Evolution of society the way it has, has influenced humans for the way we think and the differences we harbor, especially the communal ones. The reasoning lies deep into our psyche not as a personality trait, but as a part of fundamental upbringing we are brought up with. Political scenarios of various ages, though have been primarily responsible in reinforcement of these differences and creation of vast nations, states and hence communities. Our history from the ancient past stands testimony to this argument. In spite of those inevitable differences, if we are to continue to live and not coexist, we must learn to willfully and respectfully accommodate the other. The “forces” shall remain opportunists to every event of “differences”… But indeed they are nothing but a reflection of society and hence of you and me.
-Niliesh Gurnani
The evolution of society might have well lied in those innumerable events that went unrecorded in any of those historical manuscripts. An “act”, subconscious or deliberate in intent, by any of the constituents of society would have had a reaction from the others. The succeeding chain of events would have began with introspection, conflict within, leading to the formation of “group”ism, ambition to overcome the other, and finally a “resolution” leading to creation of history what we know as. These events often must have decided destiny of clans & communities, regions or even nations. Theses events were most often than not, resulted out of difference of opinions and egos of men and clans obsessed with their fundamentals of the “right way”.
This by no means is purely an educated speculation of the communal nature of human society but the most logical reasoning of the vast number of communities, sects, and why leave alone nations, being formed. Will give due regard to natural inhabitants of a particular mass of land, and their right to ownership of that piece of land. But divisions amongst EVEN them must have been formed on the very basis of fundamental “differences”!
If one were to ponder over the divisions of society that mankind has been successful in creating within itself, the introspection will reveal one nation as a standout from the rest. Yes, I am talking about India if you still didn’t guess the obvious. We continue to divide ourselves, as late as the years of the 2000s and one wonders if it stops here! Some would argue that we ourselves are one sixth of World’s Population, and such a large number of divisions are bound to come. Even China, harboring more the other sixth, has a history of innumerable clans which today co-exist in modern state, just like India. So the “numbers” make up for themselves and the number of divisions well justified.
Even politics of Louisiana continues to be largely communal with the fact that, a third of population is Catholic. Bobby Jindal, the first Indian-American Governor, is always credited with victory to the fact he departed from Hinduism in his young phase, changed his first name from ‘Piyush’ to ‘Bobby’ to sound like the one of the land. Shias and Sunnis continue to hold ground against each other world over, the infamous Capitalists Vs Communists, and lines always divided passionately between the fans of a Manchester United– Liverpool league game. Even though sport is always never looked at from this point of view and slated only to be a matter of passion, the passion indeed arises out “regionalism” of one’s team, hence of various communities of people.
But we as a country have far more reasons of divisions within, than just the boundaries of a state or our religions. When there are more than 800 dialects for the language of Hindi, this manifests itself into an enormous number of communities and ways of life our 1.2billion population are divided into. This in turn, no doubts, builds our rich culture and heritage as there might be more than ten thousand ways of preparation of even dal-rice, but results in more than a million Gods, and religious beliefs we so staunchly stand by. These in turn create the stubbornness in our very unique way of life, which is precisely what defines us quite distinctly from the rest of the world.
These divisions seem perfectly fine, as we exercise the one of its kind morale of Unity in Diversity. We have large amounts of migrating population, which in a bid to live more prosperously move towards “supposedly” better states just like Bihairs migrating to the “Rajdhani’s”, the South Indians to the north, vice versa. We have festivals celebrated unilaterally, social organizations being made up of all kinds of people, shanty hutments beside multiplexes, cricket matches! You couldn’t ask for a better harmonious model of human existence than this!
So then, where does it all go wrong? Are we truly living peacefully with the differences born within or just about hanging on the edge, waiting for an opportunity to lash out, at the other? The fact that we continue to be divided, rather communalized historically, by the “forces” and not by the “will of the masses” is my point of introspection.
By “forces” I don’t just mean the political ones of today’s multi-party democracy, but our entire “social engineering” existing from the ancient past. And off-course all these were political in nature. Often under the pretext of having a representation of the masses, these “forces” have acted to their best vested interests and termed it as the “will of the masses”. It’s far too obvious that social rules, regulations, laws and hence divisions were formed not by the masses, but by parliaments, elected representatives, religious heads, darbari’s, birbal’s and wise men with “power” in hand.
Countless number of Princely States and an equal number of power centers, frequent battles within, wars to take over states, the Harijans, the Rajputs, the Brahmins, the Kshtriyas. All suggest our politics and social engineering historically seems to be routed deep in the divisions and creating newer ones. Irrespective of the nature of the era they belong, political origin, party they belong, and history they carry, they all constitute together what I call as the “forces” of the Great India Diversity.
