India Burning

We have black marks in history like Babri Masjid demolition, Godhra train burning and post Godhra genocide in Gujarat. As long as acts by Islamic fundamentalists can find their origin and support from across the border, I do not feel ashamed of my country men. But it can be argued (and truly so) that the wide spread and frequent and coordinated acts of terror such as we have witnessed so far in 2008 are not possible without internal support.

The whole scenario is frightening at the least. For years India faced cross border extremism in regions like J&K and the far north east. But now when India is developing at a fast clip and we are trying to make a mark for our country in science and technology, we see that India shining is slowly drifting to India burning. One question every Indian should put to himself is why is the situation on security front worsening by the day? Why are Indian's themselves aiding and planning such acts of terror in their homeland?

Normally such things happen when one community is being discriminated against and it resorts to such acts. Now the next big question is - Is Muslim population of India being discriminated against? In India Muslim's are not looked down for their religion, color of skin (which is no different) or language. So what is causing at least a part (albeit very small, but sufficient) of Muslim youth to become violent? I know that there are always some rotten apples in a basket, I know that some are brainwashed for ulterior motives. But the answer is also 'fear'. The communities feel insecure because the Hindu-Muslim divide is becoming more wide. Distrust is developing among both communities and given that Muslim's form a small part of Indian (majority Hindu) population, they are more afraid of this divide. And fear makes one do many things, fear causes one to strike back before even there is a hint of danger, fear causes a person to abandon rational thought, fear causes one to imagine demons lurking in innocent dusk. And there are people who are responsible for this divide and fear to increase: our own politicians.

What our volatile neighbours, Pakistan have failed to do in 50yrs, our own leaders have managed to do so in a decade; our leaders have managed to play communal politics to such an extent so as to cause mistrust in Hindu's and fear in Muslims. They have managed to replace thought with passion, such a passion as which causes a person to set fire to his own house because he doesn't want his brother to live with him.

Such leaders neither live by Gita nor by Koran. In fact they have little understanding of what god is. 'God' first and foremost is a personal realisation, a personal understanding of the good and bad within us and the ability to choose and do good over bad.

I can understand that it is difficult to be thoughtful when your family or friends have been victims of communalism or terrorism, but there are many others who are also giving in to passion over thoughts and these sparks are being fanned into fires by communal forces.

'Word' is said to be the most powerful instrument and truly so, words cause thoughts, thoughts result in actions. Good words are constructive and bad words are destructive. Our leaders who cause communal tensions are masters at using words so as to induce people into murdering others, raping others and destroying their life and property.

Nowadays you need not even have to think to be a orator, you just need to listen to 10 speeches and the 11th will flow from your mouth. Well these people think of only one thing - power and because ours is a democracy and they can only get power through votes, they will make you vote for them by deceiving you in to believing that they are for you, for your country. They will play on your emotions and the most easy emotion to create is passion, all it needs is a bit of adrenaline and they do that to manipulate your energy, your emotions to their own purposes. This is not restricted to one political party or one religion, but is wide spread.

All it takes for a man to become a mahatma is just to speak what you think is truth, always. That is very difficult as we all have this game of life to play, not just for enjoyment, but for victory. Still many of us do not want to be violent or to hate others, we are just commoners, you and me, going about our joys and sorrows, please let us not get fooled by politicians whose agenda is communalism.

Let us be thoughtful in this one life we have and smile a little in hope of a better India. One such smile per day should be enough dose of optimism for us to be constructive. Smile thinking you will and can see better days than you are seeing, smile knowing that if you smile then others will. And then how far is a handshake from a smile?