India, you've come a long way because you’ve survived as a nation for over six decades on the strength of a massive myth, a colossal con, a humungous hoax: Unity in Diversity.
Yes, my school, like all good schools, did a terrific job of brainwashing me into believing this fabrication for many years by making me wear funny costumes and parading me on a stage on Annual Day along with my friends who also wore funny costumes. But much as I would like to agree with the aphorism, I do not see any evidence of Unity in Diversity when, as a grown-up citizen nervously clutching my one sacred vote, I look around me today.
Yes, I know, you’re outraged by my abject pessimism on this glorious day of yours. You want to know what’s come over me. I’ll tell you. But before I begin, let me just abbreviate ‘Unity in Diversity’ to UniDy in the interest of word-economy. Now, now, don’t raise your eyebrow like that, dear India. We Indians have already abbreviated that concept in spirit; so what’s the big deal if I take the liberty to compress it semantically now? ‘Unity in Diversity’ can be quite a word-hog if it’s repeated a dozen times within the space of 1400 odd words, you know.
Coming back to the crux of the matter, here’s what I’m saying: UniDy is a sham you’ve perpetrated upon us, dear Mother. The dictum might have had some usage as an anesthetic at the time India was being delivered through a bloody cesarean section sixty years ago. But like all anesthetics, its effect on We the People wore off soon after.
How? Here’s how…
Take a small test. In the next 10 seconds try to recall one instance in current times where we Indians have risen above our narrow selfish motivations and spoken and acted in the larger interests of our nation. Ummmm….difficult? You bet.
Now take 5 seconds and recall some traumatic moments in the last couple of decades when Indians turned against Indians and your blood flowed in the streets and in gutters. Yes, I know, you don’t want to remember them. Those assassinations, those riots, the demolitions of places of worship, the terrorist violence, your own limbs Punjab, Kashmir and the North East turning against you, your vital organs Delhi and Mumbai hemorrhaging, the Meeruts, the Bhagalpurs, the Godhras... Considering that the singular cause of all these afflictions was competing religious denominations in a so-called secular nation, would it be too impolite for me to ask you a cryptic question?
Where is UniDy?
The Unity of shared human values in your frightening Diversity of faith and religion?
Was this example too violent for your tastes? OK, how about the revanchist politics in the name of social justice that has come to be the order of the day? The engineered rifts between caste grouping, the zero-sum game played by depraved politicians with willing participation from sections of the electorate where artificially scarce college seats and criminally abundant government jobs are sought to be redistributed among the populace based on fuzzy caste-based census data and super-precise electoral calculations. See how we react to these divisive policies. Those who stand to gain express their vindictive glee and unconcealed greed at the prospect of shutting the door on millions of their deserving fellow citizens who’d lose out on quality education and a livelihood for no fault of theirs. As for those who stand to lose, they react with indignation and try to stonewall any discussion on social justice using the Brahmastra of meritocracy. The real issue of how we can come up with a win-win formula to bridge the disparities between the haves and the have-nots gets smothered to death in the unbridled acrimony that is let loose.
Where is UniDy?
The Unity of a shared commitment to social justice with fair play in your mind-numbing Diversity of Caste and Creed?
Take water disputes. Agreed, the waters that flow in your rivers are today grossly inadequate to cater to the needs of our exploding population. But does that have to mean a shameful win-lose contest between citizens of contiguous states for grabbing the lion’s share of a river’s water resources? Do the citizens of State A not realise that if they are indeed able to hoard most of the water for themselves, it would mean immense hardships and scarcities for millions of their fellow-Indians living in state B? Even when the dispute is resolved by the courts, there is more bad blood between the peoples of the warring states than the amount of water over which it is generated.
Where is UniDy?
The Unity of shared compassion for all fellow Indians in the tyrannical Diversity of your geography?
Come to SEZs. Here we have the Government playing middleman and doling out large tracts of rural land to enterprising entities to set up industries and townships in hitherto undeveloped regions of our hinterland. Perfectly noble intentions. But then? Hordes of protestors, including those from rival political outfits, sundry NGOs and activists suddenly materialize out of thin air and carry out violent protests against the ‘evil Capitalists.’ Then the state hits back. Harder. And the larger question as to how we should go about bringing the fruits of India Shining to the vast areas where India is truly Whining without making farmers and land-owners feel cheated in the process is a non-starter.
