The concept of India...

I thought of beginning the new year with this topic to have a fair understanding of the genesis of the idea of Indian Nationhood. Before the freedom struggle spread far & wide across the Indian subcontinent, there was no such thing called the Indian Nation. All we had were innumerable princely states, each with its own interests to pursue as deemed fit by and large by the ruling Kings. Very briefly in our history were we united under the same empire - mostly during the Mauryan rule, especially Chandragupta Maurya, & during the Mughals. Otherwise, by and large, we have been a fragmented society. But, post Gandhiji's arrival from South Africa, the freedom struggle gained momentum & it united people like never before from every nook and corner of the country. It is during this period that we saw several non-cooperation movements happening, basically to drive home the message to the Raj that we, the Indians, are capable of making our own decisions & judgements in the best interests of our people & for that, we need Swaraj & not the Raj. We also saw great leaders like Bal Gangadhar Tilak taking on the Raj head on with his most famous quote - SWARAJ IS MY BIRTH RIGHT & I SHALL HAVE IT. Several millions of people laid down their lives in the course of the freedom struggle & many more lost their lives during the bloody partition, to give birth to the India we see today. What happened post independence, especially the reorganisation of states based on languages, has left our psyche fragmented even 62 years after independence. We still have our own regional, language, & caste prejudices in our psyche, & time and again, our politicians have capitalised on this by dividing the society for political gains. It is such a sorry state of affairs that despite 62 years of Independence, we are still a divided Nation. This psychological division takes epic proportions such as the recent incidents in Maharashtra and similar incidents in North East India. There are serious & urgent issues to address. I have tried to list a few here, & would appreciate if more can be added.

• Why have we not been able to unite the entire Nation (not just physically but also psychologically) even 62 years after Independence?
• Why don't we have a uniform civil code?
• Why don't we promote free movement of our people & culture across the length & breadth of our country?
• Why is it that only in emergency situations like the recent terror attacks in Mumbai, our people are united & not during other times?
• Whatever happened to the spirit of National Integration after independence?

When I look at India from these angles, I begin to wonder if we have become more fragmented now, than ever before? Was the spirit of National Integration shown by our people & political leaders during the freedom struggle an aberration? Did we begin to ignore issues of National Integration post independence, & take things for granted, due to which we are in such a sorry state of affairs? Having reorganised states linguistically, it was extremely important during the initial years to strongly bind the country by encouraging representation of different people & cultures across the country. For ex., allow equal representation of all people in all Central & State Government Departments. Thus, if there are 100 job openings in a Central Government Department, there could be 5 people from each of the 20 different states. This way, we could have created conducive atmosphere for different people coming together, interact & live together, working for the same spirit - The Union of India. It is these small measures which go a long way in ensuring National Integration. This way alone we can ensure that our people carry the pride of being Indian in their hearts & minds, & that should manifest in our actions & conduct, by living the values for which India stands for. Quite often we boast of our 5000 year history, being the oldest civilization, blah blah blah. I often feel we carry the burden of our glorious history so much so that we have made little progress on the people front other than boast of our history. What use is such history & civilization, if we don't even know the values addressed in our most ancient scriptures (not to be taken in the religious context)?

Our Constitution is a very great effort by our founding fathers & mostly encompasses some of the most important values - equality of all, freedom of speech, justice to all, etc. For all of us, our Constitution is the scripture & we have to live the values propounded in it. Individually, we may belong to different Faiths, & it is a personal matter. But, collectively as a Nation, our Constitution is our guiding principle & the doctrine by which we have to live. In that sense, I think we have to have Indian Constitution as a mandatory subject from the primary school till the graduation level & a competent teacher should be teaching the subject. During graduation, students should be motivated to participate in role based sessions where they take on different roles like a Civil Judge, a Police Officer, a politician, a Zilla Panchayat member, a Military Officer, etc., & enact these roles based on the guiding principles of the Constitution. This way they will learn the values on which the Indian Nation was found & for which India stands for.

This way, we can probably endeavor to evolve the concept, the conscience, the consciousness of India to greater levels of glory, success, & fulfillment.