Dating
back into the pages of history we see how India and Indians have with open arms
accepted and respected people of different origin and treated all humans as
equal. Let us trace back the civilisation of India which in the available
history would be since Indus Valley Civilisation which was prominently
Dravidian civilisation. In the ancient era came the Aryans, and we see how both
Aryans and the Dravidians gelled together and stayed in the country as a
family. Eventually in the medieval period came the Turks, the Afghans, the
Chinese and subsequently settled here as local citizens. Finally in the modern era
came the Europeans – the British, the French, Portuguese etc, yes this last lot
of ‘visitors’ left mostly but India and its people absorbed the culture and is
still very much visible in the society.
As
history has it India was once the Golden Bird with large amount of wealth and
riches, Babar in his memoir has mentioned that ‘India is a vast country with
lots of gold and silver’. Though we might not have been the most developed
civilisation of late, we might not have the highest GDP on the planet but there
is one thing that India has continued to have since the beginning of time and
is respected for the same all across the globe – that is its ability to mix,
nature to absorb different cultures and live like a family amongst diversity.
Something
that has never happened in the written history of my mother land but is
happening now is this communal divide. For certain political benefit my country
and the countrymen are now being portrayed as ‘intolerant’. This is something that the country never was. A bit lethargic
may be, easy going, festive in nature, all these adjectives we are used to and
we accept it. But Intolerant we are not and we shall not accept this.
Firstly,
I don’t understand who is intolerant to whom? Every citizen of India has equal
right and is free to exercise all his religious and personal belief as long as
it is not to harm anybody else. I being a calcuttan cannot be intolerant to a
Mumbaikar or Delhite cannot be intolerant to Bangalorean. The country belongs
to us all and nobody is being generous to another for allowing him/ her to stay
or practice their belief.
Well
that was a generalised example we all know what the intolerance is about. It’s
about religious belief. All of a sudden, Indians now do not respect each
other’s religion. Is that true? Do we actually not respect the counterparts or
we have been subjected to a political Feud? For all these years politicians
made false promises, indulged into corruptions, made a mockery of democracy and
all of that was still accepted by the people assuming things would improve and
this was just within the country and did not affect the image of the country
globally. But what is happening now is damaging the age long perspective of
Indians. It took us 1000s of years to
create a reputation of being good people. I don’t think we can let that dampen
for someone’s personal political benefits.
After
almost 200 years of colonial rule when we finally got independence in 1947.
Just one ‘new’country was formed as opposed to the general notion of two
countries. When the proposal of separation was tabled with the proposition of
two new countries, our first Prime Minister, Shri Jawaharlal Nehru, categorically
mentioned that India/ Bharat shall continue its age long identity and whoever
wanted to leave could do so. Hence a new country was formed which apparently
claimed to be an Islamic Republic following only one major religion. But India as
always continued as a secular country, giving equal right to all its citizen
irrespective of religious beliefs. But now it seems like things are changing or
at least the politicians are making the world believe so.
I
would humbly request the Prime Minister to give up the policy which is defaming
the country. Or if he is not involved in doing so kindly supress the ones who
are involved. We have witnessed how for some handful of people who claim to be
the protectors of their religion, the entire section of a certain caste is now
viewed with suspicion. How for no reason countries are being labelled as
terrorist countries and the citizen have to face the humiliation all over the
world for no mistake of theirs. Well at least no direct mistake of their owing
to the fact that had they protested against such behaviour at an early stage
their country would not have been in such a situation.
Nonetheless I am here
concerned about my country and I don’t want India to be labelled as intolerant or disrespectful. Kindly stop those who are spreading the hatred. It shall
do no good to anybody. We have been known for treating our guests like Gods
(Atithi deva bhava) how can we be disrespectful to our own family members. All Indians
are equal and no one is tolerating another. If
you believe you are tolerating the other kindly leave as the country does not
belong to people with such mindset
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