Sensitivity is first dulled if exposed repeatedly to, the same stimulus and then it is deadened. The terrible news of the past few days from India should be shocking and unbelievable to any civilized person. But for us it is like a ghastly nightmare which always haunts us but is pushed aside perhaps by a defense mechanism of sanity. Many of us have become numb or indifferent. But the terrible reality persists: “Hundreds killed in Hindu Muslim clashes in Bihar, UP, Gujarat and Andhra Pradesh; scores killed both in Punjab and Kashmir; some so called upper caste youths immolate themselves to protest against job reservations for the poor and backward castes, while others destroy public property worth millions”. A story of a man burning his wife to death over dowry hardly darkens the gloom. This is the Indian reality and what Indian newspapers are full of every single day.
India pompously calls itself a secular, socialist democratic republic. Nothing could be farther from the truth. Indian society is feudal, highly communal, caste and class ridden. There are over 300 languages or dialects spoken by the 850 million people. Every Indian, despite protestations to the contrary, first belongs to his religious and ethnic group then to his caste within that group. There are hundreds of such groups in all the 22 odd states. Many of these groups are at odds with each other. The government harps about unity in diversity yen as differences were created and nurtured for political one up man ship. Some of these differences are today unbridgeable chasms.
Opportunists became politicians to amass vast personal fortunes while cities became slums. India has been bled white. Even the Mughals and the British were not so ruthless in their exploitation of the land and its people. The communists thought Indian society was ready for a revolution. They waited in vain as the feudal stranglehold tightened and poverty kept the people enslaved.
No one could have predicted in 1947 that the downslide would be so fast. But with the benefit of hindsight it is easy to see that India was afflicted at its birth and like a mangy cur it has scratched itself full of bloody sores. If ever there was a fit candidate for a mercy killing, it is India.
As more and more people become aware of the exploitation they have suffered, uprisings like in Kashmir and Punjab will be witnessed. These people who will have followed the lead of Sikhs need to remember how the brahmanical tyrants used divisive forces like Nirankaris bred and nurtured by them to damage Sikhs from within. India’s decade long effort to destroy the Sikhs has had the opposite effect. The Sikhs are more and more united in their commitment to be independent while India draws ever nearer to disintegration. India ignores the Sikh demand at the peril of other communities following them in wanting out.
Tensions which were ever present are at breaking point
The time is for all the oppressed minorities to join hands against the corrupt and morally defunct regime of Delhi. No one has ever won freedom just by asking for it. We must demand it firmly and from a position of strength. The reservation issue has completely exposed how a mere 1015% of the people have cornered all the power, the good jobs and almost all the money. For 4 decades the down trodden people have tried various leaders and parties in the hope of improving their lot but in vain. The only ideology which prevails is ¢grab what you can and never mind the consequences’. This has led to the state of anarchy which is so evident from the violence in all parts of the country.
Article extracted from this publication >> October 12, 1990