Its well within the realm of the irrelevant to debate the concept of nation and how its nationality extends to one born on its soil…But, I will pretend that I am no stranger to arguing the unarguable. I have felt at times, a lack of affection on the land on which I was born, and this lack of love was ostracized by those who were certain that I owed something to plot of land in rajender nagar where I was born. The reactions have varied from a mild annoyance to the militant kind. But I have been bright enough not to express my views so plainly that I arouse mass hysteria and get killed or vehemently enough for someone to label me a traitor and hang me for treason…that would be imprudent on my part. Not to mention that dead people seldom debate….
India is an ancient nation. This statement can be best qualified by a historian, but I always thought that India with its present geographical boundary did not exist till the time of independence. The fact that some people saw the opportunity to forge a great nation at that time is a great credit to them…to say that India as a nation is constant and old as time seems, to me, far from the truth. One of the first great nations to emerge which remotely resembled the country of India, appeared under Ashoka, and even then there were differences…Everything is evanescent…the concept of worshipping that which seems constant can only be human perception, in which case I should be allowed to form my own.
We, the proud people of India, are quick to boast of our heritage and cultural diversity…
And yet when faced with a diverse cultural group, many are hostile… A common experience for me was to notice, in college, people of the same ethnic background stuck together, not only that, but to preserve the hurt ego of one of their members, militantly confront another ethnic group. The brutality of the communal riots are well documented. As far as I am concerned, the cultural diversity is primarily a result of our isolation from each other, and is a boon to the tourism industry, but beyond that I don’t see it as a necessary bounty to the nation.
If I were to say something sharp regarding the history or the present attitude of the people of this nation, no doubt, those who would be inflamed by it, feel no qualms about passing remarks about other culture. I dismiss this attitude as short-sighted.
1 comment:
Let's say that we were infact culturally isolated from each other: How then can you explain the mythology that seems to be common for people of the north and the south in India? Or common festivals and a almost common lunar calendar?
OK let me go on to make a hypothesis:
Let's say I have a very good story with a very good moral. I really like the story and I feel that it represents what we can define as "good conduct". I would then want my sons, friends and all my acquiantances to know that story.I also would wnat them to learn from the story the "goodness" it can bring in a person. My friends and acquiantances feel the same way as I and do the same. Of course, by passing it through word of mouth, the story is bound to get distorted but the moral remains the same.
Now see if you can replace the story with "Indian mythology". IMHO it fits because these ancient stories teach good values and the imortance of being good and nice.....and precisely for this reason, a whole "nation" below the river valleys took to it.
Now referring directly to a passage you wrote, why then , despite our "common" heritage do we "militantly confront" another ethnic group?
Again here is my hypothesis:
Very rarely do we ruminate on why we behave the way we do. And very often we forget that we are social animals. By social, I mean the process of forming herds and tribes. Most mammals seem to have tribes and so do humans. Replace the same "herd" or "tribe" with words like "ethnic background" or "cultural background" and one might see that we are referring to a person's "group". In essence what we are saying here is 'Hey he blongs to that "herd" '.
So you see although we had a common heritage it did not mean we had *common needs* and *common ideals*. Our wants were different and we had to share resources. And that's the key...resources to survive. Animals fight for pastures, we fight for something similar.
So to summarize: My take : Its only natural.
And finally violence is not something the human brain is "not used to" . If that were the case humans woulnt not think of some ingenious ways to kill people.
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