HOW INDIA SURVIVED!!!

In the last couple of months I read two books concerning the History of India from Independence to till date: ‘India Since Independence’ and ‘India After Gandhi’. These books not only helped me to get a better understanding of my motherland but also help me to get answer of an unsettling question that I’d been asking myself since maturity.

This country is bafflingly diverse it’s impossible to even encompass it in the human mind itself. There are plethoras of problems in this country, Communal-riots, Poverty, Linguistic Riots, Corruptions, Inefficiency, Illiteracy, etc.  How is this country with its multitude of problems, still standing united and how has it survived? With so many anomalies, it should have disintegrated or become a non democratic nation.  But it’s united, not only surviving but thriving.

Here are few Ideas which I think holds together this great nation despite, its multitude of problems:

1.       Secularism: Holds together the people of different religion.

India is the most religious and religiously diverse nation on the earth. We have almost every religion of the world Hinduism, Islam, Sikhism, Christianity, Buddhist, Jainism and many others. Some of the aspects of these religions are contrary to each other and most often it leads to communal tensions in India, which results in communal riots. A glance on the history of communal riots in independent India would convince everyone that the biggest problem of this country is communal riots. Thousands of people have been killed in each decade due to communal riots between Hindu-Muslim, Hindu-Sikh, and Hindu-Christian. The communal riot seems to have become an integral part of existence of India. Government in India has almost completely failed not only in preventing riots, but also in delivering justice to the victims of the riots. In spite of this, how are these people of different religion living together in this country? 

The reason for this is India is a secular nation in letter and in spirit. The constitution of India does not discriminate between people on the basis of religion. Our political parties and government may have failed the litmus test of Secularism, but the constitution of this country has not failed. The constitutional positions available in India have been occupied by person of almost every religion.

Just imagine had India declared herself a Hindu nation during independence, what would have happened to it? With so many riots taking place in this country every now and then, it would have been virtually impossible to keep this nation united. By proclaiming and practicing secularism the Indian Nation has given its religious minority the belief that, this nation of Buddha, Mahavir, Ashoka, Nanak, Kabir, Akbar, Vivekananda and Gandhi, belongs to people of all faith and not just to the majority Hindu.  Thus one of the fundamental reasons for survival of my motherland in spite of horrendous riots is it’s a secular nation not ‘HINDU PAKISTAN’.

2.       Secularism of Local Culture and Language: Holds together people of different language and Culture.

India is land of mind-boggling pluralism when it comes to culture and language.  Due to this there have been tensions in India on the status of national language.  There has been tension between people professing different culture and speaking different languages.  A prominent example is Anti-Hindi riots in Tamil Nadu and other south Indian states. By not declaring Hindi as national language India has given equal respect to the culture and language of those Indians who do not understand Hindi. Thus almost every state in India has its own state language. The Indian constitution had given each Indian state the right to practice its culture and commune in its own language (22 languages). Thus it’s perfect in India to be an Indian-Tamil, an Indian-Bengali, etc. 

This issue seems trivial to many people, but it’s as much important as secularism. The Nations of the world have been bifurcated not only on religious line (India and Pakistan), but also on linguistic line (Pakistan-Urdu and Bangladesh-Bangla). One of the fundamental reasons for strife between West Pakistan and East Pakistan (which later became Bangladesh) was linguistic difference. Pakistan has declared Urdu as their national language and made it compulsory for everyone to learn Urdu, while the mother tongue of people of East Pakistan was Bengali. This started the cultural conflict between East Pakistan and West Pakistan, which ended with formation of Bangladesh in 1971.

3.       Non-Political role of Indian Army:
On the left is Pakistan, on the right is Bangladesh, and in the centre is India. Most of the time these nations on the left and right have been doing Left-Right-Left, i.e. Military rule is frequent there. But in India there has been never ever been a military rule. Forget military there has never ever been even an attempt for it. No matter how much chaos the political class has created, army never stepped in to clean it up. Neither did they step in when Indira Gandhi declared Emergency, nor when it seemed that political class itself cannot come together to form an administrative unit to govern this nation.

It’s a question of not only about not imposing military rule the Indian Army has given the motherland as much selfless service during peace as during war. Whether it Tsunami, Flood, Communal riots, Maoist problem, Making bridge for commonwealth games, Getting  ‘Prince’ out of bore well, Terrorist strike, etc, any or every man made or natural disaster the last resort of Indian Administration seems to be Indian Army. Whenever the Indian Administrative machinery got out of track, the army helped the state and went back to its barrack, thus maintaining   peoples’ faith in Indian Administrative machinery.

In the end it won’t be exaggeration to say that India as a country own its Democracy, Unity, Peace and Stability to selfless service of Indian Army and not the selfish, bickering Political class.

4.       Indian Culture:  Resilient, Pluralistic and Naïve:
The culture of this land is perhaps oldest culture being practiced in the world. It’s a culture unparallel to any other culture of the world. It’s diverse, plural, naïve and has a special tendency of focusing on self growth (or self purification), accommodating and assimilating the good qualities of other cultures. It’s never been interested in mending with other peoples’ affair. It has a very tortuous journey along which it has gained a lot of virtues which has helped this nation to remain intact, in spite of occasional blows.

