “Out with Bolsonaro” and “murderer” from their windows.

The word Cacerolazo comes from the Spanish word for stew pot, ‘cacerola’. The use of  pots, pans, or any other utensil to make the clanging noise symbolises dissatisfaction and empty stomachs.

It is common across different parts of Latin America, like Bolivia, Chile, Colombia and Bogota, and has been a central feature in movements that brought down several governments, from Ecuador to Argentina.

In Brazil, the unique protest was instrumental in the downfall of Dilma Rousseff, who was controversially impeached in 2016.

According to Colin Snider, a Latin America historian at the University of Texas, cacerolazos was used in Brazil in 1964 when middle-class homemakers feared that the leftist policies of President João Goulart would lead to food shortages.

It was used again in 1971 in ‘The March of the Empty Pots and Pans’ when Chilean women used the technique against then president Salvador Allende, the country’s socialist head of state who was overthrown by Gen. Augusto Pinochet a few years later. Since then, the form of protest has become popular across the region.

Sign of thanksgiving

Outside of South America, the banging has taken a more positive connotation.

In India, citizens used it to applaud the efforts of doctors, nurses, policemen and other essential service providers dealing with the coronavirus pandemic on the frontlines. It was done after Prime Minister Narendra Modi called on citizens to do so on 22 March, the day of the ‘janta curfew’.

People in New York similarly showed their appreciation last week for its frontline coronavirus workers by clapping for them in public. The UK also had a similar event in London in which people clapped applauded the medical community and the National Health Service (NHS).