There is a difference between "I am proud to be an Indian" and "I am fanatic about India". The same applies to religion, caste, creed, colour....even gender! While the feeling of pride, gives one a self esteem and an identity, the fanatic aspect creates rift and hatred among humans. The fanatic aspect is the cause of innumerable blood sheds and heart wrenching incidents. My blog is about the fanatic aspect. I will try to be politically correct. But then its difficult to train your thoughts to be always be so. Isn't it?
A great divide is the gender divide. Almost all communities and societies across the globe share this problem, whether we accept or not, whether we like it or not. We talk of empowering women. In the first place who are "we" to empower women? The male fraternity? I thought women should have been, by default, empowered. First we suppress them, oppress them and then we talk of women empowerment! And show how noble we are. If each year one day is celebrated as "Women's Day", does that mean that the rest 364 days are NOT "Women's Day" and belong to the other gender? Do we actually have to have a day to remember Women. Really?
Then comes the delicate topic of racism - black and white. Wars have been fought since ages. Just a difference in skin colour resulted in so much blood sheds. While we count the number of deaths and number injured, we never count the number of hearts that were broken, the hatred that spread far and wide. Why does someone have to be good or bad based on their skin colour? Do our feelings for others have to be only skin-deep? Generations after generations and we only passed the rotten baggage of thoughts to our offsprings. Thousands of writers, tons of papers, centuries of discussion...and yet the divide remains.The divide is deep rooted. Until the feelings comes from within,not from one or two persons but from each and every person of the society, the discussions are unlikely to yield anything to be proud of .
And what about religion? "I am a Hindu...you are a Muslim; I am a Christian...you are a Jew". For GOD's sake, can we stop this divide based on the GOD we worship? No religious leader ever said to fight. They all preached peace - peace with fellow human beings, peace within. Religion is a set of principles and virtues that one can , rather should, follow to get closer to GOD. It is between the individual and the Almighty. Where is the place of hatred and killing here? In the name of religion if one kills another human being, will GOD be happy? The heat of hatred can scorch the humanity one day to extinction.Its an irony that God created humans and then humans kill fellow beings in the name of God!
Caste is a very much man-made concept developed some thousands of years ago...and we still hold on to it! We exploit others, torture others in the name of caste. Low caste people die of thirst and yet they are not allowed to get water from the nearby areas of the so-called upper caste people. In the recent Indian parliamentary election the politicians are openly flaunting their caste, asking people to vote based on caste, putting candidates based on caste. Nobody is talking of the "Indian" that we all are.
We all are proud of our respective countries. But wars in the name of country is definitely not acceptable. India and Pakistan have been engaged in proxy war across the border. The Israelis and the Palestines have been fighting. There are wars in different pockets in Africa. There are cold wars between super powers. We have seen two devastating world wars. Did we gain anything by killing those thousands of innocent men, women and children? After how many more casualties shall we say "enough is enough"?
Is it too demanding to ask for a society devoid of male chauvinism? A society which accepts all, irrespective of the colour of the skin of its members, the religion they follow, the caste they belong to or their citizenship?
Some years ago, when the concept of "No-refusal autos" was introduced in Bangalore, people said "That means you accept that autos do refuse to take passengers, something which is against the law". Similarly, when you talk of "empowering women" and "Women's Day", you accept that they are not given equal status in the society. When you talk of "giving equal rights to the black", you acknowledge that they are deprived of their rights. What were you doing so long? By calling Muslims "minorities" in India, are we not distancing them from the "majority" and thus creating a fissure in our motherland?
In the whole process, we have cut the society into a hundred pieces, killed thousands, injured millions and hurt innumerable fellow beings for centuries. We have shown the least respect to the other section of the society. Will humanity be ever forgiven for such heinous crimes?
We call ourselves "civilised". Its time we walk the talk!
A great divide is the gender divide. Almost all communities and societies across the globe share this problem, whether we accept or not, whether we like it or not. We talk of empowering women. In the first place who are "we" to empower women? The male fraternity? I thought women should have been, by default, empowered. First we suppress them, oppress them and then we talk of women empowerment! And show how noble we are. If each year one day is celebrated as "Women's Day", does that mean that the rest 364 days are NOT "Women's Day" and belong to the other gender? Do we actually have to have a day to remember Women. Really?
Then comes the delicate topic of racism - black and white. Wars have been fought since ages. Just a difference in skin colour resulted in so much blood sheds. While we count the number of deaths and number injured, we never count the number of hearts that were broken, the hatred that spread far and wide. Why does someone have to be good or bad based on their skin colour? Do our feelings for others have to be only skin-deep? Generations after generations and we only passed the rotten baggage of thoughts to our offsprings. Thousands of writers, tons of papers, centuries of discussion...and yet the divide remains.The divide is deep rooted. Until the feelings comes from within,not from one or two persons but from each and every person of the society, the discussions are unlikely to yield anything to be proud of .
And what about religion? "I am a Hindu...you are a Muslim; I am a Christian...you are a Jew". For GOD's sake, can we stop this divide based on the GOD we worship? No religious leader ever said to fight. They all preached peace - peace with fellow human beings, peace within. Religion is a set of principles and virtues that one can , rather should, follow to get closer to GOD. It is between the individual and the Almighty. Where is the place of hatred and killing here? In the name of religion if one kills another human being, will GOD be happy? The heat of hatred can scorch the humanity one day to extinction.Its an irony that God created humans and then humans kill fellow beings in the name of God!
Caste is a very much man-made concept developed some thousands of years ago...and we still hold on to it! We exploit others, torture others in the name of caste. Low caste people die of thirst and yet they are not allowed to get water from the nearby areas of the so-called upper caste people. In the recent Indian parliamentary election the politicians are openly flaunting their caste, asking people to vote based on caste, putting candidates based on caste. Nobody is talking of the "Indian" that we all are.
We all are proud of our respective countries. But wars in the name of country is definitely not acceptable. India and Pakistan have been engaged in proxy war across the border. The Israelis and the Palestines have been fighting. There are wars in different pockets in Africa. There are cold wars between super powers. We have seen two devastating world wars. Did we gain anything by killing those thousands of innocent men, women and children? After how many more casualties shall we say "enough is enough"?
Is it too demanding to ask for a society devoid of male chauvinism? A society which accepts all, irrespective of the colour of the skin of its members, the religion they follow, the caste they belong to or their citizenship?
Some years ago, when the concept of "No-refusal autos" was introduced in Bangalore, people said "That means you accept that autos do refuse to take passengers, something which is against the law". Similarly, when you talk of "empowering women" and "Women's Day", you accept that they are not given equal status in the society. When you talk of "giving equal rights to the black", you acknowledge that they are deprived of their rights. What were you doing so long? By calling Muslims "minorities" in India, are we not distancing them from the "majority" and thus creating a fissure in our motherland?
In the whole process, we have cut the society into a hundred pieces, killed thousands, injured millions and hurt innumerable fellow beings for centuries. We have shown the least respect to the other section of the society. Will humanity be ever forgiven for such heinous crimes?
We call ourselves "civilised". Its time we walk the talk!
