I spent the last week touring Kashmir and that is when, amidst the grand mountains and verdant vales, these 'random' thoughts started bothering me...
In the distant East, in Bengal, an acclaimed actor turned politician, and a Member of Parliament to boot, is caught on camera openly exhorting his 'boys' to get Opposition party women raped... for good measure, he adds that if need be, he would not hesitate to use guns against his opponents.
Right next to me, the owner of a Dhaba tells me that they only sell veggie food in the summer when people from India (or Hindustan) come down to the Hills in Kashmir as all Indians are Vegeterians, In winter when the Kashmiris and Foreigners throng the hills... they serve all kinds of meat... the sense of alienation is complete when a 'Hindustani' businessman next to me remarks that all Kashmiris are cheats and should not be trusted...
In Uttar Pradesh, which lies somewhat midway between these two states.. an ex-Chief Minister does not hesitate to say that 'Boys make mistakes' referring to young sex offenders who are under intense scrutiny by the Government after the horrendous Nirbhaya case fanned outrage across India...
All these made me think that India is now a state hovering at the brink of disaster... Gone are the values and ideals that brought us together and made us a nation... the vast majority of our world is still steeped in outdated customs, factionalism, casteism, anachronistic rituals.. and meaningless jingoism...
Why did this happen? I have been looking and searching for answers for quite some time... how come that people across castes, religions, creeds from this ancient sub-continent could move toa place like Mauritius and create a thriving vibrant society.... while the parent civilization is in the anguished thores of a major seizure...
I believe that we, as a nation, have allowed multi-cultarism and diversity to go too far... there are just too many cultures, too many customs, too many rituals, too many beliefs, and perhaps too many Gods to allow us to come together and be ONE unless we stress on integration..
Here are my suggestions... may sound naive to some... but straight from the heart...
1. Encourage cross community/ cross caste/ cross region mixing - encourage people to inter-marry, disregarding social barriers - while the rich vs. poor is highlighted much in popular Bollywood movies, the other aspects are ignored... for obvious reasons... it is time to start this initiative... and it will go a long way in integrating the people.
2. Incentivize people to settle and work in places other than that of their origin and assimilate into the local culture.. while this is seen to be happening to some degree in setors like IT and BPO in 'India', sadly this has not been the case in the larger 'Bharat'.. Even in the USA, while most of the Europeans and Africans settled in and became 'Americans', the Indian community has remained 'Gujrati', 'Bengali', 'Telegu' etc.
3. Move to a uniform civil code - will encourage people to assimilate and integrate... if not in the current generation, atleast 2-3 generations down the line. We cannot call ourselves a secular democratic republic unless the law applies to all the citizens uniformly.. this, in my view, is an absolute must.
4. Focus on common set of languages.. while it is difficult to enforce a 'single' language Pan India, it is in our interest to make sure that anybody anywhere in this vast country atleast have languages that they can communicate in or atleast understand each other... build this into our Educational foundation.. reemphasize... reiterate.. and no compromise.
5. Defocus from the maxim of 'Unity in Diversity'... it sounds good on paper... but 'too much' diversity either in 'wealth', or in 'social norms', or in 'ways of life' ultimately lead to feelings of 'separatism' and 'resentment'... we should instead focus on 'Common threads'... celebrate what we share in common and not how we differ.
For, in simple words, if two people meet in India, and are from different religions, different castes, different languages... they usually have nothing in common to identify themselves with... it is high time we focused on a 'common' set of agenda items that will build and sustain our national identity...
We would do well to heed Patrick French, a British writer who has made writing about India his passion, who aptly states in his book 'India - a Portrait', "Integration is welcoming; it says join us; Multi-cultarism says, go to your Ghetto"
Cheers... till next time... let me know your thoughts...
