As Indians in the contemporary world, we are faced by this nagging question of our identity. When we are abroad we voraciously plead guilty to being Indian. Comfortably nestled in our home ground, we obnoxiously advocate our Kannada legacy or Rajput ancestry. In our narrow mohallas, we audaciously kick the dust up others’ noses as we triumphantly trample their religious beliefs. Each one of us nurses a secret whim of making our religion the one to become the face of the world. At the end of the thought is just another selfish person who forgets the spirit of being bound as a country, a nation which has, though badly beaten, emerged from the smouldering embers as one to be reckoned with.
It began with the East India Company’s systematically slow but steadily methodical sponging of our country’s soul right from the day the Queen signed the charter in 1600. When we shook the sleep out of our eyes, it was time to go to work, to build the British legacy in India. We saw our own country being bedecked with English graffiti. But our national pride took a strenuous and arduous journey to get to where it has now.
I would just like to recount some of the prominent instances which bound us together as one and when people thought only of the Nation and its freedom. The revolt of 1857 was not one of the earliest struggles but one with very far reaching effects. There had been many scattered but small attempts to oust the British. The revolt made the people realize that they could combine their individual efforts into one powerful force. As unexpected, it left the British dumbfounded that their toys could work without keys. The people felt the true power of being one and the first tiny fledgling of hope of being a free country fluttered to life.
Revolutionaries like Chandrashekhar Azad, Bhagat Singh, Sukhdev, Rajguru and Mangal Pandey were able to garner the support of the masses and exploit their energies in the right direction. Bhagat Singh’s famous fast in prison bolstered the people to take up the cause of the nation. The need to fight against injustice and to take what belonged to us was valiantly demonstrated by them. The Kakori Conspiracy and the death of policeman Saunders did just that. It alerted the intruders that these were no empty threats. Mangal Pandey’s protest against the biting of gun shells with pig fat just made Indians realize that they were being made to do things essentially against their culture. But Bhagat Singh’s soul searing words “Mera rang de basanti chola Maaye rang de” called out to all Indians to have unrequited love for their Mother, Mother India.
Gandhiji’s entry just secured the locks of the chain that bound the people. Despite belonging to different religious sects, people came together to fight for one cause. “Poorna Swaraj” became the nation’s religion. They lived, ate and breathed it. The birth of the Indian National Congress with statesmen like Nehru, Tilak and Sardar Patel at its helm, gave a steadiness and sense of direction to the struggle. The later meandering into the Extremists and Moderates did not deter them from the main cause. Gandhiji’s Dandi March and the Quit India Movement only choked the British administration more. The Tricolour became a witness and symbol of a nation’s struggle and its awakening. But the national spirit was to bear the brunt of individual struggles too. The shackles had hardly been taken off when the nation was again bound and this time by those who had fought for Her. Petty internal struggles bellied the sense of new found freedom. Sacrifices were forgotten, the struggle ignored. The nation was still to witness the horror of the Bengal riots and in its wake, the assassination of Gandhiji. Then came Partition. Jinnah won but India lost. Pakistan was formed but thousands died reaching it not because of the distance but because of hate. As an afterthought, Bangladesh became a separate nation in 1971.
The British strategy of “Divide and Rule” became more popular among us than we can ever imagine. We are no longer a nation of proud Indians, preserving the legacy of independence left behind by our grandfathers and great grandfathers. We have a mind of our own which likes following its British enslavers. The disturbances in our country are mainly due to the issue of religion. Otherwise the Godhra riots would not have taken place nor would the Babri Masjid have been bombed. Innocent Sikhs were killed when Indira Gandhi was assassinated. Our country is being hopelessly compartmentalized into religious communities and everything is seen through the lens of religion. The cause and the reason for what we once came together are only a part of history textbooks now.
Our culture has always advocated embracing all the religions of the world. But we seem to be comfortable in our Hindu, Muslim and Sikh shells. The Rashtriya Swayam Sevak (RSS) and its right hand the BJP have always wanted to make India a completely Hindu country. The countless Muslims, Sikhs, Christians, Parsis who have stayed here from the times of their forefathers are as much a part of the fabric of our country.
The Christians on the other hand, are sorting to conversion at a feverish pitch. To counter this, even innocent Christians like the Father and his two sons were mercilessly butchered in Orissa. We cannot confer the right to take away some one’s legacy just to prove the supremacy of one religion. In our haste, we even forget the rich culture that we share individually and as a nation. Each state has a full fledged flourishing culture of its own. We are not leaving any stone unturned to uproot that very culture, that groundwork that defines us and our nation as a whole. The 28 states, 6 union territories and innumerable dialects do not show how different we are but rather the strength of a country to stay together despite so many differences and yet those being complementary.
