For all those who are confused, there are 28 states in India and 7 Union Territories. New Delhi is not a state but only the capital city of India and National Capital Territory of Delhi. Anyways the motive behind this post is not to educate anyone about the States and UTs. In India but to present my views on the state of affairs in India at present.
Someone at some point of time had asked me what is the use of expression of these kinds of thoughts and discussions? I replied to that question by saying that such profound thoughts and serious discussions with people who are either experienced or have a sound knowledge of the subject, bring clarity in our own mind about the notion we have of things. And the expression of such thoughts and discussing the same is nothing but passing on the baton to the like minded people and introducing new people with your ideas. And you never know how much and what an idea can do. I never impose my views on anyone. But like minded people are bound to follow.
My views on India are neither new nor flabbergasting. I think all of us are aware about the same and sometimes speak with fellow mates about the same. To summarize whatever I am going to write below, without any doubt I have to say that India is in a state of confusion. Rather, Indians are in a state of confusion (why to blame this beautiful country for the acts of the bursting population).
Indians were always in a state of confusion and still they are and for many more years to come, they shall remain in the state of confusion. And the foundation has been the classification and division of the Indians and India from time to time. Without discussing too much history and events which may be disputed (as history is never clean and is always disputed), let us look back at the very basic classifications of –“Racial Divide” and “Caste System”. In my views, it were the Indian Early Men or Tribals or Dravidians who were inhibiting originally in India and used to speak their own Dravidian languages among themselves. A recent judgment by Katju J. and Mishra J. passed on January 5, 2011 very nicely describes how India has been affected by immigration and how 92 % of the present population of India consists of descendants of immigrants.
Since Indian Early Men or Tribals or Dravidians were human beings, undoubtedly they would have formed different tribes, folks or groups based on affinities between them and such tribes, folks or groups must have had their own folklores, deities they worship, etc and it appears that there would not have been a huge difference in the religious practices and thus there would not have existed too many gods, sects and religions as they exist today (including Sachin and cricket). But then India was hit by a series of invasions by well known conquerors and also migrations too.
Mughal bhi aaye, Muslim bhi aaye, Angrez, French aur Portuguese bhi
De gaye virasat mein who kala, sanskriti, tehzeeb, rang aur rangbhed bhi
Hum maante gaye unki baton ko patthar ki lakir si,
Aaj GDP aur Growth toh badh gaye phir bhi haalat hai ek fakeer si!
It is immaterial to count here and describe everyone who came to this country which was very easy to get exploited. (I wish to do some more research on the history of polity of India). But as a result today there exist a large number of religions, castes, languages, ethnic groups, cultures etc. in India. There are immense dissimilarities in the physical appearances and features of Indians when you move across North to South and East to West.
Pahadi, Panju, Bhaiyya, Jatt, Gurjar, Gujjubhai, Marathi Manus, Mallu, Anna, Oriya, Bengali Babu, Chinki have become the words of description of the regional attributes and qualities. We Indians call foreigners coming to India as “Firangi” on their face as they cannot understand Hindi. It is a common feature that I have seen in this country. Even the telephone operator in my office does it and even I have done so sometime.
Some poets and writers in past have glorified India as the country of great diversity and have said India is true symbol for “Unity in Diversity”. There is diversity for sure but where is the Unity??? I am not sure that Unity existed even when Vedas divided Indians based on their caste (No one has been able to trace the real source of this caste divide in India. (If I am given opportunity to go back in time, I will prefer to kill the source for free) Unity did not exist even when India was invaded by conquerors. It did not exist even when Gautam Budhha was here, Ram was here, Firangs were here. There is a myth that unity in the country existed at the time of freedom struggle. But in my views it did not. Having a common objective to achieve freedom does not mean there existed unity among Indians. Of course there were different groups having common ideology. There isn’t any language called Indian Language, there isn’t any society called the Indian Society, there isn’t any culture called Indian culture and there isn’t any spirit called the Indian Spirit. Of course there are typical Indian way, style and methods of doing particular thing which are common throughout the country. But surely we can’t call it as our culture or spirit. Therefore whoever uses the term Indian Culture is himself confused as he cannot define it. Cultural Diversity can be a reason of our pride but such diversity itself does not define our culture.