Here was the oldest religious text written-Vedas. Here Hinduism was born. When Buddha started a new religion, the existing religious people of the land did not persecute him, but treated as an incarnation of the god. When Mahavira propagated Jainism, his ideas were fully respected and incorporated into the culture of the land. When Guru Nanak started Sikhism, he was given same reverence which other gods of this country enjoys. This nation has a peculiar quality of not only accepting but respecting diversity. That’s why four major religion of the world were born here, not only this when persecuted people of different religion came for asylum here, we greeted them as brothers. Be it Parsi or Tibetian refugee, this country has always gave protection and home to innocent persecuted people. 

When Christ propagated his religious belief, he was persecuted, nay crucified. When Prophet Muhammad propagated Islam, he too was persecuted. In India on the other hand, when Buddha, Mahavira, or Guru Nanak propagated their religious ideas, they were not persecuted but treated like god himself. This is culture of my motherland. Whoever comes here to give us new knowledge and improve us we accept it, we may disagree with some but we never persecute anyone because of difference of belief or opinion. At the heart of Indian culture is acceptance and respect of pluralism, assimilation of good qualities of other religion/culture, focus on self improvement and living a naïve life. That’s precise reason we never persecuted anybody and never annexed any mass of land.

It is due to the culture of this nation that people of this nation continues to live together despite mind-boggling diversity and contradictions. We accept and celebrate pluralism.  We know to accommodate, assimilate and move on together, the brother next to me may sometime hurt me but we believe he is not my enemy, we believe in live, let live and forgive. In this culture there has never been the tendency of ‘My way or the highway’. It’s precisely due to these cultural tendencies of my motherland that we are united.

It’s due to our culture that the fascist forces (Hindu fundamentalist) has always remain weak, as a result minorities of this nation has never been persecuted. It should be noted that in this nation fascist forces may come to power, but they will never be able to implement fascist policies, it would be inconsistent with the culture of this nation, and if they try to do so they will be booted out.

5.       Democracy with checks and balances: Keep government within its limits

 India is a vibrant democracy with checks and balances. It has put in place a constitutional framework, which ensures that the various institutions of the country, check each other and thus the nation as a whole remain well within democratic structure.  

We have world’s largest and most comprehensive constitution. Which is flexible and can be amended yet it’s rigid enough to prevent any government from changing its basic structure. There are provisions for each and every eventuality that the country may come across in future.

We have Election Commission, which is an autonomous body and ensures that election is free and fair. India’s election commission is best election conducting body of the world. It has always remained free from corruption and political influence.

We have Independent Judiciary, which keeps check on the arbitrary power of the parliament. It (Supreme Court) has power and authority to declare any law null and void, if it violates the constitution. Judiciary at higher level (High court and Supreme Court) is still free from political and government interference. There have been cases when judiciary has given verdict against Prime Minister and other powerful ministers.

Then there are other autonomous bodies which keep a sharp eye on the power and working of the government. We have Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG), Central Information Commission, Central Vigilance Commission (CVC), and National Human Rights Commission (NHRC). These bodies make sure that the government does not cross its limits as specified in the constitution.

6.       Freedom movement Legacy: Gandhi, Nehru & Brothers’ Corporation:  Divesity outside, unity in Spirit

Their come a time in a nation’s life when it’s most talented people come together to work selflessly for the service of the nation. Similar thing happened with India. During the last 40 years of British rule in India, virtually every intellectual and talented person of the country came together to fight selflessly for the independence of the nation. These people did come from different-different part of India, but were considered largely national leader.  Like Subhas Chandra Bose came from Bengal but was respected in north and south alike. Nehru hailed from north India but was respected by every Indian. So was with Patel and other leaders. This phenomenon of a person of one region being well respected in every corner of the country laid the first bricks of the foundation of the unity of this country. Indian may have been speaking different languages, but their struggle against common opponent (not enemy!) united us. For the independence of the motherland people from all over the country sacrificed their life.

Even after independence these intellectual came together and framed Indian constitution. They may had their differences, yet in the interest of the nation they gave their very best to frame a law which has hold this nation one till date. While B.R. Ambedkar did perfect work by forging constitution, Vallabhbhai Patel showed his administrative acumen to unite 565 princely states to form a united India. Nehru worked tirelessly to entrench democratic values in the psyche of mostly uneducated and poor Indian. He further laid the foundation of modern India, by setting up IIM, IIT, AIIMS, Atomic energy Agency, Modern Industries, Five Years Plan, Dams.  

                And at the end I would like to say about my motherland….

She is not Perfect,
But she has strength,
to fight, to strive.
With all the anomalies,
With all faults,
She stands United,
She stands erect,
to Bounce back, to Resurrect.

Acknowledgement: India After Gandhi, India Since Independence, Mere Mehnat.