Its amazing what the state of India is. No, I don't mean the roads, the water, the electricity, those are secondary. What I feel disappointed with is the indifference the people of India have developed to anything, and well, almost everything. With such apathy all around, I see any agitation by the people, violent or not, as a sign, that there might still be some hope left for this nation after all.
Ofcourse a lot of people say that, injustice should be confronted but not with violence. What is this fascination for non-violence in the Indian psyche? Ofcourse, I don't advocate violence for every cause, sometimes it can be overkill, but I do believe that non-violence or rather the power of non-violence is overrated in India. According to Indians, you would think, what the French, the Russian and the American revolutions achieved could very well have been achieved by some well-meaning lawyers!
Another aspect that non-violenc'ists(for lack of a better word) seem to overlook is that, when you are living the times your vision isn't twenty-twenty, how then can you say that non-violence is the best way going forward, would it then be safe to say that you wouldn't have identified with the struggles of Bhagat Singh, Rajguru, Chafekar brothers or Netaji Subhashchandra Bose? Though many would say that that was different, it was struggle for a nobler cause and that they support the path taken by the abovementioned, I would beg to differ, how could they tell? how would they know? after all, they speak now with the benefit of hindsight. Would they then have chastised Netaji for taking the route of violence instead of approaching a court of law in British India? Surely, even in those days, there were those who espoused that view. The point I am trying to make is, without the benefit of hindsight, how can anyone say, today violence is not required to get justice.
Look at this country a little more carefully, The parliamentary system of government that this country uses; it inherited from its erstwhile rulers, the laws; criminal and civil, have again been inherited from the British(Official Secrets Act, Bombay Rent Act, HUF so on and so forth...), the system of law enforcement still in place has also been inherited from the British, the judiciary, that too has been inherited from the British, imagine, even the summer vacations that the british courts used to take are still in place, the armed forces, India's pride and glory, they too have not shed the colonial yoke. everything in the armed forces has been inherited from the british, in fact, all the traditions during the Raj are still followed very diligently in the armed forces, while the British armed forces were an occupying force, this is, our very own and yet they look down upon the average Indian civilian; they have, I am sorry to say, nurtured the elitist attitude of an occupying force. Is there a single Indian idea here, I wonder.
It should not be forgotten that the British were, rather considered themselves, to be the ruling elite, superior to the locals; here to rule over the uncouth, uncivilized coloured people of India, the laws, the judiciary, the police, the armed forces...everything, was designed to serve the ruling elite, and to keep the coolies(read Indians) under control.
Indians would do well to realise that despite over six decades of 'independence', most of what the British left behind, remains, unchanged. Why has there been no attempt at Indianising the system? When I say Indianising, I mean making the system less subservient to the ruling elite and more friendly to the people of the country it belongs to? Why are the people of India terrified of their leaders, not unlike a slave population, that serves a few powerful elite. Why do the people of India shy away from asking for justice in a court of law, is it because they know that justice will inevitably be delayed, and consequently denied? Why are Indians often scared of the police, without any rhyme or reason, why is the police coming to your house such a big taboo even today, is it the mental and psychological inheritance of 150 years of British rule where the only reason the police would come to your house is if the ruling elite think you have not displayed adequate loyalty towards your masters? Why do politicians in India need so much security cover everywhere they go, why do they consider themselves any different from the people who elected them, what have they done wrong that requires them to be protected from physical harm from their own coutrymen?
An uprising is taking place ofcourse, not from the educated, enlightened, progressive, urban and semi-urban populace but from the so called backward tribals of Orissa, Chhatisgarh, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh. The urban, semi-urban educated, enlightened, progressive type, I am sorry to say, are too numbed to the real issues in this country from watching too much reality television and too many soap operas, if not that, then the frivolous and inconsequential concerns of who should be having intercourse with whom.
I hope, someday, the people who have really woken up, who are really enlightened take over this country, and change the systems that are at the very core of the oppression and suppression of the people of India. I hope that someday, we will get rid of the pigs, maybe in a better way than we did our masters. I hope that someday we will be able to see the paradise that lies beyond the metaphorical Orwellian 'Farm'.
