NOT PEOPLE LIKE US

By the unquestionable and supreme will of Nature, the seeds of like-us and not-likeus, are sown in a man, upon birth itself. Within three days of its arrival into this world, a
new born baby can make out the difference between its mother tongue and a foreign
language. The baby is conscious of the difference between what is his language and what
is not, even before it knows the concept of speech. With age, the reasons to differ from
another man only increase in number and diversity, and last even after his last breath has
been sighed; in the form of his funeral rites.
In my country, religion, caste, sub-caste, region, language and class scream into my face
everyday, reminding me of all the people who are Not People Like Us. They divide my
country into watertight compartments until the phrase Unity in Diversity is reduced to a
joke and the term Varied Heritage amounts to a cursed burden. When seen as a fabric
woven with threads of all hues and colors, the idea of diversity sounds sweet and poetic.
However as a jigsaw puzzle whose pieces refuse to fit in, this diversity becomes a
bothersome rash everyone wants to get rid of. Today, my brothers can no longer see that
diversity runs in the very lifeblood of this nation and instead are striving to tear her apart,
each laying claim to a piece that should be wholly his.
Winston Churchill had said of our diversity India is no more a country than is the
equator. With 28 states, 7 Union territories, 23 official languages spawning over 1652
dialects, 9 major religions each having umpteen sects, a rigid caste system and a gaping
canyon for a class divide, we can forgive him his misgivings. The British strongly
believed that India was nothing more than a bunch of geographically close regions
brought together by the coincidence of colonization. They felt, the Raj made and held
together what was India. For 60 years we have been passionately telling them how
grossly wrong they were. But have we been able to convince ourselves?
Of the many issues that divide us as a nation, religion takes center stage. The religions in
India have a strange pattern of contradicting each other when it comes to trivial protocols,
idol worship, beef eating or conversions for instance. Social elements looking for cheap
popularity in a divided society, fan these trivialities into a raging inferno. In India these
social elements are sadly the very men we choose every five years to run the show called
Democracy. In Madhya Pradesh, instead of ensuring social security to women,
employment to the masses and literacy to every child, the government is busy ensuring
that the cows walk with their heads held high. In rural Uttar Pradesh, the polio
vaccination program fell flat on its face when Muslim leaders managed to convince the
community that the vaccines were in fact a plot by the Hindus to render the Muslim
children infertile! Convince a man that his faith is under siege and he will follow you into
crimes against humanity. Whats more hell even vote for you in the coming elections!
Caste wars come in a close second in dividing the country. If you thought caste wars were
about villages being massacred overnight in rural Bihar, untouchable wells in Rajasthan
or sporadic clashes over inter caste marriages, heres your reality check. Reservations
have ensured that the Caste bloodbath seeps into the cities too, where people had long

forgotten the caste system. While little security or relief is offered to the lower castes in
the rural areas, in the urban sector, reservations are being used as a quick-fix, please-all,
vote gathering stunt. Such is the power of caste divide, that parties with nothing but caste
backing to their credit are ruling complete states.
Language based regional differences, are another blow to our unity. North Indians are
prejudiced against the South, while the South sums up the entire North as the Cow belt.
As for the North East, most people can barely count all the 7 states with their capitals in
place. If North East wants to break away because they have been shortchanged in the
development process, Shiv Sena wants Mumbai cleansed of Non-Maharashtrians sharing
its prosperity. It is natural to develop affinity for a man speaking your own tongue, but to
harbor ill-will against one who does not is madness. Sharpened by fundamentalists,
funded by willing foreign hands and executed by the young blood, this madness becomes
the Khalistaan and North East unrest. And boys who should be in schools or colleges,
pulling pranks or falling in love, instead kill people mercilessly for a cause whose bottom
line says, Not People Like Us.
With so many hostilities, has the Union of India lost its relevance? Not yet. For all our
differences, lets admit it, we have been geographically packed together for over a
millennium. There is no escaping the bond of proximity enforced upon us by the
mountains in the North, deserts in the West and an ocean to the South. Evolving together,
our basic mentality, traditions and sensibility are the same all over. An Indian wedding
has the same ring to it everywhere, regardless of region or religion. Ostentatious
festivity is common to Diwali, Eid as well as Lodhi. Our stand on ethical issues, family
structure etc are identical, as they rise from common roots and beliefs. The republic day
parade makes all of us sentimental to the point of silliness. Folklores, music and dances
are never looked down upon if they dont belong to your region. Television and movies
are received by millions of caste-less, region-less and religion-less viewers. In misery we
stand the closest. Natural calamities, monsoons or lack of it, the unexplained obsession
with cricket, taxes, government indifference, and corruption are dealt with in the spirit of
deep brotherhood. A threat to the frontiers invites retaliation from India the country, not
just the state under fire. Riots are not endorsed by the government, unlike a few countries
we can think of. The media is still sane, apolitical and fair. And the sentiments of
communal, regional or caste based hatred are borne only by a few fundamentalists. The
average Indians chief war is still waged against poverty and corruption, not his own
brother.
Iraqs unity as a nation has been brought to its knees, simply owing to the Shia and Sunni
clashes. India with its physical vastness and cultural diversity, has still managed to keep
its sanity alive. That my friends, is a sign in itself. A sign that says, We are meant to be.
We are meant to be in it together, now and forever. That we are alike, identified as one by
the term Bharatiya. We belong together to this land, to its waters and its air. Like
siblings growing up together, the friction is inevitable, but the bond unbreakable. We owe
it to our forefathers, to savor this bond and keep it alive. We need a secular rethink to
preserve what we have.

It is no longer sufficient to be passive and indifferent to the forces working against Indias
integrity. We must rise and fight it actively. A social injustice done against any
community must be aggressively punished without bias. No man should feel the need to
pick up a weapon, in order to protect his faith. No man must feel the lack of social
security because he is different. No man must feel left out or shortchanged because he
belongs to a certain section of the society. Such trust building will take care of the
fundamentalists and their ideas of rebellion. Let their own followers turn around and
question them, Rebel against what, Oh wise one? On individual level too, we can
smoke out hatred. A man preaching baseless prejudices should be contradicted publicly
and immediately. The concept of Live and let live will have to be reinforced into our
mindset. If not for love, tolerance must be grown for practicality. For deep inside, we all
know that if India were to break up, each individual piece would become weak, unstable,
insecure and largely unhappy. Preachers of intolerance must be ridiculed and made to feel
petty by showing them live examples of communal harmony. Citizens must be brought
together to build model cities, where tolerance is as natural as breathing. The media must
strip naked, the intentions of those who ride the wave of popularity based on caste, region
or religion. Enlighten the people so they refuse to be manipulated by such men. Summing
up in Tagores immortal words,
Where the mind is without fear and the head held high
Where knowledge is free
Where the world has not been broken up into fragments by narrow domestic walls;
Where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way into the dreary desert sand of dead
habit
In that heaven of freedom my Father, let my country awake.