Where is UniDy?
The Unity of shared aspirations for a better future in the inevitable Diversity between your India and your Bharat?
River valley projects? Similar story. An ambitious project with immense benefits both for rural and urban folks suffers from interminable delays and astronomical cost-overruns because of hair-splitting on the part of well-meaning but frustratingly cussed NGOs and social activists over relief and rehabilitation packages offered to project-affected families. What is lost in the process? Hundreds of crores of tax-payers’ money and time that could have been better utilized to build a stronger nation.
Where is UniDy?
The Unity of your people’s shared commitment to building a self-sufficient nation in the understandable Diversity of their conflicting interests?
Just look at yourself in the mirror and you’ll see a so-called nation state that is riven with religious, sectarian, social, economic, regional and linguistic faultlines. Faultlines that crisscross each other so densely that they literally granulate the population into thousands of tiny self-seeking interest groups that cannot look beyond the myopic objectives of garnering maximum benefits for themselves in the short term with scant regard for the effect this could have on those outside their circle.
And then there is hatred. An all-pervasive, persistent, malodorous smog of hatred for the Other hangs over our national psyche. Just look at the sheer number of Others you’ve provided each single citizen of yours to hate.
UniDy?
For heaven’s sake, for almost two decades now we haven’t been united enough to give a simple majority to a single political party and allow it to rule us without having one hand tied behind its back by the exigencies of coalition dharma.
Now you’re baffled, aren’t you? How did things come to such a pass? Let me provide a simplistic explanation.
Dear India, it is a trait peculiar to humans that the more progress they make, the more self-centered they get. UniDy worked in the first few decades of your existence because then, each Indian felt too weak to be able to discharge the onerous burden of nation-building on his or her own. Those were scary days when Indians found it safer to subsume their parochial interests into the greater good of the nation. Not any more. With fast-growing economies, all too visible disparities, and galloping aspirations, an Indian either feels so empowered that he does not need his fellow-citizens anymore of so angry that he does not want them anymore. And the only time we think as one nation, one people, is at the time of a national calamity when once again we all become individually helpless and find safety in mass jingoism. Remember Kargil? Remember anything like that after Kargil?
The cliché of Unity in Diversity worked so well for six decades that the diversities of language, food and culture have been all but obliterated today.
Alas! They’ve been replaced with diversities of the heart and made each Indian a mobile republic of one. Today you are one nation and a billion plus republics. Indeed you’ve come a long way, India.
Happy Republic Day!
Close
hello aditi,
thanks a lot for the visit and the thoughtful comments. i agree with your fundamental explanation as to what constitures a nation. i also agree that the regional politicians we've got have only aggravated local disputes and problems through their myopic and cynical machinations. i also have no problems with people rallying around local issues and voting accordingly as wanting them to do anything other than exercising their franchise as they please would be negating the meaning of democracy.
however, i do have a point to make about the examples of concern and elation that you've given. why is it that we choose to express our nationalist feelings (either in terms of collective concern or collective elation) only in a situation where india is in confrontation with an external entity, either on the battlefield or the playing field? why do we need a kargil for ordinary indians to coalesce into a powerful mass of nationalists or a 20-20 win over pakistan for us to feel proud of being indian. and why is it so easy for state-level politicians to brainwash their constituencies into taking positions that may be at odds with the larger national interest? i believe feeling indian ought to be a more comprehensive experience where, even in the absence of an external threat, we should be ever-conscious of the national interests. that was the point i wanted to make through my essay and i am glad several discerning readers like you have mulled it with seriousness.
thanks once again.
sandeep
Reply | | Report Abuse
dear atims,
seems like you've got no respite from sulekha bugs. honestly, i was wondering what your cryptic 'ab' was supposed to mean until i scrolled a bit higher and saw your detailed explanation. there's one more way you can work around the bug. type and save your comments in notepad and then paste them on the comment-box. that way whether it's go or no-go you'll still not lose your work. and it'll save you the embarassment of practicing your alphabet on someone else's real-estate.
coming to your comments, well i'll never accuse you of being an idiot for stripping down issues to the bare basics. that's where the solutions to problems lie and i am wondering what a fantastic career you'd have had if you'd opted for engineering.
