Is India truly ours?

                     

                                 

Isn’t it notable that, when we are small, our surroundings seem so big to us? Perhaps due to our short stature, our eyes imagine that our world- and the people making up our world- are big. But, with age and the series of experiences that enrich our minds, that once huge, magnificent world becomes ridiculously small, almost trivial. And the people we encounter- save those who unconditionally love us- appear to be meaner and narrow-minded in aspect.

The same can be said about the attitude towards the State. As children, we are given the Impression that we live in a country that is “ours”, that is ruled by “us” by the “free will” of the people, and “we” bear the ultimate sovereign power. Little by little, by (un)conscious indoctrination and propaganda both in the society and in our educational syllabuses, we are led to believe that India is a great country for which people shed the very last drop of their blood; but ultimately, all credit goes to Gandhi and Nehru. No mention is made of the Revolutionaries (who were active in the 1920s and early 30s); nor of Bhagat Singh, Rajguru and Sukh Dev- and, by extension, the entire Hindustan Socialist Republican Association; little mention is made of the Swarajists and their brief but significant contributions; and the Royal Indian Naval Mutiny of 1946 hardly makes an appearance. Even Bose, whose heroic struggle demands attention, is left out. And we have to deal with the (almost) pro-Congress line that Gandhi, and Gandhi alone, was able to lead the Congress to win India’s independence!

Some, and that is to say, most of us don’t really care about the discrepancies in the histo-graphical narrative regarding India’s independence. As it is, education in India is for the sake of getting your hands on a high-salaried job either in a multi-national corporation or in the government. As long as we have our easy-going lives, no one would care about what we are taught or what happens to the people around you hereafter. Rarely and very rarely, comes a person or a group who delve deep and ponder on issues that others may deem it as unnecessary. Time would tell that whether I belong to those fortunate few. But in the twenty years of my life that I have lived, I think I have earned the right to ask just a single question:

Is India truly ours?

The answer is simply a string of complications, like some titanic ball of yarn. Like frogs in a well, most of us would only look on to the entangled lines that make up our world, our very lives and most of us would be happy with that, even contented. And then, who would even take the trouble to realize that what one knows holds dear, is nothing more than a big lie, in Orwellian proportions? Orwell spoke of an orthodoxy, and such an orthodoxy can be best described in the terms of the Matrix Trilogy. Our lives, our ideals, our rights are nothing more than a simulation, a make-believe ingrained into your head since childhood, almost hammered into place. And most of us would be happy with a wooden placard hammered into our minds, making us believe that India is “ours”, “we” rule India.

So I ask again:


Is India truly ours?

When the simulation ends, when the veil lifts, you will be in denial at first. Most would reject this realization as another lie, probably made for selfish political ends. Some would come to terms with the truth, some won’t. And those who reconcile to the truth, will echo my question:

Is India truly ours?

We find ourselves alienated, almost pushed out of the psychological state of blindly believing that India is ours. We are strangers, so to speak. Now a new question takes root in our minds:
If we do not rule India, then who does?

India belongs, first, to those who actually believe “India” and “Hindu” are synonymously interchangeable. They equate national life with the spiritual life within Hinduism. They believe that only Hindus are permitted to the land because their holy-sites are in the Subcontinent. India primarily belongs to those folks who think Hindus are some kind of Nazi Herrenvolk and others are the Untermensch (inferior).

Next, India belongs to the rich, upper classes, the tycoons of finance capital and industry. Their real and sole motive is profit and monetary gain, and they ruthlessly exploit the large masses of workers- especially in the private sector. Whether you sit in front of a computer or an ordinary cement-mixer, they (the corporate) won’t care about you. Like tissue paper, they will use you and then throw you away. Any kind of philanthropy or social obligatory work that they do is a mere public-relations stunt. And these rich blokes often offer support to the people, described above.

And these two, whether inside or outside the government, are successful in creating the third type of people to whom India belongs to- the people who think that India “belongs” to them.

 Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you India, their India.


Article by :- Anush Ghosh.





Disclaimer : The views presented in the article is that of the author's. The organisation's viewpoint shouldn't be confused with the same.