India – A country failing to become a Nation

“On the stroke of mid night hour, when the world sleeps, India will awake to light and freedom.” These words by Pandit Jawahar Lala Nehru, declared the coming of India. An idea grander than anything the world had seen came into being. A nation which spoke several languages, consisted various ethnic beliefs, practiced all possible religions and yet was defined by one Idea, an idea of India, was born. A nation which had always been a mystery, not just to those who heard stories about her but also to those who inhabited her. It was the first time in 1947 when the huge geography of the subcontinent became a single territory commanded by a state. Never before in the history of the Indian subcontinent, existed a single political authority that was bestowed with the power to take decisions pertaining to the economic as well as social wellbeing of its people. Finally India became one. Finally it became a free nation. Or did it?

The history of India, like in any other country, is the story of its people. The populace of India like its geography is diverse and extremely heterogeneous. The polity of India therefore reflects the same heterogeneity, a great achievement of our democracy. Such is the variation in the populace of India that the perceptive ability of its people along with its numerous belief systems to live together was hailed as a victory for the Idea of India in what came to be known as unity in diversity. In the past 65 years of our independence, the mood of the country seems to have changed. From having believed in an idea whose time had come to a cacophony of ideas who’s time seems to be running out. We seem to have evolved in a way which thrives on confusion, discontentment and intolerance and this therefore is reflected in our polity. After all, the polity of a country is a mere reflection of its people. As George Carin said “if you have selfish ignorant citizens, you’re gonna get selfish ignorant leaders.” In India we have sided away from the idea of India to the idea of individual or that of groups. One fails to see the so called unity in diversity anymore. Ironically, the only thing that seems to unite us Indians is our love to divide ourselves. We divide ourselves on our religious orientation, the type of food we eat, the community or geographical place we come from, the colour of our skins and so on and so forth. The idea of India seems to have got lost in the stridency of the current societal degradation within India. Yet, the masses of the country so swiftly place the blame on the polity of the country. While there can be no denying that the polity of India has been extremely inefficient and burdensome at times, it none the less doesn’t reduce the onus of peaceful co-existence on the people of India. The political issues on which the elections are fought are but the echo of the issues of the people of the country. When India got independence the aspirations of the people were anchored in the need for India’s economic and social development. As a result of which, politicians fought elections on these lines. That is how the famous and very competent IITs and the IIMs were established. This was because the politicians understood that if they don’t give the people enough signs of social infrastructure development, they will not vote for them. In the recent years, due to the emergence of a huge middle class in India which is doing fairly well economically, the issues of the people have changed from hard issues like roti, kapda aur makaan to soft subjective issues with very vague boundaries like, geographical and religious identity. Under the light of the recent events in Assam, I wonder how Indians can call themselves to be an example of unity in diversity if mere video clips and statements whose authenticity cannot be verified incite such extreme emotions that one feels no hesitation in killing someone who may have been a neighbour. The crux of the issue is that we and Indians have started thinking in terms of I and not we. That is precisely why issues like reservations based on caste and religion can win election because people have started thinking about how it will affect them in the short run and not about the nation in the long run. Most Indians have given way to populism and that reflects in the policy of the government. From issue based politics the Indian democracy has moved on to vote based politics with the emergence of vote banks that can be defined not on hard economic issue but on soft caste, community or religion lines. In fact, most political parties in India have very clear religious, caste or community leanings and ideologies even if they do not have well defined economic policies and a long term vision for India. This is because deep down, for most Indians, the issues relating to their religion, castes or community are more important than their and hence the nation’s economic wellbeing and this reflects in the political manifestoes of various parties in India. It like bashing filmmakers for putting raunchy and so called immoral scenes and songs in the movies, but then then these are the movies that are blockbuster hits. The implication being that most people in India actually want to see such movies which makes them super hits. How then is the filmmaker at fault? He is simply letting people see what they like seeing. The same is true for the politicians, they fight on issues which reflect the public opinion. Now if the issues that people think are important change, so will the policies and the strategy of the politicians. It’s like 2 way signal game. The politicians and the government send out signals in terms of policies and their actions to the people and in return, the people, through various means, send signals back to them which results in the next action by the politicians. Therefore, it is the people who decide what they want to see and listen from the politicians with or without realizing. Hence a decline in debate and discussion on core economic political issues within the parliament and in election manifestoes and a rise in populist schemes is after all a reflection of what he people want to hear and what concerns them. Another important and often forgotten fact is that while India, in 1947 got a political identity, it never actually got a social identity. In fact, in most democracies, like France during the French revolution, a social revolution took place before a political revolution. This was important in that the social revolution gave the people a unique social identity because they had to fight to get equal social status within the society. This when followed by a political revolution granted them a unique political identity with political rights. In India on the other hand, while the freedom struggle culminated in giving the people a political identity and rights, the social revolution never took place. Even till now, any social identity based on the equality of all humans remains elusive. The societal structure still consists of multiple layers of identities, some better and superior than others, even though constitutionally and politically all citizens enjoy similar political right and are guaranteed equal social status within the society. How then can a country 1.2 Billion people become a superpower when a millions of her citizens are denied opportunity to become a part of that progress based on the caste they belong to? On the contrary imagine a country of 1.2 billion people each and every one of which contributes to the nation’s growth. When the whole of India which comprises of 17% of the world’s population decide to march forward together, can it not achieve whatever she decides to? But alas, for us, it is more important to be a Hindu, or a Muslim or a Brahimin or even a Marathi or a Gujrati and so on and so forth. There is no end to the typologies that we create to satisfy our need to be different, to be superior to our own fellow citizens. This has very skilfully been understood and exploited by the politicians of India. They know that the politics of caste, creed, region and religion is what’s going to win them elections. The people don’t want to hear about economic policies because they are boring. All they need is a chance to go on streets to participate in a bandh called for by a political party and set fire on public busses without realizing that the next morning they themselves will have once less bus to travel to work while the politician would still have his car and a government provided driver to take him to the parliament. Once we realize that for our own good, we as Indians desperately need to go beyond the identity politics and unite for the benefit of us and that of India. It is high time that we give out a right signal to our politicians make them realize that it is the hard core economic and social manifestoes that will make us vote for them. Look beyond the populism of free televisions, mobile sets and other such things that the politicians offer us for our votes. Make them work to deserve it. Make them understand that our real issues deal not with our mere identity but with our liberty and freedom. Let’s unite to make a new society. Let’s unite to transform our country into a Nation.