In the end, our National Culture is of oneness, respecting all religions and treating all people as equal and not following Cultural Nationalism by engaging in our own inconsequential disputes over religion so that one religion becomes that of the nation.
It began with the East India Company’s systematically slow but steadily methodical sponging of our country’s soul right from the day the Queen signed the charter in 1600. When we shook the sleep out of our eyes, it was time to go to work, to build the British legacy in India. We saw our own country being bedecked with English graffiti. But our national pride took a strenuous and arduous journey to get to where it has now.
I would just like to recount some of the prominent instances which bound us together as one and when people thought only of the Nation and its freedom. The revolt of 1857 was not one of the earliest struggles but one with very far reaching effects. There had been many scattered but small attempts to oust the British. The revolt made the people realize that they could combine their individual efforts into one powerful force. As unexpected, it left the British dumbfounded that their toys could work without keys. The people felt the true power of being one and the first tiny fledgling of hope of being a free country fluttered to life.
Revolutionaries like Chandrashekhar Azad, Bhagat Singh, Sukhdev, Rajguru and Mangal Pandey were able to garner the support of the masses and exploit their energies in the right direction. Bhagat Singh’s famous fast in prison bolstered the people to take up the cause of the nation. The need to fight against injustice and to take what belonged to us was valiantly demonstrated by them. The Kakori Conspiracy and the death of policeman Saunders did just that. It alerted the intruders that these were no empty threats. Mangal Pandey’s protest against the biting of gun shells with pig fat just made Indians realize that they were being made to do things essentially against their culture. But Bhagat Singh’s soul searing words “Mera rang de basanti chola Maaye rang de” called out to all Indians to have unrequited love for their Mother, Mother India.
Gandhiji’s entry just secured the locks of the chain that bound the people. Despite belonging to different religious sects, people came together to fight for one cause. “Poorna Swaraj” became the nation’s religion. They lived, ate and breathed it. The birth of the Indian National Congress with statesmen like Nehru, Tilak and Sardar Patel at its helm, gave a steadiness and sense of direction to the struggle. The later meandering into the Extremists and Moderates did not deter them from the main cause. Gandhiji’s Dandi March and the Quit India Movement only choked the British administration more. The Tricolour became a witness and symbol of a nation’s struggle and its awakening. But the national spirit was to bear the brunt of individual struggles too. The shackles had hardly been taken off when the nation was again bound and this time by those who had fought for Her. Petty internal struggles bellied the sense of new found freedom. Sacrifices were forgotten, the struggle ignored. The nation was still to witness the horror of the Bengal riots and in its wake, the assassination of Gandhiji. Then came Partition. Jinnah won but India lost. Pakistan was formed but thousands died reaching it not because of the distance but because of hate. As an afterthought, Bangladesh became a separate nation in 1971.
The British strategy of “Divide and Rule” became more popular among us than we can ever imagine. We are no longer a nation of proud Indians, preserving the legacy of independence left behind by our grandfathers and great grandfathers. We have a mind of our own which likes following its British enslavers. The disturbances in our country are mainly due to the issue of religion. Otherwise the Godhra riots would not have taken place nor would the Babri Masjid have been bombed. Innocent Sikhs were killed when Indira Gandhi was assassinated. Our country is being hopelessly compartmentalized into religious communities and everything is seen through the lens of religion. The cause and the reason for what we once came together are only a part of history textbooks now.
Our culture has always advocated embracing all the religions of the world. But we seem to be comfortable in our Hindu, Muslim and Sikh shells. The Rashtriya Swayam Sevak (RSS) and its right hand the BJP have always wanted to make India a completely Hindu country. The countless Muslims, Sikhs, Christians, Parsis who have stayed here from the times of their forefathers are as much a part of the fabric of our country.
The Christians on the other hand, are sorting to conversion at a feverish pitch. To counter this, even innocent Christians like the Father and his two sons were mercilessly butchered in Orissa. We cannot confer the right to take away some one’s legacy just to prove the supremacy of one religion. In our haste, we even forget the rich culture that we share individually and as a nation. Each state has a full fledged flourishing culture of its own. We are not leaving any stone unturned to uproot that very culture, that groundwork that defines us and our nation as a whole. The 28 states, 6 union territories and innumerable dialects do not show how different we are but rather the strength of a country to stay together despite so many differences and yet those being complementary.
In the end, our National Culture is of oneness, respecting all religions and treating all people as equal and not following Cultural Nationalism by engaging in our own inconsequential disputes over religion so that one religion becomes that of the nation.
Maybe it’s time we paid our last respects to the East India Company’s ingenuity.
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