anyways, i partly agree with you that one of the root causes of our conflicts is that there's often not enough to go around. but again, i don't agree completely because it's not as if people in the more prosperous and upwardly-mobile communities live in perfect harmony with each other. to give you a rather quotidian example, take the way we choose to celebrate our festivals. without naming any particular community or festival, i'll say that it's rather obnoxious the way the people belonging to a particular (any) community or sect play loudspeakers, burst crackers and hold up traffic, sometimes for days together just because they wish to celebrate their festival and believe everyone should partake in the revelry without demur. do they give any thought to those who might not belong to their community, who might not wish to participate and for whom these celebrations are nothing but nuisance? aren't they also indians, do they not have the right to peace and quiet? see, how selfishly we behave? we aren't even sensitive towards the conditions of our neighbours and we claim hum sab ek hain. the bigger issues that i've highlighted in my blog are indeed extrapolations of these self-serving tendencies among indians. we claim to be a warm and accommodating people, but at the core, we only care about our own little cabals.
thanks for dropping by.
sandeep
Reply | | Report Abuse
dear mr. rama rao garimella,
i truly appreciate your revisiting my blog to post another rejoinder to my earlier response. i am impressed at your passionate arguments against my stand and honestly i do not have the wherewithal to counter them all because they are so valid. it is indeed a happy situation that two indians from entirely different backgrounds are engaged in a civilised discussion on a subject on which they hold somewhat divergent views.
i am not at all surprised at the way bollywood and sports manages to unite most indians in either collective jubilation or grief. after all they appeal to some of the most common human emotions and preoccupations such as joy, sorrow, thrill, adventure, conquest etc. and our armed forces are indeed the epitome of national integration, no arguments about that.
what worries one at times is that the kind of conditions that led to the disintegration of the countries you've rightly quoted as examples supporting your stand also exist in our country in varying degrees. while many indians today are indeed experiencing a heightened sense of accomplishment, growth, prosperity and happiness there're also large sections of india that are experiencing injustice, violence, hatred, denial of opportunities and neglect at the hands of their fellow indians. in my opinion being a nationalistic indian should not just mean celebrating a cricketing victory over australia or jiving to the tune of bollywood hits. feeling indian should also mean being sensitive towards the real-life (as opposed to reel-life) needs and aspirations of those indians outside of one's family, community, state etc. it should mean thinking of the supreme interests of the whole of india. in that context i completely agree with you that the politicians must put the nation before the party or coalition. however, i do have a difference of opinion with you about your point that the new crop of politicians are socialising better with their adversaries. on the contrary, the level of politics in india has fallen to such an extent that even the most senior and respected politicians from across the political spectrum are not above playing dirty tricks and hitting below the belt. just recall the recent gujarat election, you'll get my point. in his article, 'the death of dignity' in 'india today' jan.14 edition, prabhu chawla has also made the same point.
however, in summary i'd say that it's the optimism and the positive thinking of individuals like you that's one of the ingredients in the glue that's still holding india together. i am indeed glad to have got to know you better through this blog.
keep visiting.
regards,
sandeep
Reply | | Report Abuse
hi bharatborn,
no problem, i didn't expect many readers to enjoy this essay anyway. but thanks for the visit and the forthright comment.
sandeep
Reply | | Report Abuse
Hi Sandeep,
A country is a geographical entity. Individuals identify first with their family, then with the village, then with the state/province…you get the drift. IMO, nothing wrong with that, as long as one is able to appreciate the context.
UniDy in the national context will be manifest when ordinary persons living lives of ordinary humdrum existence in various hamlets suddenly find something which makes them relate to others living within the same geographical entity either on a common point of concern or elation. The examples will be when a foreign country attacksIndia
On the example of inter-State disputes like sharing of river water, raising height of dam etc, the problem is basically of state-level politicians not rising to the stature of statesmen, and weak political will of the Centre. The point that I am wanting to make is that the problem is not really of the citizens not feeling “Indian” enough.
India
In any election, in any country, the ‘mass’ tend to vote according to local issues rather than amorphous 'national' issues, it is not peculiar to
Aditi
Reply | | Report Abuse
Can't recommend it because didn't 'enjoy' it. It's true. hard to find Indians in India.
Reply | | Report Abuse
sorry, the earlier comment was a trial, because these days i am having trouble posting comments. I type out a long one and send it off to get a message that there is an error on the page... so nowadays i first practice my alphabets as a prelude to the actual comment
.
