From childhood, this day has been just another holiday where I could sleep for some more time. But I am just wondering the reason behind this celebration. Are we independent? To be more precise, are we more independent than our forefathers? Did our forefathers really suffer under the Britishers??? If anyone says "yes" over here, then they should visit Aushwitz, read about apartheid in South Africa, or visit Afghanistan. I feel that Indians have been a very lucky nation, unlike popular opinion.
If we are a sad nation today, its because of our own discrimination based on race, caste, and religion. We are a country with our unity shattered by our diversity and we are individualists within a psuedo-collectivist culture. Nations across the world identify themselves by their races. The Germans call themselves huns, the Norwegian call themselves Vikings, and what do we Indians call ourselves? For us, being an Aryan or Dravidian is not enough. We need so many criteria to identify ourselves like religion, mother tongue, varna, gothras, sub gothras... and so much more.
Do we really need all this to identify ourselves. How can we have unity between all this clutter? This is what my professor called "individualists among collectivists". He said that all Asian cultures are collectivist cultures, except India. We Indians can never think as collectivists because for us it is always "Us versus them". Its always the Marathis against the Punjabis, the OBCs against the SCs and STs, the Vanniyars against the Dalits and so on. We Indians love differences so much that we carry them with us even when we change religions! The brahmin converted Christians sit in a special reserved area in the front and the dalit converted Christians sit at the back in the church.
I just hope that in future, our children get recognized only by their father's name and nothing else. This is for our freedom from discrimination, which we are still devoid of.
9 comments:
jus loved it :)
and 100 % true .. nice read on I day !
and an eye opener for all the visitors of this page.
cheers
nice one.. liked it!!!
Thanks Rakesh!
Very true... I really hate to see that in my country we promote political parties whose leaders believe in bifurcating India itself on the basis of caste, language, and religion. What is freedom meant for these so called political gods...God only knows?
Bleeding truth! When will these ppl change? like never i guess... I hope the same rums!
"I just hope that in future, our children get recognized only by their father's name and nothing else. This is for our freedom from discrimination, which we are still devoid of."
Loved reading!
Nice read. A query, why should some one be known by his/her father's name. Why shouldn't his/her mother's name be used?
Well thought-out post - points have been presented very well .. although I have a slightly different viewpoint.
Divisions (and sub-divisions) are present everywhere - every nation, every state, every race - that's why you have African-Americans, Hispanic-Americans, Protestants, Roman Catholics, Russian Orthodox, rich, poor, middle class and so on.
Human nature aspires for a distinctly unique identity (and hence divisions) and this is what politicians take advantage of.
Divisions have always existed and shall continue to do so and it is in fact a good thing. Politics of division is the enemy. Unfortunately separating divisions from the political aspect is next to impossible and on these points I agree fully with you. Great post !
@ Venkat: thanks for the query,mom's name can of course be used! How did a feminist like me forget that....? :)
@Benny: Thanx! you are right, division exists everywhere. But I feel, we Indians have been too much victimized due to this. Its possible that it is because we are a nation of racial diversity. But its time, we realize that we all are one nation after all.
Post a Comment