Sangh Parivar

The word nationalism evokes different emotions in different people.
Some proudly proclaim them to be nationalists, some curse the very idea
blaming it for the mayhem of first and Second World War while a large
majority is completely indifferent to the idea. There is a sudden surge
of nationalist feeling during a cricket match or when we face an
external threat as was seen during Kargil war and much recently during
26/11 attack. But as soon as the match is over or the threat is
neutralized this feeling also retreats.
But is nationalism a
switch that can be switched off and on at will? Can this surge of
nationalist feeling be called nationalism? What is nationalism?
According to me nationalism is a desire to be useful for the country.
It is the willingness to sacrifice everything for the sake of your
nation. It is selfless state where your nation becomes more important
than your religion, your caste, your region, your family and even your
life.
It was due to this selfless nationalist feeling that we were
able to attain our independence. It was a staunch nationalist movement
under the leadership of Mahatma Gandhi that won the freedom for our
country. Historically, we were a divided lot fighting with each other
in the name of region, caste, religion, etc. It was due to this
weakness foreigners came and have plundered our country. It was under
the majestic leadership of Mahatma that all these difference were
forgotten and everyone stood united in the fight against the foreign
imperialists. But after the independence, instead of strengthening
this, the political class started dividing the society. Feeling of
nationalism was suppressed and casteism, regionalism, communism were
encouraged. Most of the political leaders have mastered the art of
divide and rule and used it to divide our society to strengthen their
hold on power. “Let the people fight for the bigger share of the pie.
For if they fight they will not ask why the pie is so small” seems to
be the motto of our leaders.
Post independence, political parties
have played on the fears of people; they have worked tirelessly to
project one community against another. The reason why they have been
successful in doing this is because there is a miss match between
requirements and available opportunities. In an environment of limited
opportunities people are fiercely competing with one another. In this
competition some people are at great disadvantage due to their social
and economical conditions. This has led to their just demand for
reservation but this demand has severely damaged the unity of our
society. Reservation as a policy has failed miserably; the groups that
were backward before independence (socially and economically) are still
backward. Some individuals have benefitted from reservation but
community as whole has not benefitted from it. India would be the only
country in the world where people agitate to be called backward. There
is a recurring demand by different castes to get included in SC or OBC
list. These demands are resisted by castes that are already there in
the list. This leads to caste conflict like the one we saw between
Gujjars and Meenas in Rajasthan. There are demands made by people that
locals should be given preference in the jobs, this demand has led to
violence and loss of life as in Maharashtra were Marathis and north
Indians are fighting for very few available jobs which are not even
enough for any one community.
Any organisation that is looking to
unite India has to find solution for the lack of opportunities. We have
to create India where everyone has equal and abundant opportunities to
excel. But it is a job that is easier said than done. May be we all
know this but how do we do it. There is no magic wand or one step that
can solve this problem. It will require a series of honest efforts by
everyone, the government, social organisations and people. One of the
main reasons for the India’s backwardness is her neglect of education,
specially the primary and secondary education. Few days back, I was
reading an article on Economic times by Mr Yasheng Huang. In this
article he had argued that the reason for the impressive growth of
China is the major investment it made in primary education during 50s,
60s and 70s. In India our population has become a cause of concern.
Millions of people are getting added to the work force every year but
job creation is not able to keep up the pace. So we see a large number
of unemployed people or under employed people. This huge population has
become a major liability for our country. The quality of human resource
in India is one of the worst in the whole world. We have blindly
followed Maculay’s education system which was meant to make babus for
British Empire.
This system is doing exactly what it was meant to
do i.e. create Babus. Maculay had a disdain for anything Indian and
this scorn was reflected in the system he created for India. There is
hardly any emphasis on our rich culture and traditions in our test
books. Vedas, Puranas, Gita have one line existence in our books. Vedic
maths, which was rediscovered in early 20th century from Vedas, is an
unheard concept in our classrooms. The Hindu philosophy of Karma finds
no mention in our test books. Our Ayurveda and Yoga have largely been
ignored by our education system. It is not only what is being taught
but also the manner in which it is taught that has changed. In Gurukul
exploratory learning process was followed, where teachers and students
were co-travellers in a search for truth. The teaching methods used
reasoning and questioning. Nothing was final. In Gurukul system
students were made self sufficient and effort was made to develop
reasoning. Classes were held close to the nature which helped in
building creativity in students. This method of teaching is any day
better than current way of teaching as it ensures students involvement
and interest while the current education system is based on rote
learning which kills creativity. A teacher is supposed to give a
monologue which students are expected to mug up and reprint on the
examination paper. In many schools students, especially in rural areas,
are discouraged to ask any questions. The product of this education
system is under confident, uncreative person who is afraid to take any
initiative and need instructions to do any work.
India has rich
culture and traditions. Each and every village has a story and a
history to tell. Every place has rich traditions and a developed
culture that is based on thousands of years of enlightenment. Are we
not forgetting these stories, these histories, these traditions and our
culture? Rajasthan has been able to retain and preserve some of its
heritage because of its emphasis on tourism but can the same be said of
other parts of our country? If you go to the village adjacent to a
depleted fort and ask the people about its history more often than not
you will be stared back by blank faces. Is it not the failure of our
education system that we are forgetting the rich heritage of our
country, heritage that is the result of thousands of years of
experience?
In our race to become developed we have forgotten the
real meaning of progress. We have defined development according to some
scales and are blindly rushing to perfect the score on those scales. We
are trying to achieve 100% literacy, so what if the quality of
education is not up to mark. We have set-up a goal to industrialize our
country and have created SEZ for their growth, so what if they have
created regional disparity. We have set-up the goal to increase the
productivity of our farm, so what if the food produced in those farms
are making people sick. We have set-up a goal to urbanize our country,
so what if it has created the problem of slums. We have set-up a goal
to increase our tourism, so what if that has destroyed our heritage and
natural beauty. The list goes on and on. The problem is not with the
goal but the way by which we have tried to achieve it, if it is not so
then how will you explain the rise in unemployment with increase in
literacy or increase in disparity with increased growth.?

