Omkar Dattatray
There is a deliberate and conscious effort to decimate the very idea of India and it is very unfortunate .India is not only a geographical entity but it has its identity which can be called the idea of India and we must protect it at every cost .India is not only a federation of states ,but is a union of states whose existence is dependent on the sarva Dhrama Sambav and secularism ,pluralism and unity in diversity are the outstanding characteristics of India and if we deviate from these lofty principles and doctrines we will no longer remain a nation that was envisaged by Mahatama Gandhi ,Nehru ,Abul Kalam Azad ,Sardar Patel and other such great leaders .Today under the petty politics ,the NDA moreso the BJP is doing such a politics which is hell bent to negate the very essence and soul of India and they are busy to play a religious card to somehow stick to power no matter it may destroy the very idea of India .Gandhi envisaged an India that is secular ,plural and where there is inter faith amity and religious harmony but alas today these very principles are under attack and it we distance from the very idea of india ,our nation will fall like a house of cards and therefore what is needed is that we should protect the idea of India and not deviate from the basic philosophy of India and what is its essence as well as what it stands for .The cosmopolitan nature of India which is the shinning doctrine should not be deviated from and it should be strengthened with each passing day ,but what we see today is the travesty of the idea of India and it is very dangerous for this country ,its people and its very essence .The political parties are intoxicated by the power opium and they disregard the very idea of India and without it ,India will not remain the India of Gandhi and therefore we should protect the idea of India .The Indian idea is that a nation may endure differences of caste ,creed ,color ,conviction ,culture, cuisine ,costume and custom. ..As we celebrate 77th independence day ,it is again time to reflect on what kind of country we are .India ,I have long argued ,is more than the sum total of its contradictions .It is a country held together ,in the words of Nehru ,”by strong invisible threads -a myth and an idea ,a dream and a vision ,and yet very real and present and pervasive.” The nebulous quality is what the analyst of Indian constitution is ultimately left with ,to borrow a phrase from Amartya Sen ,it is an idea -the idea of India .But what is that idea ?Jawaharlal Nehru articulated it as pluralism vindicated by history ,seeing the country as an” ancient palimpsest’ ‘on which successive rulers and subjects had inscribed their visions without erasing what had been asserted previously .A generation of secular nationalists echoed him ,making ”unity in diversity’ ‘the most hallowed of independent India’s self defining slogans .Their secularism is today questioned by a new ruling dispensation that had sought to define nationalism in more sectarian terms. .How did India preserve and protect a viable idea of itself in the course of last 76 years ,while it grew from 370 million people to 1.2 billion ,reorganized its State structure ,and sought to defend itself from internal and external dangers ,all the while remaining democratic.?Certainly the accomplishment is extraordinary ,and worthy of celebration .Amid India’s myriad problems ,it is democracy that has given Indian’s of every imaginable caste ,creed ,culture ,and cause the chance to break free of their lot .There is social oppression and caste tyranny ,particularly in rural India ,but Indian democracy offers the victims a means to escape ,and often -thanks to the determination with which the poor and oppressed exercise their franchise of triumph .In the last more than seven decades since independence ,democracy has failed to create a single political community .Instead ,we have become more conscious than ever of what divides us ,religion ,region ,caste ,language ,and ethnicity .Despite having a one party majority in the Lok sabha ,our political system has in fact become more fragmented ,politicians mobilize support along ever- narrow lines of political identity .It has become more important to be a ”backward caste ”,a ”tribal’ ‘,a Muslim ,a gau rakshak ,than to be an Indian ,and of course ,to some ,it is more important to be a” proud ”Hindu than to be an Indian .Caste which Nehru and his ilk abhorred and believed would disappear from the social matrix of modern India ,has not merely survived and thrived ,but has become an instrument of highly effective political mobilization .Candidates are picked by the parties without exception with an eye towards caste loyalties they call upon ,often their appeal is overtly to voters of their own caste or sub caste ,urging them to elect one of their own .The result has been growth of caste-consciousness and casteism throughout the society .The casteism has gone too far and now it is widely held view that unless you are backward, you cannot be forward .So a negative and narrow politics is going on in the country under the shield of democracy .But we should guard against such negative politics and do our best to preserve and protect the very idea of India .The PDP chief and farmer chief minister of Jammu and Kashmir also advocated to protect and preserve the idea of India and she went on to say that in the India of Gandhi ,Nehru ,Abu Kalam Azad there is no place for communal ,sectarian and caste politics .The slow and steady degeneration of the Indian state into a state based on castes ,sub castes ,ethnic groups and religious politics has made India hallow and shallow and we should contribute to protect the idea of India as advocated by no less a man than Gandhi .We may have differences of opinion which is the essence of a democracy but so far as the protection of the idea of India is concerned all the political parties and leaders should cooperate and contribute towards the protection of the very idea of India and in this lies the good of the country and its people.
(The author is a columnist,social and KP activist).
