Seventy three years ago, the chief objective of the Indians was freedom: freedom from British rule. Gandhiji’s non-violent policies, Sardar Patel’s diplomacy, Netaji Bose’s leadership, Chandra Shekhar Azad’s valour, Subramaniam Bharti’s patriotic songs, Jawaharlal Nehru’s statesmanship and many other pivotal elements resulted in the unification of India as one. On the midnight of 15th August,1947, when India awoke to its freedom, it awoke united. From a Hindu household to a Muslim one, there were festivities everywhere.
However, today, when we need to gear up for ameliorating the plight of our motherland, that once was the homeland of the richest heritage of the world and was humiliated by letting colonialism exist on its sacred soil, it appears that slowly Indians are maligning and going back to sleep. It is pellucid that the hard work of our forefathers and mothers is becoming worthless as we further move towards being divided.
India is now home to the smartest class of humans, but also the laziest one. While we are developing fast in fields of technology and space science, we are also facing many a crisis, the biggest one being the growth of anti-socialism. There was a time when Indians enthusiastically and personally inspected environmental and political issues faced by the common man and looked to it that their fellow brothers and sisters didn’t have to suffer. People have been dichotomised into the high, middle and low class, and do not allow themselves to intermingle. Is there anyone contemporary to the Mahatma and other kind-hearted social workers in this day and age? Farmers who go on strikes these days are just treated as a scoop by the media and an excuse by viewers to while away time.
Today, India’s rich culture is threatened. A domain in which India outshone other countries was the centuries old sense of brotherhood. Hindus were fluent in Urdu, Muslims in Sanskrit, and there was no distinction between the cultures of two classes; the ideo of division never occured to our ancestors. We were diverse, but we were one. But now, things have changed drastically. On the contrary, anything that ever was involved in the ties of love of the Indians is regarded as preposterously outdated by the “flashy” teens. While we are focused on learning foreign languages like French, Spanish and German, the foreign countries are learning Sanskrit to understand the latent potential of the Vedas, which in themselves hold the basis of a huge science revolution. Urdu, the beautiful language which is a fusion of Persian and Hindi, is being aimed at, for most travel accounts and indigenous works on India’s prosperous medieval society are inscribed in it.
Swami Vivekananda had said to the youths, “Arise! Awake! And stop not till the goal is reached.” Our goal today is the uniting of India to fight its social ills, to attain freedom from the orthodox chains that bind it. But what we are doing is slowly augmenting the pile! Only Christians can go to convent schools, only Muslims can enter a mosque, only Hindus can marry Hindus; though we have a sanction for it, no one really goes forth to break the barriers. There was a time when youths fearlessly fought together and sacrificed their lives for the welfare of their country. But today, we avoid sharing tiffins with friends of different faiths, races and backgrounds, and scream at the sight of a cockroach! Was this what the eighteen-year old Khudiram Bose, twenty-year old Kartar Singh Sarabha, twenty-three year old Bhagat Singh and twenty-nine year old Laxmibai made a sacrifice for? Their legatees, the jawaans, who sacrifice their lives for their country are never celebrated and even failed to be acknowledged.
History, for long, has been regarded as a boring subject. The time is ripe now to understand it’s true value.
India has to be stopped from retrograding after finally procuring freedom. For attaining its former title of the world’s most intelligent and hardworking civilization, its demerits have to be undermined and merits concretised.
One crisis in which India is unable to come down from the top pedestal is the water crisis. Extirpate it! So far everyone has dreamed of being famous and rich. Let the richness now be aimed to the equitable distribution of water throughout the country. A visit to the water park in the summer holidays cannot give the pleasure and profitability of spending the same time in helping those who are deprived of even adequate amount of drinking water: for philanthropy and altruism are the panacea of developing bonds of oneness among citizens. The gossip instinct has to be eradicated. Every misinformation about any Indian brother or sister should not be circulated. Because as the Vedas state, one should treat others the way they treat themselves, and as it goes in the Quran, gossip is the ultimate divisor and one should say things that are best. Gender discrimination should be strongly opposed without the fear of social unpopularity, for as Jesus said, God is partial to none. Let new friends be made irrespective of their background.
India has one of the biggest biodiversities in the world. Let it grow! Do not opt for foreign goods over Indian ones, for India is the biggest producer of milk, spices, jute and tea in the world. India is famous for its cuisines: Rajasthani, Gujarati, Punjabi, Bengali, Rajasthani, Goan, Bhojpuri, Assamese, Kashmiri ,etc.: a variety not available even in the developed countries of the world. Crave for it! India has the richest heritage: celebrate it all! Be it Diwali, Christmas, Eid or Guru Purab, all are celebrated to spread happiness. India, is one of the brainiest countries: it mastered algebra, developed plastic surgery and introduced 0 long before other countries were even settled: uphold that, so we lead the intellectual aspect even today. The handloom industry is not to be ignored either, for no delicacy has ever been seen on cloth as it has been in the clothes designed by Chikankari and Katha artisans. The list goes on, and it is up to us to make sure it never ends.
Unity does not refer to making all practise the same lifestyle and act and think and appear alike; it is, to accept everyone in the country the way they are and fusing all ideals (ostracizing none) that ever developed, to form a strong and proud identity that accepts everyone, and so is the symbol of one and all.
For on the day we all shall understand, India shall tear apart the veil that shielded its eyes and break the chains that bounded its hands and actually become a place where there is unity in diversity.