These “forces” often comprise of men with “patriarchal” intellect and commanding “personas” who so often possess those skills of “mass persuasion” and hence successful in creating those divisions, mostly arising out of their own ambitions and the so called manipulated or rather “projected” will of the masses. It would have been no different in 1550s as it is in the 2000s, as our fundamentals have remained the same. It’s only the “dynamics” that seem to have moved far ahead.
As human society has evolved in the way it has, we have by our birth right the liberty to maintain our opinions and views, and further an undisputed right of expression of the same. These opinions often turn emotional and sentimental in nature when they are in the context of one’s religion or community. Exercising the Right of Expression needs to be done with caution when you tread on those lines. Harmony doesn’t arise out of coexisting with the differences between any two, rather being respectful to and accommodating the other. Often, the “expression” is responsible for erratic events more than any other reason.
Harmony indeed is lost, when we talk about reservations to a particular community. It is lost when a kid is made to realize and write his caste and religion on the enrolment form in school, maybe for the purpose of census. It is lost when a Godhra or Gurjars-Meenas clash occur due to the will of the “forces”. Harmony is lost, when Ram Setu becomes a subject of debate, rather than one’s personal matter of faith!
Unfortunately, violence is the most natural outcome of any kind communal spat. Its potential is well known to the “forces”, while the “subjects” inflicting the violence on the other have a sadistic satisfaction out of the same. It’s how we humans have come to evolve. Violence has been the most walked path when ever there is a need of protection of “self”. This is a reality and it’s another fundamental aspect of a human mind. This is more profound when it is communal, because religion is often regarded so sacred, that protection of a community, even if it is supposedly “projected” by the “forces”, is taken up by many as a self-imposed purpose of life.
Without getting into details of every incident of communal violence, as it is beyond the scope, there cannot be a “mass movement” without a method, or an able and organized leadership supporting it. “Herds” don’t possess the collective intellect or sort of direction, as it is only a force which has potential only when it receives able direction. And hence, “forces” are well placed through their influence to “guide” the “herds” either towards the harmony, or igniting the passions further. If only communal riots and violence were born out of itself, would it have been fairly easy to curb by the administrators. Because it is NOT, it percolates to every corner of habitation like a forest fire.
The incidents of violence not only affect the direct “participants” and “the organizers” but they affect the communities as well. The incidents invite widespread opinion and reaction. Sentiments begin to seep in from “fellow” mates and often succeed over intelligence and common sense. All of a sudden Love thy neighbor becomes a sin. And this is where all the harmony that was achieved prior to the incident begins to be lost.
The part of the population that never directly gets involved in the violent acts begin to form stronger opinions, reinforce the age old theories of hatred and is thus divided more deeply. These form stronger ideologies either, For or Against, a particular community. Over time, which could be as short as the incident itself, the ideology spreads, and the lesser influential community is “labeled” and becomes what we today politically know as “minority”. Minorities always and will exist, but it is the way the minorities are handled by the governing system with a tremendous amount of bias, that is inviting my flak.
The active involvement of the “forces” in these “differences” is what gives the entire façade a strong reasoning, logic or reality notwithstanding. Communities have a platform to justify all that happened, and further pursue the cause in the name of religion. The movement is sustained for ages, and kept fresh & alive in every successive generation by the “forces” as if it were a part of mandatory and essential education! How would we be free of the divide? Where do we find the harmony? Or our history is so much reflecting in our attitude that we fail to differentiate between rationalism and fanatism? Would we “live” or simply “coexist” in the guise of living with the “differences” that is so inevitable in nature?
On the very positive side, our upbringing involves in it cultural values, and a faith towards ones religion and community. The numbers of deities itself manifests the various aspects of the Indian way of life and is unique unlike any society. Various avatars of “Krishna” himself provide the understanding of various philosophies of life. Religion always teaches one to respect and accommodate, and try to do away with the human instinct of superiority over others.
Somewhere in the process of following ones religion and the subtle patriotism towards ones community, is born the “stubbornness” and over time converts to “intolerance”. These are human tendencies which are inherited, and preaching to get rid of such traits, are best left to the satsangis. However, these traits are real, natural and harbored further by the environment we live in, and finally reinforced by history and the “forces”. Rajnish Osho famously said “don’t try to destroy with the darkness, instead light up new candles”.
We shall live harmoniously perhaps only if the “intolerance” remains superficial and not deep within, being restricted to ones opinion & judgment within the personal domain, and doesn’t culminate into an ambition of elimination of the other “opinion”. We indeed live in harmony with these differences, if you and I agree to disagree on each other ways, but still eventually travel together, side by side. The “forces” are opportunists which thrive on such communal ambitions, and History itself is the proof of such events of intense differences!
Taking a leaf out from an animated motion picture Lion King, where it famously explained the vicious circle of life “the goat eats the grass, the lion eats the goat and when the lion dies, it becomes the grass”! There cannot be a better anecdote to summarize how to live with the differences!
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