Words offer the means to meaning and for those who listen the enunciation of truth and the truth is that there is something terribly wrong with this country. We have suffered for it in the past and few people among us, called politicians by some, are taking us back to the same history. India suffered at the hands of foreign invaders because there was no 'India' as such. There existed a conglomeration of multitude of kingdoms. The identities were with kingdoms and not with nation. That made possible the divide and rule. That was why a civilization thousands of years old was plundered and conquered.
Today most of us, even the most educated and/or urban ones would identify themselves with anything but our country. Prominent among them are caste (ages old) and region(new one). While the former is politically most efficacious in northern India, the later is in southern part. Caste based voting is an unsaid rule in most part of India. The phenomena is observed without exception in rich/poor and educated/uneducated. Factually speaking Maratha Empire (a great and highly revered among all Indians) was not spread all over India. Even when at its peak it reached till Meerut. Yet there are multiple instances of people claiming Martha identity rather than Indian. If at all we require an icon for INDIA then it is Ashoka who held the largest empire in India. Precisely that is why we have that symbol in our national flag.
Now that we have a country 'INDIA' these self proclaimed saviors of pride, so-called leaders are driving Her into the same abyss! Its not only the fault of leaders. They will do whatever gains them votes. Certainly there are those who are more responsible than others, 'but again, truth be told if you are looking for guilty you need only to look into a mirror'. They corrupted our reason and robbed us of our common sense. Things like caste, regionalism and the associated pride are just a matter of mental construction. Tell me what good has pride brought to any mortal. Often have we heard that saying 'Pride comes before fall'. Time and again we hear invidious comments and fall trap to the demagogues.We should learn from what prosperity European Union has brought to Eu nations. They succeeded as conglomeration of nations and we can't even make one single country out of our people. The sooner we realize the fact the better it will be for the people. We are an entity as a subcontinent and should move as whole.To reiterate we can move only as a bigger unit not as many smaller units. So start believing in INDIA. That is our foremost identity. Time to stop blustering about unity in diversity. Time to get out of dilemma of multiple identity and identify ourself with one motherland.
8 comments:
Superbly written Saucy.. Couldn't have agreed more..
"We are an entity as a subcontinent"-The subcontinent also has Pakistan in it. Can we ever unite with Pakistan without being submissive?
Thanks for praises...
It's hard to think of uniting with pakistan. We would not prefer internecine battle but an environment of mutual progress, which of course at this time seems impossible.
Illiteracy and poverty seems to widen the gap.Gap between educated-uneducated.Gap between rich-poor.Gap between Maharashtra-UP.Gap between high caste-low caste( still in place like IIT there are several people who boast them self of being (hypocritical) Bharamin!!)
Some sections of people make use of gaps to further broaden them, for motives(may be monetary, may be political).
The attitude of all of us need to broaden up.The attitude to accommodate my neighbor in my boundaries.May be lack of resources or too much possessiveness makes it difficult for us to share.
We are not going to develop properly if we unite and without development unity is not possible.This seems to be a vicious circle!
What say?
Yes. rightly.
The absence of education and literacy leads to uninformed choices and the result is the kind of leaders we have.
We will need more education and informed decision regarding election of leaders. But the irony is that it is the educated class who tends to keep out from the elections.
This is where a country needs Gandhis and Lincolns to break the vicious circle.
The situation is imperative and calls for concerned action. So while trying to fill the gap whatever mite each of us contribute will count!
And I think people who have feasted education subsidy for 4(or 5 or 2) years have greater responsibility.
Yes sure!
But again comes a question of personal spaces and concerns.
Does education system in our country really inculcates concern for poor in us?
Even if somebody has some passion the "capitalistic tendencies" in human being reinforced by human desire(instinct) to dominate others and dictate others extinguishes that passion rendering that person with selfish motives.
So there is pressure for a person from inside and outside
Still in our society getting into IIT means that you are settling outside country(and one not doing so considered "less bright") or working for multinational in Iindia who pay a lot but are in a way pumping profits away from India,by making use of cheap labor.
Everybody faces society's pressure from outside and "human instinct" pressure from inside.Finally, in most of the cases, person becomes insensitive to others' serious concern(like poverty!)
Differential Education system creates problem too.
not long before i read in a newspaper headline about "Dream America". And u r right that high value is associated with everything 'foreign'. This shows in some ways the slavish attitude of our society even after so many years of independence. This is very frustrating.
People will worship NRIs instead of national achievers. What good are this Venkatraman, Sunita Williams,LN mittal doing to our country? Its only that 'pride' trash that we Indians draw pleasure in.
Is there any solution to this??
And take my words education definitely can't solve it!
Present education system only worsen the situation.
Those who are educated part themselves from an average(or in better words common people!!)Indian!
A moral sensibility needs to be inculcated.Everybody can learn Tic-Tac-Toe of Mathematics easily but morality and sense of mass responsibility need a lot of time and effort with motivation.
Second point to ponder is that we may feel proud of Indian doing good abroad but do we Indian(normal!) feel proud of our own country.Everyone is proud(sometimes!) of his/her own culture, language, religion and so on but element of national pride supporting fabric of national integrity which should be there(to have national pride!), is absent.
From where pride should come?!!.
I am mystified by Chanakya's concept of 'Bharat'.How that fellow envisioned and integrated BHARAT! and drew borders of country(though no entity like Bharat ever existed before his time!) and we(presently) given at least boundaries of country are trying hard to manage the falling pieces. There is really something to be learnt from his motivation and strategy.
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