I have realised that the concept of India thrives best in our minds and not in reality. India survives in each of our conscience as a concept loosely strung together by our virtues or by the lack of it. And it is not uniform. As an identity, it can be best described as an unfinished dream trying to complete its play before reality ends its climax.
I might be chastised for blasphemy and sedition, but I don’t think that the real concept of India is going to play out very soon. And my interpretation is as follows:
The constitution was framed in the midst of a reality defying orgasm called freedom. The drafters of the "World's longest constitution" were learned-no doubt, but were obviously feeling high and self righteous about framing policies that sought in all good faith-to reshape the mindset of a faction rid nation into believing in the power of 'one' India.
In drafting this, they gave absolute freedom to everybody to follow everything they wanted- faith, religion, gender, class, caste, language and at the same time tried to unify it through this elitist notion called the constitution. I am not sure whether many of these "cut & pasted" laws can stand a scrutiny of the times that we live in. Amendments have mostly been representative of the demands of coalition politics rather than providing a uniform identity to the question of nationality (though I will wilfully change my stand if any constitution expert points out otherwise). So today, we have notional rituals and symbols like a common currency, national flag, a national bird, national language, national bandhs and so on but we keep fighting for divergent causes. We don’t seem to have a national agenda. Nationality is more often used for jingoistic entertainment at the Wagah border, during cricket matches or when some neighbour pees in our backyard.
Each one of us is fighting individual battles of freedom to ascertain an identity, faith, religion, language, region etc which is pulling us sideways as we try and move forward. And for power mongers and politicians, this is an opportunity - an absolute feast to ride these multiple factions.
For lack of a better word- I genuinely feel that we don’t have a national narrative. The fight against corruption is definitely a good direction. But I am not sure whether this is the cause or the result.
Is it corruption?
The egalitarian dream on which the policy makers started running the country still continues like an episodical play called the 5 year plan. There have been achievements, no doubt-but it fails to evoke the feeling of a national movement. It does not seem to have an overpowering national cause. The root issues like poverty, healthcare, infrastructure, employment are all bed ridden with implementation ailments.
I am not sure whether the policy makers were really prepared when they started doling out the benefits of freedom. With a queue of 1 billion people, we are in a hurry-to get there before the other. We are ready to trade flesh for an opportunity to end years of oppression and insult. We dont care about others or the means as long as we get our pounds worth. Even today, we suffer from this chaotic clamour to climb out of the cage faster than the others.
If you are not convinced, just observe how Indians behave in a queue or the way we treat our open space and public utilities.
Liberalisation and the new consumerist mind-set have started an even more tumultuous, no-holds barred struggle to reach ahead of the other. Morality, ethics, empathy and even basic civic sense have been the casualty. Righteousness has become relative to "if he can, so can I". In our eagerness to taste a better life, we complicitly ally with deceit, inefficiency and mediocrity.
For me this impatience to wait out our turn, selfishness and our acceptance of mediocrity are the root causes for our under development. In short, there is an absence of a moral fiber that unites India. So while we blame the politicians for all the ills that plague India, the reality is that they represent our mindset. If they have to change, we have to change. And it does not stop from giving or accepting a bribe. It starts with accepting our place in the 'queue' and moving forward by merit of effort, not loopholes and reservations. It might be a simplistic solution - primary school moral science values, but better than none at all.
Each day a million mutinies (borrowing shamelessly from Sir Naipaul) take place in India in this fight for identity, for individual freedom. And dying slowly in those mutinies is the collective 'India'-failing to find a voice that unites it.
I might be chastised for blasphemy and sedition, but I don’t think that the real concept of India is going to play out very soon. And my interpretation is as follows:
The constitution was framed in the midst of a reality defying orgasm called freedom. The drafters of the "World's longest constitution" were learned-no doubt, but were obviously feeling high and self righteous about framing policies that sought in all good faith-to reshape the mindset of a faction rid nation into believing in the power of 'one' India.
In drafting this, they gave absolute freedom to everybody to follow everything they wanted- faith, religion, gender, class, caste, language and at the same time tried to unify it through this elitist notion called the constitution. I am not sure whether many of these "cut & pasted" laws can stand a scrutiny of the times that we live in. Amendments have mostly been representative of the demands of coalition politics rather than providing a uniform identity to the question of nationality (though I will wilfully change my stand if any constitution expert points out otherwise). So today, we have notional rituals and symbols like a common currency, national flag, a national bird, national language, national bandhs and so on but we keep fighting for divergent causes. We don’t seem to have a national agenda. Nationality is more often used for jingoistic entertainment at the Wagah border, during cricket matches or when some neighbour pees in our backyard.
Each one of us is fighting individual battles of freedom to ascertain an identity, faith, religion, language, region etc which is pulling us sideways as we try and move forward. And for power mongers and politicians, this is an opportunity - an absolute feast to ride these multiple factions.
For lack of a better word- I genuinely feel that we don’t have a national narrative. The fight against corruption is definitely a good direction. But I am not sure whether this is the cause or the result.
Is it corruption?
The egalitarian dream on which the policy makers started running the country still continues like an episodical play called the 5 year plan. There have been achievements, no doubt-but it fails to evoke the feeling of a national movement. It does not seem to have an overpowering national cause. The root issues like poverty, healthcare, infrastructure, employment are all bed ridden with implementation ailments.
I am not sure whether the policy makers were really prepared when they started doling out the benefits of freedom. With a queue of 1 billion people, we are in a hurry-to get there before the other. We are ready to trade flesh for an opportunity to end years of oppression and insult. We dont care about others or the means as long as we get our pounds worth. Even today, we suffer from this chaotic clamour to climb out of the cage faster than the others.
If you are not convinced, just observe how Indians behave in a queue or the way we treat our open space and public utilities.
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| Source: http://www.martinfrost.ws/htmlfiles/june2012/wn2301.html#Pee |
Liberalisation and the new consumerist mind-set have started an even more tumultuous, no-holds barred struggle to reach ahead of the other. Morality, ethics, empathy and even basic civic sense have been the casualty. Righteousness has become relative to "if he can, so can I". In our eagerness to taste a better life, we complicitly ally with deceit, inefficiency and mediocrity.
For me this impatience to wait out our turn, selfishness and our acceptance of mediocrity are the root causes for our under development. In short, there is an absence of a moral fiber that unites India. So while we blame the politicians for all the ills that plague India, the reality is that they represent our mindset. If they have to change, we have to change. And it does not stop from giving or accepting a bribe. It starts with accepting our place in the 'queue' and moving forward by merit of effort, not loopholes and reservations. It might be a simplistic solution - primary school moral science values, but better than none at all.
Each day a million mutinies (borrowing shamelessly from Sir Naipaul) take place in India in this fight for identity, for individual freedom. And dying slowly in those mutinies is the collective 'India'-failing to find a voice that unites it.
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