India is a vast country. We’ve been multicultural since
centuries – Hindus, Muslims, Sikhs, Christians, Buddhists, Parsis; and we are
multilingual – at least seventeen different languages and 5 to 600 dialects.
A country like ours is
bound to have vastly differing values.
Some of our sensibilities are completely foreign to each other. Our close proximity as neighbours, at work, on our beaches, in our restaurants, on public transport and everywhere in between means we constantly witness those differences. The majority of our people are tolerant and in fact, might even enjoy those differences.
Some are intolerant. That is also acceptable as long as that intolerance doesn’t translate into their physically or mentally hurting the hateful "others".
Some are intolerant. That is also acceptable as long as that intolerance doesn’t translate into their physically or mentally hurting the hateful "others".
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That is why there has to be no ambiguity about what is
punishable by law and what isn’t.
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In India there is. People believe, by virtue
of their power, money or influence they can break the law and get away with it.
For that very reason, the sooner we (especially our law
enforcement agencies) learn to respect the laws of the land, the more we
realise that certain things are punishable whatever our justification, the more
we’ll be able to co-exist and even prosper together.
The alternative is chaos.
And then,” Bharati paused before declaring, “…there are the others.”
(Excerpt – Never Mind Yaar, first published in October, 2000.)
[To find out what Bharati believes is the mindset of our traditionalists and why we don’t react strongly to their intolerance of the hateful “others” please wait for the book to be published in India.]
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Very well written....honestly speaking I dunno where India is headed with things the way they are.
ReplyDeleteI guess it won't change unless we unite and I think once or twice in the past two years we've seen the result of that unity. We've also understood that the government waits for our anger to fizzle out...
DeleteIt is almost heart shattering the way we expected great uprising to bring in sweeping changes to our nation but they failed without much flicker. Our politicians are too shrewd and Anna has been reduced to mere shadow. The recent split between Kiran Bedi and Anna has proved that our politicians are too smart for them.
ReplyDeleteOur efforts are scattered, Divide and rule was possible a 100 years back and it is still a potent weapon, only hands using them are our own. May be diversity is not a virtue after all.
Yes, I remember the surge of hope. I think Gandhiji must've been at this point at one stage too - with people wanting the status quo because it was safer - a known evil. I have a lot of hope in Arvind Kejriwal's AAP. They are putting in the hard slog by holding many rallies to let people know what exactly is happening to their money, their electricity, their gas cylinders...
DeleteWell written Kay Em. Things are looking really bleak but as you said that unity that has shown its face in the last two years is a ray of hope.
ReplyDeleteAnd, gbtp, if the government want to play a waiting game - do nothing till our anger is spent, till we feel we cannot give any more time to our cause, I hope people remember (as my friend Mukta Sharma said) "Gandhiji's quit-india movement gathered momentum when people began shunning imported goods and disobeying their imported bosses, all this while turning up for the protest marches."
DeleteUnited and consistent action is the key.
Thanks
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