A
Prayer for the Restoration of the Pride and Glory of India.
It is difficult to give expression to one’s sense
of distress and anxiety when one’s active years are far behind and one is
hardly in a position to dent a change in the eerie feeling of fear and
uneasiness. Four years to becoming an
octogenarian, I can imagine the smirk and derision on my readers’ faces, dismissing
my writing as the lachrymosity of the older generation that stubbornly refuses to
adapt to modern times. My generation belonging to 70s and 80s cannot dare to express
their inexplicable fear without it being labeled as the geriatric whine of the ‘pre-historic’
generation which refuses to break free of the past and move with the present.
Admitting there is a kernel of
truth in the reaction of the new generation, I wish to defend myself with the
plea that despite being a golden ager, I continue to be young at heart. I am as
passionately involved in the World cup matches as my illustrious colleague in years, Amitabh
Bachchan , the erstwhile “angry young man’ and now the “ amiable old man” who
was seen waving the Indian flag as India scraped to victory in the match
against Bangladesh. I am passionately fond of music like another illustrious person
of my group, though senior to me, the lilting
nightingale of those days- Asha Bhosle who is credited for her versatility that
includes bhajans, ghazals, dance numbers and
pop music. I love Western music both classical and the pop as much as I love Hindustani/carnatic music and the Bollywood beats. I love pure dance as well as the modern experiments
with dance genres of the world that one watches on the TV channels.I love
theatre - both the stylized classical
kind of Sophocles and Shakespeare and the experimental theatre of the modern times
that includes black comedies and kitchen sink school of drama. In short, I love
today’s mantra YOLO(You only live once) with as much romantic intensity as I
did five decades back . Hence to dismiss my writing as a septuagenarian’s
lament is a deliberate attempt to plug ones ears against unpleasant truths that
are at the root of the disturbing trends of our times.
We are today in the 70th year of
independence. Barring the aberration of the emergency period that lasted for
about 21 months in the mid-70s of the last century, India has enjoyed
democratic rights in full measure. There has never been a silencing of our Constitutional
rights to speech, right to express,
right to eat what we like, right to live life as we wish, right to love
unimpeded by caste, class and religion barriers - in short our right to be a human being
with our individual emotions and
thoughts. What it meant for eveyr Indian
during those nearly 68years (leaving the
21 months of emergency and 21 months of Modi’s regime) was that s/he lived without fear to live, eat, speak and express. No arm of law would catch anyone of
us if our expression, actions and
speeches were critical of those in power, butwell within the rights given to us by the
Constitution. Independent India for the major part of its existence was running
true to the script written by Gurudev Tagore:
When the
mind is without fear and the head is held high.
When
knowledge is free.
When the
world has not been broken up into fragments by narrow domestic walls.
When words
come out from the depth of truth.
When
tireless shining stretches its arms towards perfection.
When the
clear stream of reason has not lost its way into the dreary desert sand of dead
habit.
When the
mind is led forward by Thee into ever widening thought and action.
Into that heaven of freedom my Father let my
country awake.
The early years of
Independence gave impetus to our countrymen and women who had nothing to fear and
who could hold their head high to build a new India. While Nehru had the vision
of an emerging Modern India levered by Science and Technology, Sardar Patel
successfully united the diverse country with diverse population into one homogeneous nation. Any talk of secession like the
Dravidanadu in the South and separate Sikhland in the West was arrested by the
16th Constitutional amendment introduced by Ambedkar that permitted
the government to rein in freedom of speech that threatened the unity and
integrity of the nation. Persons of the middle class origin like me enjoyed the
benefit of good education in Universities and IITs that enjoyed the autonomy to
devise, design and impart quality education. There was hardly any major tussle
between students and authority that required the law enforcement agency to
intervene. Tagore’s last line - the prayer to the Lord seemed to have been
fully answered when our minds were led to breadth of thought and action and
thence to the heaven of freedom. Personally speaking, both during my student
days and later as an academic where I had the good fortune to be a teacher, researcher
ad administrator, I did not encounter any clash as what we witness today in the
Central University of Hyderabad, JNU,FTII, IIT Chennai, Jadhavpur University and in the prestigious Ferguson College in
Pune.
Things started falling
apart in the last quarter of the 20th century, with corruption,
nepotism, crony socialism and crass materialism raising their ugly head. There
was no centre to uphold the founding principles of our freedom fighters and our
downward slide was fast and furious. The last few years of the UPAII rule was
marked by a nexus between officials, elected representatives and corporate
leaders of questionable integrity to pace India at the disreputable lowly rank of 94 among 175
countries. UPAII was punished by the
people in the last elections and NDA II
with BJP on top came to power. Contrary to the expectations from the new
Government, there has been a steady erosion of religious unity and an increase of cultural chauvinism
that has brought about a class, caste and religious divide in a nation that had
prided itself on its multi- cultural, multi- religious and secular credentials.
In the last year and a
half things have changed. It is no longer the same India that one was born into, the country that gave
me freedom to think and act, the country
that enabled me to understand,
appreciate and enjoy the traditions and cultures of other lands, the country that opened its windows to other faiths and
religions to inspire me with the best that had been thought and expressed by
great men and women from time immemorial, the country that swelled me with
pride as the jewel of the world with its adherence to cardinal principles of
liberty, equality and fraternity. Universities have become a place of siege,
bedrock of violence. Recently writers in Urdu language have been asked to
certify that the content in their writings do not criticize the government. Those
who criticize the poilcies of the government are charged with sedition as
though it was a criticism against the nation. Those who are suspected of eating
beef in their homes or having beef in
their refrigerators are lynched and attacked by mob hysteria. The great icons
of the nations are slowly brought down and new ones erected without bestowing a
thought that the two can stay parallel. Today it is a different India best summed by Veeraivah Subbulakshmi in her poem My Mind
Is Not Without Fear.. -
As my mind
is not without fear,
My head can't be held high in pride,
The fear of persecution,
……………………………………….
The fear in me grows slowly with daily experience,
I can't keep my head high with pride,
As the tomorrows always add more fear,
In my strange rooms of fear,
Not visible to anyone, as everyone has their own,
My head can't be held high in pride,
The fear of persecution,
……………………………………….
The fear in me grows slowly with daily experience,
I can't keep my head high with pride,
As the tomorrows always add more fear,
In my strange rooms of fear,
Not visible to anyone, as everyone has their own,
………………………………………………
The divided walls of their own home witness.
The divided walls of their own home witness.
I yearn for that India
that Swami Vivekananda was proud of- that was known for its syncretism to appreciate various elements of the many spiritual,
religious and cultural traditions of the world. I yearn for an India that Gandhi
had gifted to us – an India of non violence, peace and harmony. I yearn for the
idea of India tha Nehru had discovered
in India’s history and had envisioned the
build-up of a progressive, liberal, secular
India on its historical foundation. I yearn for that India that Sardar Patel
forged to secure a united and integrated India. I yearn for that India that Abdul Kalam attempted to
ignite the Indian minds to unleash the power within India. I yearn for an India
that has space for everyone born in this land and seeks to cultivate humanity
with malice towards none and love towards all. If this cry is the cry of an old
and senile person, my idea of India crumbles. If it is seen not as the whine of
a septuagenarian but a passionate desire of the modern young generation, the
idea of India rises to its full glory.
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