Such a Polarised Nation
India – with more than 1.3 billion people constitutes 18 percentage of the world’s population, is a country so diverse that many historians and philosophers have called it a continent in itself. The diversity could be seen in terms of geography, population, beliefs, languages, culture, religious practices, traditions etc. making the list endless. This diversity which was considered as our strongest binding factor is turning up as our strongest dividing factor. Of late, the country is undergoing a strong churning creating polarity within.
It is almost impossible to unite such a gargantuan population on any man made postulate or belief such a nationalism. Even ‘God’ has found his various avatars on this land but failed to unite people on single paradigm. With such a diverse country such as ours, the textbook concept of ‘unity in diversity’ seems to be restricted and flawed only to be found in bits and pieces. We are divided on the lines of religion, caste, geography, language, sects, gender, colour and what not. History remains the witness that our country was ideologically divided into left thinkers and right wingers. Of late, this division has grown further with a significant population being evolved as either ultra-left or hard-right, whereby both trying to prove themselves correct forgetting the wrong they are committing to the country.
In the middle ages particularly during fifteenth and sixteenth century, theory of divine kingship was widely propagated where the monarch is believed to have derived his right to rule directly from God and is subjected to no earthly authority. King had absolute powers therefore had command over the church, hence propagating the superiority of his religion over his subjects. Later in the seventeenth century, when churches got powerful, they tweaked this theory and became agents of Gods and custodians of religion. They started bestowing powers to Kings, thereby becoming king makers. Church sometimes became so powerful that it could topple the powers of cabinet. This created a nexus between the clergies and nobility. However, clergies were never seen on the throne. They managed the religious diktats from behind the curtains. Rejecting these olden postulates the pioneers of Indian constitution believed in democracy and gave power to people. The constitution writers had the choice then to define the religion of the state but choose to remain secular making state ‘religion-less’. However, now in twenty-first century India, it seems as if clergies in robes have gained powers (although democratically) and trying to establish supremacy of their religions over others, thereby polarising the country further.
India was divided ever, but since partition the division was never so visible on the top as it is now. Today’s polarisation could hearsay find its roots thousands of years back to the first invasion in India but untoward incidents after partition acted as warehouses of supressed emotions for either communities that are finding their escape now. Partition massacre, Bombay bomb blasts, mosque demolition in Ayodhya, Operation Blue Star, 1984 Delhi riots, Kashmir of 90s, Godhara riots etc. have all contributed in polarised the nation.
Due to this massive reach of unrestricted communication technology, people have compartmentalised themselves on such niche grounds that it seems quite impossible to unite the country again. Free online Social Media platforms, television news channels and certain sections of print media fuelled the fire further by imposing their own cooked up narratives to garner populist support and TRPs, thereby creating the poles so apart that it appears insurmountable today to dismantle them and create a new homogenised world. Governments and oppositions have their own IT cells working day-night on online messaging and social media apps to divide the country further on various artificially created grounds in order to create pools of voters acting as remote controlled objects that will work on like minded ideologies. Fake messages and documents are being created and circulated in order to label a certain section of population and using it for political gains. On one hand where minorities are being victimised, majority is being labelled on the other. Anybody can put forward his/her own narrative and formulate a community in order to propagate an agenda using these freeware.
The ongoing farmers’ agitation and recent mala fide incident of disrespecting the Red Fort on Republic Day have found their fodder such social media vendetta. The agitation might have united definite parts of Punjab and certain religious groups, but have polarised this most vibrant democracy of the world certainly. Regionalism has overshadowed nationalism and has given voice to supressed emotions on the grounds of religion and sect beliefs. Foreign contributions and polarising agents have reignited the voice of separatism in Punjab and alienated Jats and Sikhs of northern India. Tweet storms and tool kits from both within and outside India are responsible for the downfall of India as nation. Anti-establishment agencies have got their lease of life and have actively participated in the movement, hence polarising the country further on different artificially created grounds. India has already seen the partition on the basis of Hindu – Muslim cannot afford to alienate Sikhs. The ten Gurus are equally worshiped amongst Hindus as much as among Sikhs. There is an overlapping similarity and equality between Jats of Northern India and Sikhs of the Punjab region.
Noted psychologist and political thinker Vikas Attry who has a hawk -eye view on the agitation wonderfully explains the situation as ‘vent out of supressed emotions of some determined sects and community’. He said, this is no more a farmers’ agitation but an escape of the long vanquish hatred and anger. Divisive sections of community have made it their motto to criticise Modi as they could not still digest the fact of him being Prime Minister yet. These people tend to cross the thin line of criticising him to criticising the country, of criticising him to criticising Hinduism. Attry tried to capture the current situation in his poem Right/Wrong as – “iPhone right, Jio wrong; Walmart Amazon right, Ambani Adani wrong; Progress right, reforms wrong; My reason right, your logic wrong; My data right, your statistics wrong; Democracy right, government wrong; Rights are right, Duties are wrong; Western world right, My country wrong; My stubbornness right, your adamancy wrong.”
The country needs to get its basics into place and return to the infallible spirit of constitutional democracy. We, the people of India need to place constitution of this country superior than any religion, symbol, flag or belief. Minorities should act exemplary to pacify the nation that they are neither intruding into the rights of majority nor being separatist. Majority population should pour their hearts out to welcome the minorities and give equal space to them to prosper and practice their beliefs by not boosting their supremacy.
The entire nation including the Sikhs should come forward to condemn the recent Republic Day violence and Muslims of India should be unanimous in condemning any act of violence in Kashmir. The Christian missionaries should refrain themselves from conversion of the vulnerable and downtrodden by offering them alms. Hindus should be seen welcoming all with open arms. We as citizens of this beautiful country should stand up against all the malicious propaganda of political parties and anti-establishment forces. We should not let 1947 repeat and amputee Bharat Mata once more.
A WhatsApp message aptly describes the situation - If you collect 100 black and 100 red ants and put them in a glass jar, nothing will happen. But if you shake the jar violently and leave it on the table, the ants will start killing each other. Reds believe that blacks are enemy and blacks will think that reds are enemy, while the real enemy is the one who shook the jar. The same is true to the society also. Left vs Right, your religion vs my religion – before we fight each other, we must ask ourselves – “Who shook the jar?”.
- Jagdeep S More, Educationist
