How diverse is India? How diverse is Gujarat from Punjab or Bihar? Sometimes its hard to see these differences because we are either a part of it, or our own situation is overwhelming enough we do not need to encroach in somebody else’s problem. What is the result? A hapless feeling that we get wormed out every time and discriminated while also leaving a sense of helplessness and frustration in its wake. From what I have experienced, learnt and gained I feel a bigger picture achieves a more conclusive assessment for all of us. I have strongly felt that coming from this angle helps us to expand our horizon and even from our corrupted, neglected existences. Whether we look through the drain-pipe view of the ‘Chicken neck’, or the mainland from the other direction somewhere each will have to start. So for our own benefit, I just highlighted somethings. The teeming generation of youths who seem innately gifted to adapt everything and anything seen through the TV, internet should learn to be pragmatic too. We will be dealing with India whatsoever, not an avant-garde arts exhibition in New York.
India in diversity
How can a synthetically created nation like India exist? The country also goes against the popular notion of ‘nation-state’ as it is so multiethnic. You may ask yourself these, and on that cue, every outside-observer (including Britain) have done so too. If Nehru hadn’t adopted a social democratic design or secularist view how would India have fared? And if it hadn’t been a person like Nehru how far would India have survived? Gandhi was assassinated barely a year after India’s independence, by the Hindu nationalist Godse. It must have been daunting, if you had to put yourself in Nehru’s shoes and the challenges ahead for him. What the British left behind India and Nehru had to take up the reins to continue its existence.
Nehru practiced secularism under his government. He followed a social democratic system to even out the gaps and inequalities in society. Nehru also advocated education for the mass and education programs for higher learning. It did show progress and a positive sign for the very infant and undeveloped country. But India has been ruled by kings, dynasties, empires throughout a great part of its history (including the colonial period). When the new ideologies of Democracy, secularism, socialism came into practice they must have stood quite awkwardly in contrast with the past. Throughout Nehru’s tenure there were ups and downs and every second year the premonition was that it was the beginning of the end. Communal riots on caste, religion etc., Jammu and Kashmir or the Nagaland issue, the conflicts from the Partition etc. etc.
Politics
I wonder if you could really say Nehru knew his citizens well enough. He managed to save India throughout his tenure but as a Harrow educated, English-brought up from a Brahmin family a wide divide also proclaimed his upbringing from the mass of the population. Nehru relied on the ‘person charisma’ and although Indian National Congress had a lot of sound ideologies it also functioned from that input too, something we still see in Congress through the Nehru dynasty. But the ideologies Congress rested on, like socialist economic policy, secularism and also the non-alignment foreign policy gave a stability to the people and the government. The non-interference foreign policy’s purpose was so that India could trade with other countries, among others and a pacifist approach, unlike what the Western powers then. Force was needed to implement conditions and also to keep a country together. However, Indira Gandhi’s National Emergency of 1975 brought about animosity and the popularity of the party slowly disintegrated. During Rajiv Gandhi’s tenure India helped Sri Lanka by sending IPKF (Indian Peace Keeping Force), armed forces to fight against Tamil insurgents and this went against non-alignment policy which was not revoked. Whether it was the New Economic policy which undermined import substitutions (this policy also preserved social equality in society) the core ideals of Congress slowly began to erode within itself, it seems. It slowly seemed to depend more on the family legacy. National Emergency of 1975 is considered the most controversial and tension-filled times in the history of Independent India.
Since Congress and BJP (Bharatya Janata Party) are the two main and largest political parties in India one can juxtapose them alongside one another to also observe the overlapping. The ideological void that was left behind by the Congress and the contradictions made by themselves gave the much awaited opportunity for the BJP to swoop in. The two of them have very contradicting views and opinions and its surprising when you observe the overlappings too. The mistakes of Indira Gandhi’s (influenced by her younger son Sanjay) and Rajiv Gandhi’s tenure undid a lot of what Nehru had created and established which had also become the backbone of Congress. The opposing parties criticized Congress and Nehru’s ideals, calling it pseudo-secularism too. The little window-space gave BJP the opportunity to step their best foot forward, perhaps inhabiting that void a little awkwardly at first too. But they managed to slowly gain influence and became an alternative to Congress and the family legacy charm which was fast eroding. BJP rose to become the substitution
Hindutva
What is Hindutva? It basically means ‘Hinduness’. But how has Hinduness managed to imbibe itself in a political party and affirm their philosophies through that? There were religious identities before and acknowledged too but what stopped them from pursuing it further, then? BJP’s identity comes from Hindutva and that is where the party seeks its main strength, give or take its economic policies, etc. This is not surprising when we have an overwhelming 80% majority of Hindu population in the country, however what distinguishing Hinduism is caste system. Although they can be united in a religious belief-realm caste system inevitably segregates them and they cannot sprout a unifying feeling of nationalism among themselves without the system interfering. This is something peculiar about Hinduism, the identity of one’s caste or jaati is most important to most Hindus. So if BJP’s core ideology is Hindutva, how does it go in terms of communalism, or how far can they be united even? Hinduism may be one of the oldest religions in the world and embracive of different beliefs, including their own abundance of gods and goddesses, and the philosophy wide. But caste system is also undeniably a part of Hinduism. As much as Hindu majority plays out in an Indian population, so does the small intricacies of fine-lined segregations too.
