Its been a long time since I last visited my blog, no it was not a sabbatical nor was it what is called a idea drain out, just a little busy with life. Though I felt strongly about a lot of issues which I thought I should write about but everytime I sat down to pen my thoughts the whole issue became dangerously confusing; that’s where this whole idea of a scared nation came along.
So are we a scared nation??? Or rather have we turned ourselves into one??? In what context one might ask..so let me trace back to where it first stuck me . A few days back I wanted to publish an update on my FB page wishing everybody on the start of Navratri, so I typed a long message and then just before I hit the publish button I stopped and thought does this message sound too radical?, would friends from different faiths than me consider me a right wing crusader? ..i know its funny but the thought actually crossed my mind and I edited and re-edited the entire message 28 times before publishing what I thought was a sobered down update.
This made me thinking and I started to observe friends around me including myself on how we react to something as simple as a FB status update, and I realized though I find some of the staus messages nice, I go no further than probably hitting the “LIKE” button, coz something tells me it doesn’t suit my “shades of grey” Ya that’s what I have decided to call this present state of the young in this country. In 90’s there was a clear line drawn you were either in the minority or Non-Secular, it was drilled down to each physche that majority means oppressors and minority meant oppressed. Political parties on one hand made hay of this latest discovery where you were brandished either a terrorist or RSS man depending upon your faith. So if your vehicle had “Sri Ram” written on it, irrespective of the reason you were a RSS guy who razed Babri Masjid or killed hapeless women in Godhra. Similarly if you sport a beard with a skull cap you were a terrorist who planted bombs in Mumbai or celebrated when Pakistan beat India in cricket. So the polarization was complete with parties fighting elections on the agenda that who supported or represented which faith in India, or in rather derogatory terms who was more “SECULAR”. One side accused the other of being radicals and the other minority appeasers and citizens of this country like in 1947 were again forced to choose either based on their faith or compulsions. I am lucky to have broadminded parents who never forced me to do something against my will or belief, I was introduced to religion in a normal way and was always instructed to respect other religions and faiths as ours. So I have sang carols with Christians, religiously attented Iftaars & Sehris, even tied a turban to visit The Golden Temple; But was disappointed when they told me that I was free to marry any girl as long as she is not Christian or Muslim. I didn’t know what to say??? Probably the social compulsion was playing hard on them (let me discuss this topic in detail in some other post).
Cut to 2000’s India is a young nation, people atleast in the urban areas have rejected the radical polarization, true colours of political parties are out in the open, the youth is more informed and mature about freedom and more tolerant about religion. Politicians today are rated on their performance/ corruption rather than their faiths and we are the lucky ones to see an almost revolution unfold in Delhi by Anna Hazare. But has this traits made us scared?? Scared to even vent out our true reactions. Look at Anna Hazare I like the man but somehow I couldn’t convince myself to support him whole heartdly because I do not like Gandhi and how can I support someone who is re-marketing Gandhi? Same with Dr. Subramaniam Swamy I like him and I support him as well on his crusade against ‘Gandhis (the present lot)’ but every time he writes an article like the present one I tend to distance myself from him. This is true not only for me but for the people at large, today we have matured enough to take a stance against the radical polarizations that we were forced into but some how it has made us go weak in the knees when it comes to express our true reactions. It was witnessed in the whole of US & Europe in the late 80’s when people were even scared to call a black ‘black’ scared that they would be termed racists.So sobered down terms like “Coloured American”, “African American” etc were divised to kill the derogatry ‘Negro’. Even today a slight slip and you could be termed racist in those countries and some part of it if not same feelings have encaptured the young in India.
So how do we not be scared ???? well I don’t know, I didn’t intend to find a solution to it here,So as long as it serves the larger purpose of harmony should we accept it? I don’t think so..coz end of the day democracy is freedom of expression and as a nation we should be able to call a spade a spade. Is this too much of wishful thinking that one day I might criticize the Imam of Jama Masjid or The Sar Sangh Sanchalak for their radical views without being brandished a Hindu terrorist or a Pakistani???? Well…wish along………
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