Category: India

Indian – Unity in diversity?

We have always been taught all our lives – India represents Unity in Diversity. Spread over more than 26 states and union territories, we stand united whenever we are in dire straits. Indian Army, Indian Bureaucracy, Indian Sports teams etc. are made up of people from all the places in the country we can think of. We said moving from Kashmir to KanyaKumari we would change language every 500 kilometers and change lifestyle every 1000 kilometers. But in effect everyone “different” was bound by identical spirit of Indianism.

However behind this rosy picture, there is something glaring that probably we all have continued to miss and we maintain a blind eye towards it.

Anywhere in the country, schools, colleges, workplaces, research institutions, even defense forces, it is very easy to spot groups of people moving together. Groups not made out of interest, but groups made on regional basis. All north Indian stick together, all Maharastriyans move as a group, all Tamilians prefer to speak in Tamil even when in company of other people, all Bengalis would prefer to find other Bengalis. Army has a separate Jaat Regiment, Gurkha Rifles, so forth and so on (I don’t know much about army though). And with this kind of segregation, where is the “unity in diversity” we always preached?

There was a time when people of the entire nation would stand together and fight for the common cause. Remember the fight for independence? Now people from a particular region would come together and demand their own state because they think that they are a distinct group and their unique problems can only be sorted out by a separate state.

It’s a shame but I admit I don’t know the exact number of states that we have now, when I was in school there were 25 states and 7 UTs but there have been splits ever since, difficult to keep track. I don’t even remember how many splits have we had in last 15 years. There was one in Bihar, one in Madhya Pradesh, one in Uttar Pradesh. That’s all I remember as of now. Are we soon approaching time when we have more than 1000 regions because we have that many number of major dialects?

People often ask me “where are you from?” question. If I say I am an Indian, they need further explanations. They just can not digest the fact that a person could just be an Indian. He has to be Marwari, Baniya, Punjabi, Sindhi etc. Can we come out of this silo mentality? What would it take to come out of the silo mentality?

As an Indian – only Indian, not as a Baniya, Marwari, Haryanvi I sincerely feels something ought to be done about this. Of course I don’t have a “sensational” issue. There would be no support from Indian media until I throw some allegations of caste discrimination on a prominent leader.

Medico Strike – My Point of View …

I can’t seem to find a single thing that the students have achieved by protesting and fasting. However there is a huge list of things that they have lost.

To start things of, reservation is incorrect. Politically, ethically, morally it is incorrect. Coming on to strikes, agitations, mass movements and the fallout, I think they are all uncalled for. The govt. has to do what it has to do and it would not stir from all these agitations.

Few things of note would be …

1. After the lathicharge on “students” at mumbai, a couple of professional event managers were caught. One of them actually went on air a television channel and talked about problems that they were facing and his personal distress. I wonder what kind of distress was he under. May be not getting his payments?

2. Then there were campaigns on sms nationwide. People said students sitting on hunger strike have died and media is barred from going there and talking to them. Wow. The next moment there is HoD of AIIMS on media and declined the allegations made. Are we trying to win our “fight” against reservation by false campaigns and rumors?

3. Further it was said people from all over the country are coming for a rally in Delhi. A “leader” of the movement told media that he had been requested by these 2000 students from other states to make arrangements for boarding and lodging. I don’t know if people have an idea of the kind of logistics required to manage 2000 people but it was impossible in every sense of the world for just students to manage it. And what about the money? Assuming that you spend mere 100 rupees for every student that comes down to the capital, we are talking about 2,00,000 rupees. This is no small sum for 500 odd medical students in Delhi.

4. Then there was a website and they were openly asking for contributions (in kind) from people. Agreed that no money is changing hands but why ask them … ? Wasnt it a student run initiative? Didnt they say they would not involve anyone who is not a student?

5. The day Supreme Court said it will hold people in contempt .. the strike was over. I wonder if honorable Supreme Court would have stepped in on Day 1.. could we have seen all those people on streets thoughtout India?

6. One of the main organizers were quoted in media as saying that they did all that to get attention from media. Now the strike is over, I hardly see any mention of medicos and reservations in Media. May be they were correct. May be Indian media is about sensational journalism …?

15th August 1947 – Independence Day


Today, 15th August, we Indians celebrate our independence day.

It’s been almost 60 years since we were freed from British control and we became masters of our destinies. We have come a long way from what we were at the time of independence but there are long long way to go.

We are now amongst the top three countries on the watch list of everyone (along with China, Brazil and Russia). Economy has been doing very well. We are a world renowned source of competent and trained manpower. Our say in international political scenario has never been higher.

There are few things that we can improve on. First and foremost being the removal of red-tapism. The accountability is almost absent from all the sectors. If we can work on these and some other pressing issues, we sure would be going ahead in every sense.

Today I was part of the Independence Day celebration at my campus. Our director, Padma Shri Dr. Pritam Singh raised a question and asked us why do we celebrate any festival or for that matter Independence Day? He said that we want to remember the sacrifices made by millions of people to achieve freedom. I partially agree to what he says. I think I celebrate because its close to me. Its close to my heart. I cherish the freedom. Thus I celebrate the functions.

Also I never understand why do people think about and sing patriotic songs only on Independence Day? I think its all propoganda ! If you were truely patriotic, you could sing all the songs all the time. Why wait for a special day to sing your songs?

Talking of Independence at the individual level, even though we might be independent as a nation, there are many people (including me) that are still dependent on others.

Benjamin Franklin says independence is when he is lord of himself and accountable to none. I think no one else talked about independence in a better manner. When I try to define control and its antonym independence, I can come up with things like political control, physical control and thought control. A political control can only influence the actions; the thoughts however are as independent as a bird in free sky. The power of these thoughts converted into action and played a key role in the independence struggle.

I also believe that there are ways to control the thoughts as well. A very simple example from world of marketing: Word of Mouth Advertising. It is more or less a subtle form of thought control. One might say that since a friend liked the product, there is no harm in reducing the risk of trial and going for it, there is no kind of thought control being attempted here. I would like to disagree with this school of thought. When you are influencing other people, selling yourself to people, doing anything, you are trying to control (successfully in some cases) other people and their thoughts.

Another thing that comes to my mind right now is emotional dependence. As has been said many times, man is a social animal. Man can not exist in isolation. Everyone needs someone to fall back on.

There is yet another aspect called the interdependence. Interdependence is when dependence and independence coexist together. The first question that comes to my mind is how the two faces of coin coexist? How can independence be dependent on dependence? Simple answer … change the very definition of independence to incorporate for necessary dependence. Very basic example is that even to think independent, sustain one self, one needs an elaborate support structure (like dependence on others for food etc.).

I think everything comes down to the definition.

There was this discussion in a class where a Prof and MS got into argument about the effectiveness of team vs. individuals. This is not related to independence and control and thus would be thought about later when I wouldn’t have anything else to do.

More Later !!!!

ORIGIANALLY POSTED ON August 15, 2005
REPOSTED FROM ABOUT2EVOLVE TO SEPTEMBERTHE22ND

Independence Day – Wallpaper

Samit made this wallpaper and gifted to me and told me that I can use it once on my blog and I cant redistribute it. He can be reached at samit_india@yahoo.com for getting the permission 😉

EDITED LATER
============
Actually he din’t make the wallpaper from scratch… he edited it from www.aqshar.com. Aqshar has amazing collection of wallpapers and computer generated art. A must visit place.

ORIGIANALLY POSTED ON Friday, August 16, 2005
REPOSTED FROM ABOUT2EVOLVE TO SEPTEMBERTHE22ND

And as I post this, tomorrow is our Republic Day !