In many ways, 65 years of Independence and thousands of
years’ worth civilization has failed to teach India and more importantly
Indians, a few things about good human behavior. Firstly, the words – “India is
my country, all Indians are my brothers and sisters……” does not ring a bell
with most of us. I am not sure; if this happens in other societies and I am
aiming for utopia here, but I am aware that what happens in India is wrong both
on ethical as well as legal level. The
identity “INDIAN” remains a detail held only on the passport. Outside the
passport, we have so many identities that our identity as Indian - the basis of
which the founding fathers gave us our rights and obligations remains vague to
most of us. Twice every year – on August 15th and January 26th
– we wish ourselves Happy Independence day and Happy Republic Day as Indians
and then go back to our other identities for the rest of the days.
This is not an easy topic to address, it seems like I am
preaching - like holier than thou – but I am aware of so many instances where I
must have behaved exactly like the rest of us – whom I am targeting here. We in
India do these things routinely, so much so that it becomes part of our culture
and even when someone points it out, we refuse to reconsider our approach
towards fellow citizen. In most cases, we have a standard reply “It has been
like this for as far as I know, so stop lecturing me”. On a TV discussion,
during the famous India Against Corruption (IAC) hunger strike for a tough
anti-corruption legislation in August 2011, one member casually suggested – “Do
you feel, IAC would have had same traction on minds of Indians if a Muslim
drove it?” He was soon shouted down by ubiquitous IAC volunteers on TV as well
as other “armchair” advisors who felt this individual was Government operative
who wanted to give a religious shade to the movement. Initially, I laughed at
this comment. Later, I was thinking and asking myself – when was the last time
a minority ran a successful movement in India? Did we ever hear about a
Christian / Muslim / Sikh / Parsi leader running an anti-corruption drive or leading
a movement against religious bias or movement against terrorism or any
political movement for causes big or small? Think really hard. Probably rack
your brains… you will find there are none. It is shocking isn’t it? In a
country of 1.2 billion, with minority population of 25 – 30%, we don’t have one
major movement run by a religious minority leader. I am sure most of us would not even notice
that in cases of religious violence too, it’s mostly the Hindus who champion
the cause of minorities to lend credibility to the movement for religious
equivalence. This is so prevalent in our society that many justify it saying-
So what? after all Hindus make for 70%
of the population. So let me ask my friends a few questions today, would
Jayprakash Narayan cause the same impact on India if he were a Muslim? Would
Anna Hazare cause same amount of support if he were a Christian or would the
Mandal politics be as effective if it was run by a Sikh? I am sure, people will
say a lot of minorities took part in these events and it would be unfair to say
it was run by Hindus only. I know that, I am simply commenting on the people
who led these movements and why these movements got traction.
We Indians are notorious for our caste and religion divide.
So much so, that it becomes very easy for any Government to kill mass
movements. The simplest thing is to point out blatantly that the person leading
the movement happens to be from a minority community and wants to run down the
image of India at a world stage. The movement dies so fast, that we would feel
it never existed. Isn’t it strange that even as we keep saying that as Indians
we are all equal in front of our constitution, we have often heard people say
“If he has so much problem with India, tell him go to Pakistan”; “If they think
India is so bad, they are free to leave”; “We don’t want outsiders to tell us
what we should do”. This monopoly of ability to criticize my country that rests
with the Hindus does not rest with others. A Muslim reformer is reminded of
Pakistan and a Christian of Europe or US and Sikh of Khalistani movement to
shut them from uttering anything against India – even obviously wrong things.
Why is it that after 65 years of Independence, the minorities have right to
live in India, right to move in India, right to vote in India, right to fight
and die for India but no rights to criticize and improve India? Why are valid
and thoughtful inputs provided by religious minority groups lost in the storm
of religious jingoism caused by the majority group politicians? It is very sad, despite our shared past and equal
stake in bright future, a chunk of Indians are not able to voice their opinions
freely – at least not as freely as the rest of us.
If being a minority in India seems bad, imagine being a
woman in India. Since before her birth,
a girl child starts feeling being unwanted in this world. Infanticide of female
fetuses must be unique to India; at least I am not aware of any other country
where we selectively kill the female fetus from preventing birth. Though it
seemed a rural phenomenon at first, this misogyny is not limited to rural
India. We have seen huge number of urban middleclass couples travelling to
secluded towns and rural areas to get female fetuses aborted – even at advanced
stage of pregnancy. Then there are cases of midwives killing the female child
by drowning them in milk so that the next pregnancy results in a male child. In
cases where the female child escapes these acts, her interests are always
sacrificed for the male child of the family. Be it her nutritional needs or her
educational needs to even medical needs, a girl child in India (mostly rural
India) learns very early that she has to sacrifice for the man’s needs. Very
early she is taught that a woman cannot survive alone, she needs a support of a
man throughout her life – father while growing up, husband in her youth and son
in her old age. While there may be a sentimental value attached to this
teaching, systematic brainwash of a girl from a very young age makes sure that
she never learns to stand up for her rights. At all stages a woman learns to
compromise with what she has and never yearns for better life. This
romanticization of a woman’s ability to sacrifice was depicted in the movies of
19th century and it glorified a woman for the sacrifices she makes.
What followed was the collective psyche of the India accepting the fact that a
woman is meant to sacrifice for interests of male family members –
consequently, the woman who doesn’t, invariably gets depicted as a selfish
bitch or a ‘vamp’. There was nothing like a female sexuality, there was only
satisfaction of male sexuality and that remained the extent of female
sexuality. The movies depicted this in a worse manner. This statement made by a
script writer tells the story – “The only way a woman could have sex outside
wedlock was via sexual assault. Hence, the 19th century movies
mostly had a sexual assault scene – where a virtuous girl was forced into
sexual ways. The other was a vamp who seduced the male lead. There was no space
for a virtuous girl to experiment with her sexuality. Once the 20th
century dawned, and the scripts began having bold ladies experimenting with
their bodies, the assault scenes and vamps vanished”. So very systematically
over a period of last 100 years, we have pushed women in background as “service
providers” to men, incapable of having desires or personal goals. This was done
earlier by brainwash and later by invoking ‘culture ‘and most recently by
threats. Even to this day, a woman who lives life on her terms is targeted for
being against our ‘culture’ and in many cases sexually assaulted to show her –
who is the boss.
A Chinese proverb describes culture as “setting up a bunch
of rules and following them strictly for a long period of time”. If we over a
period of last 100 years drew up a culture of religious hatred and bigotry and
misogyny, could we not start now to make new set of rules – rules which mandate
people to respect religious beliefs of others as one would respect one’s own.
Rules to respect diversity as part of being Indian, rules to understand and
appreciate that we may have different backgrounds but we have a shared future,
rules that women not only mean a half of our population- they are the better
half. If a country known for violent wars could make a culture of non-violence
to seek freedom, nothing is impossible for INDIANS. Let’s pledge to build a better culture for
our future generations to follow, let us not seek ways to divide us but build a
culture to unite us.
So long…
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