Where is The Indian?

Where is the INDIAN?

Few days back I attended an elocution competition in my college. The speaker was saying something about us, the Indians, our nationality, and giving age old examples of the age old phrase ‘unity in diversity’. The speech made us all feel proud as “We, the citizens of India”, but also somewhere deep down my heart; it left me with few burning questions. Are we really united? Are we actually one? Does India actually posses the hypothetically propounded quality of ‘unity in diversity’? The recent happenings in our country further fuelled my thoughts.

Let me first share with you few facts about our motherland. The Indian economy is the world's eleventh-largest by nominal GDP and third-largest by purchasing power parity (PPP). Following market-based economic reforms in 1991, India became one of the fastest-growing major economies; it is considered a newly industrialised country. A nuclear weapons state and a regional power, it has the third-largest standing army in the world and ranks ninth in military expenditure among nations. India is a federal constitutional republic governed under a parliamentary system consisting of 28 states and 7 union territories. India is a pluralistic, multilingual, and multiethnic society.

The above mentioned facts gladly borrowed from Wikipedia and other such sources; make us feel proud, don’t they? They surely do. But this is what we tell to the whole world. Let’s now see what has been going in our country since a few days. Probably that will help shape my idea more clearly to you.

In July 2012 the Indian state of Assam saw outbreaks of riots between indigenous Bodos and migrants of Bangladeshi origin. The first incident was reported to have taken place on 20 July 2012. As of 8 August 2012, 77 people had died and over 400,000 people were taking shelter in 270 relief camps, after being displaced from almost 400 villages. Eleven people have been reported missing. On 27 July 2012, Assam's Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi blamed the national government for "delay in army deployment to riot-hit areas". The next day, Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh visited the relief camps in Kokrajhar and called the recent violence a blot on the face of India. Indian Home Minister P. Chidambaram visited the state on Monday, 30 July to review the security situation and the relief and rehabilitation measures being taken. Lok Sabha member from Bodoland, Sansuma Khunggur Bwiswmuthiary blamed illegal immigration for the violence in the state. This violent outbreak follows ethnic tensions between the indigenous Bodo community and Muslims immigrants from Bangladesh who settled in Assam. While the Muslim community state that they are descendants of East Bengali Muslims brought to Assam during the British Raj, local communities allege that the Muslim population has increased, boosted by refugees from the erstwhile East Pakistan prior to the 1971 Indo-Pakistani War and by subsequent illegal migrants from Bangladesh.

Now this particular incident of Assam riots triggered a chain of events across the nation. A protest by several Muslim organisations was organised at the Azaad Maidan, Mumbai, to condemn the attacks on their community in Myanmar and Assam. Somehow, the protest got violent injuring 50 and killing two people. Also there was destruction of public property including the Amar Jawan Jyoti. 

Also highly intensified rumours of north east Indians being attacked spread like wild fire which led to flee of north Indians from metropolitan and multicultural cities like Pune, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Chennai, and Hyderabad.   

Another incident which involves a highly respected and honourable personality from Maharashtra declaring publicly to brand every Bihari as an infiltrator and threatening to send them back happened not many days ago.

My point in telling you all this story all over again which you must have read on the net and in the newspapers a million times and seen on the television news channel a zillion times? The point is, are we one?

In India, it’s quite common to find a Bengali, Bihari, Maharashtrian, Guajarati, Tamilian, Punjabi, and other such provincial representatives, isn’t it?  But why is it so difficult to find one nationality called Indian. All we hear and see is a Maharashtrian representative taking a dig at the immigrants from Bihar and then the leaders from Bihar trashing both, the comment as well as the person who made it.

We have a prosperous and well to do state which we fondly call Andhra Pradesh, but a particular section over there is hell bent on dividing the state into two and having a separate state called Telangana. The demand for a Bodoland has raised its head from time to time. Loving ones state is one thing, but considering it a supreme one and belittling others is not. And it is just unacceptable when we belong to one nation called INDIA.

It isn’t that we don’t show our nationality or our unity for that sake. Every time the nation has faced a terror attack or things of that sort, the whole nation stood up, took to the social media, conducted peace protests and candle marches, voiced the opinion of oneness. But what happened after the incident was subdued by the factor called time? You probably have the answer, don’t you? 

The great leaders like Mahatma Gandhi, Chandra Shekhar Azad, Bhagat Singh, and Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel worked throughout the life and gave their blood, sweat and bone for the nation. Yes, that lucky and proud nation is which you and I call India. Are we doing justice to their preaching and works? You are really smart; you have the answer of this question as well.

Guys, the nation is going through a tough phase. We have to deal with gargantuan monsters like terrorism, Maoism, recession and corruption. For that we need to be united. The country needs us.

Folks, we need to find someone whom we call INDIAN. We need to rise above our provincial stature and be one single voice. Let us be the voice of an Indian. Let us cease to be a Bengali, Punjabi, Gujarati, Bihari or Maharashtrian. Let us all become an Indian. That my dear friends; is the true discovery of India. And that will actually prove that we are one and ‘unity in diversity’ is not some age old saying but a genuine quality that our nation possesses. 

Disclaimer: the author has taken utmost taken care in maintaining accuracy of the article above and does not intend to heart the sentiments of anyone. If, however, some error has crept in or it unintentionally hurts anybody, the author requests to consider him another mortal being and pardon him.