If you take a walk around the bustling and
crowded market of Bhagirath Place in the old part of Delhi , you find that
there is no dearth of ‘ Made in China ‘ goods . This is fine by me as we enjoy
open trading policies with China . What isn’t fathomable is the yearn for such
goods by the typical middle class Indians whose loyalties to their profit
centric businesses remain paramount even in the wake of our military’s sporadic
skirmishes along the Indo- China border . For any patriotic Indian , it
is prudent to boycott their goods completely thus wiping out their businesses , and shutting the doors on them for any economic or trade
relations .
But unfortunately this is not the case as
patriotism in India is only limited to few public holidays where the typical
Indian would sport a tricolor striped tee or decorate the dashboard of his Japanese or Korean car with a miniature plastic flag. These people are so immersed in their daily grind , so
micro-optimised along with their families and friends that they have lost the
aptitude to think beyond the bigger scheme of things . The idea of India for
them is limited to saying 'Namaste' or talking about 'Chicken Tikka' or in more general terms ‘Cricket’ and ‘Bollywood ‘ .
The other day I was chatting with my friend over
a cup of coffee discussing as to how China is turning out to be a far bigger threat to
India’s security than Pakistan or Bangladesh .Though we mutually disagreed with many things, we still believed that our country under its present political
leadership is quite capable of handling this very fragile and tense situation
looming over our international borders .It has got the spine and courage to
deal with the present situation through diplomacy or action .
But things aren’t looking that easy for India . China’s
expansionist policies are quite evident with its repetitive incursion in the
Indian territories , colluding with Pakistan to surround India and developing a
complete infrastructure to build a corridor to connect the middle eastern
frontiers to boost trade & accessibility , bypassing India .
Its antics in the South China sea has even drawn superpowers
like US and Japan to the region. Thanks to President Xi JinPing whose
hardline and nationalist orientation are enough to challenge the western
supremacy and interests in the region.
Let me bring the way China handled its north western
province of Xinjiang . Well Xinjiang is a case in point . It is supposedly
China’s own Kashmir fraught with Islamic insurgency and a disturbed past but
has been dealt with an iron hand by Beijing . Xinjiang like Kashmir is a muslim
dominated region in the north west of China bordering India near north of Ladhak
. In 1949 when the Soviet backed Uigher rebels were defeated by the Chinese
forces , the Uigher muslims made up around 73% of its 5 million people which
reduced to around 45% ( of the total 21
million ) as per the 2015 estimates . Out of the remaining , the native Chinese
, ( Han Chinese ) formed 41% of its total population. Needless to say, China
adopted an inclusive approach ; development strategy wrapped in its military might
to transform the religious and political demography of Xinjiang while
simultaneously dealing with islamic insurgency there .
China didn’t rely merely on its forces to disrupt this
balance, it actually moved its Han population into the Xinjiang province in
order to maintain the right balance and preserve the unified grand narrative of China. Such
diplomacy and farsightedness exhibited by China
is definitely worthy of admiration .
Now let us bring ourselves back to India and particularly to the northern state of Haryana . It is indeed shameful for a civilization as
culturally rich and ancient as ours , that a self styled godman held the entire
country as the hostage , causing inexplicable damage to life and property .I
fail to understand how the state government allowed the thousands of supporters
of Saint Gurmeet Ram Rahim congregate at one place which was the main reason
for the widespread arson and looting . Clearly its is the lack of determination
and political will by the State administration to deal with the situation .
I’ve full faith in how our leaders have and will deal the
present socio-political situation brewing in our country . But to my mind , its
too late to clear the malaise our society has been inflicted with and set things
right for good . Our culture is one of the oldest , much older than others but
in reality we are continuously shrinking in size . A thousand years ago India
extended from Afghanistan to Bali including Tibet and areas of Myanmar .But
today we’ve been reduced to just 20 percent of our original size . This should
be of concern for every common man in India let alone the politicians . The idea of India has been fiddled around
with all this while by the politicians , corporates and society in general for
their own ulterior motives at the expense of our rich civilization . It is a
challenge to even keep together whatever we are left with . Much of it is attributed
to often misinterpreted open and secular tenets of ‘Hinduism’ .In reality it
should have been accredited to the lack of expansionist ideology, little or no
knowledge of foreign cultures and a confused notion of ‘India’ as a single
unified entity .
Sadly this situation hasn’t changed much today . The
intellectuals and the media in collusion with the political class have left no
stone unturned to downplay the concept of unified India and malign its adherence
to the ‘Dharmic culture’ which in reality forms the core of our society. The
outright rejection of the govt policies by the millennials and Gen Z today is
equally alarming . What happened at Delhi’s Jawaharlal Nehru University last
year was quite shocking and painful for any patriotic Indian . How fluently the
idea of a unified India was rejected by these so called students adhering to a
particular ideology amidst the harsh anti-national slogans should be of highest
concern to the security agencies. Elsewhere
, the blatant and shameless support to the Islamists by the communist and
pseudo secular parties mainly in the states of Bengal & Kerela at the
expense of India’s majoritarian community is a perfect tribute to the ' Breaking
India ' forces . This according to me would prove to be a far bigger challenge for India
to deal with in future than eduction , economy or securing international borders .
I love my country but would always question its seriousness
to deal with its internal disputes with an iron hand lest it displeases its minorities
and religious groups. And this is the very reason I continue to gaze at my
dragon-tailed neighbors with utmost respect and reverence as they know how to
deal with its internal problems, safeguard its culture in the so called
globalized world and keep its borders secured from any possible foreign
invasion .
All views expressed are personal 20170827
