Nationalism – Myths & Realities

These days we are facing a very sickening type of nationalism in our society, which rather than protecting the interests of our nation resulting in a threat for its integrity. There is however no problem with having proud of our nation and its values but the way we are realizing this concept is flawed in its basics.

The problem with our nationalists is that they are always in denial mode to every injustice and crime against humanity committed by our state in past and present. This approach is like a pigeon which on seeing the cat closes eyes to deny its existence. However this refusal would be of no help to save it from grave danger. We could no longer behave as Dhidhrashtra* while dealing with the crimes against our own minorities, SCs & STs and other linguistic or cultural groups on the name of maintaining national honour.

The right approach to solve our problems is to first accept all of our failures audaciously, then regret for them boldly and then take every necessary step to make certain that perpetrators of such atrocious acts would face appropriate penalty by the law of land. This would help in reinstating the faith of all stake-holders of our system and would actually strengthen the footing of idea of our integral nationhood.

Along with we need to ensure the reestablishment of lives of the victims of our failures as our prime duty so that they can rejoin mainstream of our society. This would broaden our brethren by many folds and would also contribute enormously in our vibrant progress by making it more sustainable.

Wider involvement of civil society and local groups is required in addressing all of the grievances while giving complete consideration even to those viewpoints which are otherwise completely against to our self defined laws.

However it is the matter of shame that we are using muscle power against the voices for justice of ones who are already the sufferers of our atrocities on the very name of national spirit or synthetic patriotism. It is the main cause of further worsening of our troubles while endangering the very concept of our integrated existence over long run.

* For all non-Indian readers: Dhidhrashtra was the King from Kuru dynasty in great Sanskrit epic of Mahabharata. He was father of all Kauravas, the 100 villains of the epic. Blind by birth, he is known for his partiality towards Pandavas, the 5 heroes of the epic, while protecting the interests of his own sons. Pandavas were his step-brother’s children otherwise.

Life, Questions & Answers

What is the meaning of life? Is it only respiring, earning, eating, sleeping, romancing, reproducing or so? We are living on a planet full of around 6.5 billion of people. Everybody is doing these things, so de facto all are qualified of being alive. My conscience always asks me am I here to be just like crawlers or there is a specific purpose of my existence? Why am I alive otherwise? It seems to be representing spiritual alter-ego of my personality but it is a valid question in all senses. If completing my daily tasks is the only need then I am nothing but a crawler. There would be hardly any difference between the existence of a cattle or an insect and sophisticated, intelligent and so called humane existence of mine.

The best way to know the answer(s) of these doubts is to earn the eligibility to get answered. Wisdom says that there is no question without answer(s). Answers are ready much before the question is posed. Only thing is some answers are readily available while for others we have to put extreme efforts of ours to find out. In addition to these, there are some answers for whom we have to earn the qualification to get them known. Questions of life meet the criteria of answers belonging to later category.

Now this believe is itself a web of questions. How could one become eligible to get the answers of life? Where to start the journey and what actually is to be achieved? What is on stake and what could be in the way as facilitator or as obstacle? How could I be sure that I am following the right path or direction i.e. whether I am moving ahead on the road to attain eligibility to get the solutions of riddles put forward by life or just confusing with and getting all my energy wasted for none? Can someone be chosen as the guide or this travel actually needs guidance? There are millions of other threads in this web but foremost is whether these questions of life which appear to demand answers are genuine or just an escape route for running the routine challenges and pains of human life?

This subject is so mystic in itself that once you start with it and you find yourself in an unending maze. Begin with any corner and you never seem to find the other one while loosing the way from where you have actually started and left puzzled & perplexed in every sense. So do we need to quarantine this thinking to save ourselves form mental stigma or at least dive in the ocean of thoughts and try to search? I agree with later argument. It doesn’t matter if we would fail to reach to conclusion(s) but the pleasure of search is itself a big achievement. Answer(s) would definitely be the target but steps we follow and logics we employ could never be underestimated in its value.

Even though we could disturb our routine life while seeking out the solutions for the questions whose genuinity we couldn’t sure about, it would always be worthy to struggle for. It could be anything but an escape route. Every life in existence has a motive associated with it. It’s exploration worth our efforts.

Search of an individual is the reflexion of the intellectual capability one possesses in the way of one’s thrive for answers about the truths of life and is specific to particular identity. So there is no question of external guide. The one could take the guidance from self only. Others can give suggestions based on superficial thinking which could never be helpful until the self search. It is similar to way that we could never learn swimming unless we ourselves dive in water. Only the submergence of our conscience can make us able to find the pearls of truthful answers.

Even if we have doubts about path we are following we should at least attempt to search. A failure in an attempt wouldn’t be a failure in real sense but the success in manner we would have discovered another way via which success couldn’t be achieved.

Operation Blue Star 1984 – Remembrances

June 6th, 2010 was the 26th anniversary of heinous slaughter named operation blue star committed by Indian state against the Sikh minority of the nation in their holiest shrine. Innocent people including olds, women & children were butchered in sanctum sanctorum of Golden Temple by Indian Army claiming it fight against terror groups. Armed struggle brought into the place which is revered as sacred not only by Sikh community but many others, was a horrible act of state terror.

It was a first of its kind incident in modern world history where a state audaciously calling itself the world largest democracy used its full fledged armed capability & artillery against its own citizens. The day too chosen for this operation also raises severe doubts about the real intentions behind scenes. It was holy martyrdom day of fifth Sikh Guru due to which lots of innocent devotees collected in the Gurudwara to pay their homage. This shameful act had naked the real temperament of the values of which Indian system is boasting about.

This was the main cause which embedded the concept of a separate state, which was only the brainchild of few fundamentalists & separatists till then, in psyche of most of the Sikh minority of nation aftermath as their rights of survival with dignity were crushed to boots in Indian state, though they were the most visible group which contributed in freedom struggle of this very nation and resulted in its creation.

Once again the state sponsored & well-planned massacre of Sikh community round the country in November 1984 after Indira Gandhi's killing resulted in widespread support for militancy and strengthened the demand of separation. Again the way in which Indian state responded to these demands with largest human rights violations in the history after the holocaust by Nazis is a slur on its very character which term itself a democratic, socialist & secular nation.

In later years, thousands of Sikh youths were killed in fraudulent encounters by officers in police & forces brutally to gain rewards & promotions from government on killing terrorists. There was a literal hunting of Sikh youths by cops going on during those black days. Thousands of other innocents got killed or handicapped while being picked up & tortured mercilessly in Indian Jails cum hells. Till date there are unexplainable missings of thousands of youths, since those days, which could be the possible victims of atrocities of uniformed constituents of state, about whom no inquiry had been carried out ever to find out the truth.

The biggest disheartening tragedy in all is that even the Indian judicial system failed completely to provide justice in any of these unpleasant incidents. There is not even a single example where a single culprit from political circle to uniformed cadre got punished for these unforgiveable crimes against humanity. This has raised the questions on moral fibre which judicial system is supposed to carry around to some extent in our rotted system.

Sikh community is advised these days by Indian fraternity of majority community to forget those incidents and move ahead with so called progress in the country. But the biggest question is whether moving on without getting justice is possible? The answer is big NO!