In
this race to grow we have forgotten our roots, our culture and our
traditions. Many times we have heard about danger to our national
boundaries from foreign and internal forces what we generally forget is
the danger to our culture from westernization. Never before has our
culture faced such a challenge. Our culture withstood the onslaught of
Islam and Indianized it. It remained unaffected by around 200 hundred
years of slavery. But now it is facing its greatest crisis for this
crisis is from within. It is we the people of India who have forgotten
our roots. This has led to degradation of values, corruption and
indifference. What is the reason why the people who were once described
as “having high moral values” have degraded to such a level? Why the
Society that coined the phrase “Athithi Devo Bhawa” (Guest is God)
needs
an advertisement to understand its meaning? What is the difference
between the past and the present society of our country? The difference
is that today “Athithi Devo Bhawa” is good business while yesterday it
was way of life. Today wealth and material has become the most
important thing while yesterday it was Character and Contentment.
People today are individualistic, ambitious, insecure and unhappy while
yesterday they were collective, self content, secure and happy. One of
the reasons for this transformation is that priorities have changed for
the people. They are ready to cheat, hurt and malign for self
advancement. But these are against the basic structure of our
conscience and this leads to insecurity, fear and unhappiness. But why
have we become so weak and morally void? One of the reasons I think is
breaking up of joint families. Previously, the role of building a
character was unwittingly taken up by the nanis and dadis. They used to
frame the basic fabric of human being through the countless stories of
Ram, Krishna, etc. the stories that had lessons of Gita and Vedas. This
early education that used to define an individual has almost
disappeared from our society and has been replaced by cartoons and
comics.
Not just the morals but also the history and more than
5000yrs old culture of our country are fast disappearing. When I was
8yrs old I went to my mother’s village to attend my Mausi’s marriage. I
distinctly remember the countless songs called Mangal Geet that the
ladies of the village sang. Few months back I went to a similar village
to attend another marriage but this time those mangal geets were
replaced by music system that was playing latest hindi and gardwali
songs. The folk songs are our heritage. They contain history of every
corner of our country. They contain our beliefs and our knowledge
acquired through thousands of years of experience. We are forgetting
this knowledge and it will be lost forever because this knowledge has
passed on from one generation to other through recitation and if one
generation chooses not to learn it, it will be forgotten forever.
I
have listened to many speakers who have mentioned about our more than
5000 years old culture to enthuse their audience. We Indians have taken
pride in our culture by talking about it. But do we have any right to
feel proud of our culture? Is it really our culture? We have forgotten
it and are letting it disappear; we are just like any foreigner who
knows little about our culture.

All of us are in a state of
inertia. We all know that something wrong is happening, we all want to
change it but we are too lazy to stand up and change it. We have wasted
the last 60years of our independence. we need a movement to ensure
coming years are not the same. We need another Gandhi to walk up and
down the country to push us out of this state of inertia. Someone who
believes in our culture like Mahatma did. Someone, who can stop us from
becoming the shadow of the West.