Revisiting the Incredible 'Secular' INDIA!!!

Not that I am a pessimistic prick always trying to pull back the notion of a developing India, but I very rarely feel that India is actually developing as a Secular Socialistic state. But when ever I dream of such things, invariably something nice has to happen and for a change I have some positive blood flowing in my post today. I have this friend of mine who calls himself ‘The Monk’ and who does not waste time in finding the where and how of my posts. Definite adulation but sometimes way too much insurgence. What say!!!...But to tell the truth, he always gets me tied to the hook and makes me think hard before I write my next post. So, this one purely dedicated to his way of thinking and for a change being positive about the prospects and helms of my country India.

"India doesn't accommodate you, You have to learn to accommodate to it." 

says Nicholas Vreeland, a'Dalai Lamist', and a New Yorker living in India for the past 14 years. When he can, why can't we?

Every time I read the articles of our ex-president APJ Abdul Kalam and his vision for India I become nostalgic. He tells us that if we persevere with hard work and smart strategy, despite current difficulties we could make India a world class nation.

Cannot stop my mind flashing back to my student days in high school in my hometown, Hyderabad, South India. In those days far fewer creature comforts and modern goods were available to people from middle class families such as mine. Yet, reading about the planned industrialization and modernization of the country imbued much enthusiasm in me and my friends.

As I began my engineering phase, I came across many diverse and motivated young men and women from all over the country. The common thread among us was our optimism and vision of technological progress of India, of eradicating poverty and backwardness, of implementing social justice, of removing hang-ups of religious and ethnic differences; in short a future of moving ahead with confidence.

In those days religion was a private affair for us – my friends were mostly Hindus, a couple of Sikhs and Christians and Muslims. We mingled freely especially on each others’ religious festivals, such as Dasera, Diwali, Holi, Eid, Christmas which all of us enjoyed equally as our common events.

In US during my years in graduate studies and as a young professional, again I found myself in a circle of friends who were from a variety of backgrounds in India, with whom I had most commonality and with whom I felt most comfortable. While satisfying our curiosity for the many Western elements, we often thought and talked aboutIndia and its developing infrastructure and industrial base. One of my dearest friends here in the US - Anoop, and I must mention his zeal and enthusiasm for a Secular, Socialistic and Prospering India, who always enlightened me more and more on the diverse and yet common culture of optimism among Indians. This trend was so lacking in me before I moved out from my homeland, a culture that gave me the respect and adulation that my Country deserves. Of course, one who has been at a place for 20 long years is in one way or the other attracted to the comfort and habitual nature of the place. But to realize what the place actually meant to me took longer than it should. His perception on things that were far away from my genre of thinking made me feel a complete Indian and more importantly a responsible citizen. But the fact remains that he does not want to return home for various reasons that may be completely primal to him.

I soon realized that whenever India looked good as a result of some remarkable achievement of either India or an Indian, my American colleagues paid greater attention to me. That encouraged me to paint a positive image ofIndia among the Americans whenever I could.

However, in these years of absence from India it bothered me to observe that the elements that are at the core of the development of any country, such as law and order, corruption-free administration, social justice, fair treatment of the weaker sections of society, were not getting adequate attention from the government and the leaders of the nation.

While sporadic Hindu-Muslim tension and violence in certain parts of India has been an endemic problem since independence in 1947, generally the major political parties did not encourage it. But in the early 1980s the picture changed radically. A major political party started openly spreading false stories and venom against the Muslim community. Also caste-based politics mushroomed across the nation.

At the same time watching the upsurge of the violence of the misled Muslim terrorists against their fellow Hindus in Kashmir in God’s own paradise, where they had lived in harmony for centuries, was hard to believe. Similarly, it was very painful to watch the 1984 anti-Sikh violence, the 1992 demolition of Babri mosque and the sectarian attacks on the peaceful Christians staring in 2002. All these grew with me and in me over a period of time. These are facts that are hard to digest and also knowing that these were carried out by biased and rational groups is even more hurting.

The unprecedented anti-Muslim violence in Gujarat in 2002 with which the Gujarat state government openly connived, and the subsequent total loss of recourse to justice for the Muslim victims of the carnage shook me to my bones. In this dark hour my spirits lifted when I saw the mainstream Indian media, the Supreme Court of India, many Indian Non Government Organizations, and a majority of Hindus, speak up to help the Muslim victims and to condemn the Gujarat state BJP government. Hope my dear friend and my best critic agrees with me.

However, I kept faith that the enlightenment of a majority of Hindus will overcome the zealotry of a few among them. As I watch hordes of young Indian Information Technology engineers and other professionals flood the shining offices of major corporations and government all over U.S., and get respect for the quality of their work, my chest swells with pride at being an Indian. As I hear of the growth of hi-technology and industrial and infrastructure development in India’s various cities, and India’s 8 percent annual economic growth in 2007-08 (which of course might well shrink given this year’s fatal economic crisis), I wonder if the quarter century old vision for India that I dreamt as a boy and that has stayed with me ever since, is now becoming a reality.

As I stand in front of the mirror from my boyhood of my bright and hopeful vision of an economically advanced and social justice oriented India, I notice that a few cracks are staring hard at me. I am unable to understand the dichotomy that while India has made phenomenal progress in the spread of education, great technological infrastructure and economic progress, at the same time indifference towards one-third of the population that lives below poverty line, and religious minorities, and frequent organized anti-minority violence has also become a visible part of India’s landscape.

Today my vision for India as an Indian is the same as that of my fellow Indians from other backgrounds. That is to repair these cracks and move forward with renewed enthusiasm to build that egalitarian and modern India that three generations of Indians – my grand father’s generation that actively participated in the freedom struggle, my father’s generation that was born in post-independence India, and my generation that has been seeing this growth - have dreamt for more than half a century.

I want to hold my head high and shout ‘Jai Hind’, but by selling myself to a nation other than my homeland I deprive myself from doing so. But still, I am and will be proud to be born Indian and live Indian. And as responsible humans and citizens of India, one can always hope and dream to see India progress to the helms of super power, take the care and responsibility in supporting its dream. Just like someone said, “Dare to Dream & Care to Achieve”.