"Language is courage: the ability to conceive a thought, to speak it, and by doing so to make it true"
The above quotes are from a book banned in India and few other countries namely "The Satanic Verses " by Salman Rushdie.The man while writing the book must be so whelmed in an intolerant mood against particular people and that made him rewarded with a "fatwa" from the then Iranian government.Now,can this be compared to the recent "intolerant" wave that is sweeping the nation in daily news channels?.I hope not.And as the so called "veterans" argue "Is India becoming intolerant?".Every citizen of India can have a different opinion on this intolerance issue and can hold a candle light to his/her stand.But the international society holds a different opinion as "India" is now a living entity for the global platform reporters.So keeping this point constantly in mind,when I tried understanding the sequence of events, I wrote this article in my "candle light" view point.
Post 1947 period:
India,a multi cultured nation which freed itself from the clutches of the British had a devastating task of dealing with the 'surgery' of partition.And mind you,the wound is yet not healed completely.We are in a constant term of reciprocation to the actions of the "Intolerant" fringe elements in our neighbour country.But,we assured that the thought of Winston Churchill (see picture)was only his whimsical dream.Four decades after the independence,the first wave of intolerance which had a strong sense of religious colour flavoured by political advantage that eroded the deep tolerance of the nation was in the name of "Anti-Sikh riots-1984".One may note that the intolerance was clearly mooted by the subtle hand of the then ruling political class and the blame game still goes on.So this incident can be considered the first of its kind in India wherein the political flavour started playing a key role in the religious intolerance game.
Yet again,the 1992 Babri Masjid event and Bombay blasts had created a serious chaos in the Independent India and brought to light that the nation is in a tug of war of "blame politics".Since then any event that happened in any part of the country resulted in regional intolerance and reasons of this varied in different pockets of the Indian territory.The 2002 Godhra riots yet again played a unified reason for this existing intolerance among the various sections of the people living under the umbrella of "ONE NATION".
Today's era:
This decade had actually raked up the existing intolerance and made it a package for delivery .The job of delivering is done by the innocent "little runners" of the bottom pyramid with the forecasting being carried by the elite members."Ghar Wapsi","Love Jihad","Saffronisation".These are considered to be the new agenda for delivering this intolerant package and the victims being the people at the bottom layer.Then why all of a sudden the entire nation suddenly started questioning the "Intolerant " package.Because three eminent rationalist writers Mr.Narendra Dabholkar,Mr.Govind Pansare and Mr.Kalburgi were murdered for carrying their rationalism over this raked up agenda.The intelligentsia wakes up and started questioning the existing intolerance in the society.Is this wrong?.Absolutely not.
Beef Ban Theory:
India is a secular nation.As the Indian constitution guarentees in Article 25, "Freedom of conscience and free profession, practice and propagation of religion under reasonable restrictions imposed by the state to maintain the national peace and integrity" .The "beef ban" theory takes the debated "reasonable restriction" phrase in the constitution and plays it along with the turmoil of certain religious affiliated groups.In a democratic secular(!) nation,the citizen's "kitchen menu" cannot be decided by the fringe elements with strong left or right wing groups.ofcourse,mutual tolerance is demanded as a mandate for the multi layered society based on religion and income.The stern truth is that the ruling governments (irrespective of political parties and the coalition groups) had now imposed a blanket ban on beef extending their informal support to the pressure groups with the only ideology of making India a one religion nation.Rubbing salt to the wound is the "silence fast" of the directly head and the blame game of the ruling party members.
"Award wapsi" and "Political Chopsy"
As earlier mentioned ,the "wake up" intelligentsia is echoed by the surrendering of awards staring from the highest literary awards of 'autonomous' Sahitya Academy institution right upto the prestigious Padma awards.True ,that the freedom of speech and expression is at stake for the non-ruling(note it) members of the society.But how far this 'award wapsi' program have put our country's fame in the International community is always a matter of concern especially for the well educated elite member group.When the whole expression of moral anger is appreciated,the "award wapsi" is also been used as a platform to gain political/media attention for a few eminent personalities.The debates in the news channels stands support to the statement, as either of the debate group members drag the original scenario to a staged political drama.Yet again,the blame game continues and citizens are made to witness only one side of the staged political drama.
Questions and the cue points:
1.As the constitutional head of the country,Hon'ble president Dr.Pranab Mukherji had addressed the nation thrice on these issues and had sent a warning signal for these barricades in the striding path of the nation's growth.Meanwhile the directly elected head addressed the nation to stay away from the "political game" and to concentrate on the growth.The one immediate question that I pose to Hon'ble PM Mr.Modi is that does his phrase "stay away from the political game" not apply to his "cut throat" political campaign in Bihar elections??
2.As a citizen of this country ,I wish to follow my conscience and want to be free from the religion and the reservation systems,Why am I forced to give my religious status and caste identity in any government application form.Mind you,I demand no reservation for my application.
3.As a citizen of the country with legal voting rights,I wonder what the term "empowered citizen" actually mean to the poor people of India.Am I or are we not empowered to overthrow the government by constitutional means when large sections of the society show visible signs of dissatisfaction?Should we rot and trot for 5 years when these "intolerant" signs are so clearly felt by the major section of the society.
When these questions were discussed in an open debate forum,I was answered by the 'veterans' of the academia that "A system evolves on its own phase of cycle and our Indian system with the innumerable strings attached has so far been able to survive the herculean task of "One Nation" philosophy and it shall continue to do so.These questions should be taken as cue points for the younger generation to frame a functional approach and reframe the structural backlog to become a well modernised society"
And my reply was sharp to the academia ," The baton still remains in the passage mode and currently it has been delivered to this younger generation.The so called "modernised society" will be a far dream unless the future history is written with the proper note.So "lecturing aside and let's decide" should be the strategy".
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