Another fact which establishes the confused state of the Indians in the number of political parties India has and the states are being ruled by distinct parties. Maa-Ka-Paa, Inca, Bha-Ja-Pa, Lo-Ja-pa, Jha-mu-mo, Gon-Ga-Pa, Ja-Pa, Sa re ga ma pa, etc. And in rare cases either of the parties get handsome majority.
We, the North Indians, the South Indians (Sorry I haven’t heard of West Indians and East Indians as the Indians) and rest of the Indians, I mean to say “the Indians”, do not have affinity for each other. Talk about Kashmir Issue which has been the most violent issues of all times, is anyone is South India concerned about that. Of course there would be some who have the pseudo-Indian spirit who will object to what I am saying. But truth is that in majority of cases, we Indians cannot relate with each other. Marathis get beaten up in Assam and Bihar and in reply Bhaiyyas get beaten up and robbed in Maharashtra. What is Bodoland, we do not care. We do not care which festivals are celebrated in which part of the country but we are just concerned with the holiday we get due to such festival.
The majority of Indians are ignorant and uninformed. They are unaware of the fact that the thing which surreptitiously gives them the sense of unity and equality (up to some extent) is the constitution of India and the legal and administrative framework of India. The mother of Indian Laws (Constitution) keeps alive the sense of Unity us together despite all our tremendous diversity, because the Constitution gives equal respect to all communities, sects, lingual and ethnic groups, etc. in the country. The Constitution guarantees to all citizens freedom of speech (Article 19), freedom of religion (Article 25), equality (Articles 14 to 17), liberty (Article 21), etc.
The youth in India today are very confused and disappointing too. Those who are living in big cities are impressed and influenced by the fast changing cultural trends in the west. They call my-ma, cool-kewl, god-gawd and what not. Picking up slang is not objectionable but what do they know about the Indian languages. They can’t speak or understand hindi and think that being like that is cool. Much less about other states, they do not know anything about the state they are living in. They do not know the leaders who are going to represent them in the House (Lok-Sabha I mean). And they do not want to know. That is why the turn out for elections is diminishing every year. The youth in India is confused about what, who and when to follow.
The people in rural India too are confused. They do not know whether to continue with agricultural activities or not. Of course any one can get frustrated with change in climate, untimely rains, rivers and sources of irrigation drying up and crops getting damaged due to all such reasons. Additionally they too want to move to cities and attain a particular standard and culture of living. They are entitled for it but as a result, the agricultural production is decreasing, prices are increasing. And needless to say that imported bright and extra colorful exotic fruits and vegetables which do not taste they used to before, are taking up places in stores and stands.
The professionals in India too are confused. The origination can be traced inside their mind and their parents’ mind where the conservative thinking and approach of playing safe lie. The Playing Safe approach means choosing the better option based on the likely outcome. There is no risk involved and minimum harm is done. The best example of this approach can be given of a situation where parents force their children to pursue safe and steady courses for an assured career.
Well, yes there is another thing that binds India. It is cricket. Nothing in this country is more popular and bigger than this game. Have you ever witnessed such celebrations around the entire country when India won World Cup 2011. The team is selected from among the players from different regions of India and religion is no bar. However, as cricket unites us as a country. Every Indian feels patriotic when it comes to cricket. And more so in case of matches against Pakistan. A victory against Pakistan in a cricket match appears to be more important than anything else and it always seems that we have won a war against Pakistan. We go berserk. Aakash Chopra has very well said that, “Every time we behave like the way we did this time (after match against Pakistan this world cup), it pulls us down as a responsible nation.” And the truth is that superiority of a nation can never be established by a Cricket match or its Cricket team.
It has been 3 days since Anna Hazare is on hunger strike on the issue of Lokpal Bill and corruption. How many of us have bothered to even read about it? We Indians think that let Anna Hazare only do it, why should we disturb our routine. Sadly, we, the Indians, are badly confused, for all of us can celebrate the entire night when Indian wins world cup but we cannot spare a minute to support Anna Hazare who is fighting for all of us.
Get up! There are hundred other issues thatcould have been covered in this post. But the idea is that atleast you wake up and realise ! If one wakes up by this, I believe he can shake 100 and wake some of them up ! And those few can wake thousands up!