Actually, it is just as well that last evening's comment did not go off, because after mulling over the issue, I find myself at a different place. First I was inclined to agree with every word you said. Now, the agreement is not total.
Firstly, we need to differentiate whether the discord is arising because of the basic economic problem of not having enough go around(which i feel is the case in the cauvery issue, education, jobs) or whether it is because of estrangement from the idea of the county as a whole.
REgarding the class and caste struggles we are seeing, I think it is a economic-political creation. If there had been enough resources to provide for everybody, i dont think the fabric of society would be as weak as it is now.
I do have a tendency to strip everything down to basics, and have been accused of being an idiot because of this. But as I see it, after sixty more years of education and prospertity, the faultlines will begin to heal. I dont see the prejudices going away totally, but i feel they will soften.
These things, I feel, dont happen through propoganda and hectoring. It is a slow process of social evolution and political maturity. Some regions, like the naxal and terrorist infested states will remain outliers and major sores on the map, but I feel the rest of the country is beginninng to come together, especially among the upper middle classes of educated professionals.. It will take time, but I am optimistic that the cohesive forces will trickle down as well.
Thx for a thought provoking post.
Reply | | Report Abuse
My dear Sandeep Shete,
First thanks for not taking umbrage at any of my comments.
2. About terrorism I am with u 100%. I have been advocating for tougher laws.
3. Coming to the point of national integration, what is this integration? This unity in diversity is not a myth as u would like to put it. Take our own example. I do not know ur background nor u mine. But we r sitting here and discussing this subject without getting worked up and trying to find a common ground. That itself is a small example of unity in diversity. We two r differnt in many ways, place of birth, profession, personal preferences etc but have a common factor the good of our country.
U will be surprised to note that things like Bollywood movies, Hindi songs. cricket matches,Davis cup matches, Vishwanadhan Anand's success in chess, Vijay Amritraj's moderate success in tennis, all work to bond the nation to a cohesive unit. Above all our Armed Forces drawing people from different parts of the country work as a very strong bond. U should see the comradarie amongst the serving & retired personnel of the Armed forces.
Take the case of Yugoslavia, a country with diverse ethnic groups which broke into pieces with horrible carnage of death and destruction. The USSR disintegrated when the people were given a whiff of freedom. We fight among ourselves for river waters and all states want a bigger share in the national pie and we kill and maime few frequently but still hold as a single entity of a nation. We are not going to have balkanisation of our country. No political party how stupid it may be will advocate that, ULFA in the north east and some other divisive forces supported and funded by outside powers are trying to disintegrate our country. But we r working on two flanks engaging them at the table and on the rugged fields outside.
If u compare this situation with countries like Combodia etc we r much better off.
I can quote many examples where prosperous countries like Nigeria were put asunder by internal strife and ruined. We should take heart and progress. The politicians must change their credo that the country comes first and their state, party and other things can only follow. The new crop of politicians except the reds are showing signs of maturity and chill it out even with their adversaries in other poarties. Let us hope that bright days are ahead. Leave your cynicism behind and think positively and if each one of us contribute in a small way for the national integration the nation will bond together fast. CHAKDE INDIA.
Ramarao.
Reply | | Report Abuse
dear nargis,
honestly, i struggled with myself before posting this overtly pessimistic blog on republic day. but then the issues i'v raised truly exercise my sense of being indian and hence i went ahead and posted it. republic day is as good a day as any to speak one's mind, i think.
i agree, we've come a long way and will make great progress in the coming years and decades. however, unless we learn to think of the supreme national interest before our own narrow aspirations, we're in for troubled times.
just look at the naxal problem for instance. do we even have a proper doctrine acceptable to most indians for dealing with the issue? while the centrel govt. might want to deal with naxalism more firmly, there're regional political forces that would like to take a more liberal stand for their electoral considerations. meanwhile, the naxals continue to expand their area of operations, bringing more districts under their nefarious influence. how long before large parts of india virtually become separate nations with naxal-ruled administrations?
anyways, thanks for the visit and the thoughtful comment.
sandeep
Reply | | Report Abuse
ha ha kaps!
the emoticon was just an afterthought to put some color in the commentbox. surely, you don't mind my being a bit informal with you, do you?
sandeep
Reply | | Report Abuse
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4
Displaying 1 - 10 of 35 Blog Comments