Sense of Belonging

"Independent India is twenty-eight years old today. I was nineteen a few months ago. In school they told me I was the citizen of tomorrow. Around me I saw citizens of today, and wondered what purpose I was going to serve. They seemed worn and jaded and cynical. To my fellow-citizens-of-the-future, Independence Day merely meant early mornings in starched uniforms on parades grounds, relieved only by the comforting thought of no more classes. In college they were more sensible. They just gave us a holiday, and the chowkidar[watchman] unfurled the flag.

Independence conjures up visions of mammoth patriotic rallies outside the Red Fort; a reminder of the freedom and self-reliance and the hope of unexploited progress. But when the drums have been beaten and the cavalcade has passed, the cheering invariably seems to subside into a desultory grumble. Our capacity for unproductive complaint is seemingly limitless; but then we appear to have developed the art of destructive criticism to the proportions of a national characteristic. Perhaps it is because, as a former colony, we are used to bemoaning our lot without being able to do anything about it....
The divisions[that matter] are less Indian and the Indian --- whether Hindu-Muslim, Brahmin-untouchable, landlord-peasant, or bureaucrat-revolutionary --- than between Indian and India. And what is far more fearsome than economic stagnation and political apathy is that atrophy of the line of association that binds the ones's fortunes indissolubly to the other's. For otherwise we have the strange spectacle of a nation without nationals, of Indians who are not involved in India."

Ah..wish i had written them, but for something like this to happen is gonna a take a while..no..a long time..;)
These are excerpts from the article written by Shashi Tharoor, on the Independence Day supplement for a leading newspaper. This as you would have realized was about 30 years ago. He was only nineteen, and the article clearly tells us of how articulate he was. I'm sure you have heard about him, he was the under-secretary general to the UN and was the official candidate of India for the succession to UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan. More about him at http://www.shashitharoor.com/index.shtml


I had also only heard about from the newspapers and news channels, they showed very little of the person than about the news he's related to. And i wasn't the one to find out more about him, unless i had heard the name in my close family or friend circles which too wasn't at all.
In the year 2006, i had the opportunity to attend the PAN-IIT,which is the IITians alumni meet. And it being the 50th yr of their alumni association they had week long function with eminent Indian leaders like The President of India,Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, Dr.Shashi Tharoor etc were called on. I didn't know much about Dr.Shashi Tharoor then, and even though he was a person of such high stature, i hadn't expected much from his speech.I figured the smarter they get, the more sleep they induced. Thought probably he would talk about the haphazard situations of Indian governance and on those lines[snore]. But was I in for a surprise! His speech had me holding onto every word he spoke. It was interesting and informative. It was said with such simplicity. There was the odd sarcasm, which only made you smile, and not frown at it's implications. And hell yeah! He was good with words. More than being impressed by him[who am i kidding], his speech was over whelming and awakening.


It led me to realize, we the future of India weren't to decide from the various isms, like communism,secularism etc, that are the existent ideologies ruling our land[the different democratic parties], but to understand the India that our fore fathers had fought to build, and rightly put by Dr.Shashi Tharoor, an India of Indians. India is, in his words, 'a pluralist, diverse and all-inclusive country'. The book "INDIA :From Midnight To The Millennium" by him is a must read for us. And to feel that it is our morale responsibility to take this understanding to every walk of life, to begin with, in our own country.


Our land is not defined by an ethic group,a territory, a religion or even by geography; but by an idea. A nationalist idea that a conglomerate of ancient civilization,shared history,and a pluralist democracy. And this idea is what we call INDIA.


There have been enumerable number of leaders, scientists, doctors and saints who constantly teach, improve & heal, the trillions of lives all across the globe from our land. The most recent of whom is called the 'hugging saint'. What better way to understand India,than from this saint who embraces everyone arriving in her propinquity, like our country that is ever-ready with open arms to incorporate any person or idea into it's fold without any sagacity(bias).


So do we,Indians, see a land defined by it's imaginary border lines that were made on paper that does not change with time or an ever-ever land that is built on ideas of unimaginable capacity that matures with time, reforms when required and morphs to the required predicament posed at it.

But the most important question is, do we believe..do have the need to do it..?
or as Dr.Shashi Tharoor titled his article do we feel the "Sense of Belonging...??"