Finding My country

Let’s start it with a story ,

It is August in 1947 , there’s a joy around Delhi . Off course we got freedom after around 200 years of colonialism. There’s this guy , very poor wearing a white kurta , he has to travel 500 km to come to Delhi to be a part of this historic moment . He has come to Delhi to celebrate this newly achieved freedom . There’s hope , glimmer , optimism in his eyes . He’s not a vociferous person and doesn’t have smorgasbord of words to explain his feelings . He says in a squeaky voice , “ ab sab kuch sahi hoga “ and shouts “ Hindustan jindabad “ . He has seen a macabre of lakhs of people in the name of religion. He’s proud that he’s not a part of a country whose existence is based on some religion. We enamoured the Tagore’s recurring metophoric sense of India as a river of diversities and an ocean of confluences. He hears the midnight speech and the whole India was in tears of happiness.

“ Long years ago we made a tryst with destiny, and now the time comes when we shall redeem our pledge, not wholly or in full measure, but very substantially. At the stroke of the midnight hour, when the world sleeps, India will awake to life and freedom. A moment comes, which comes but rarely in history, when we step out from the old to new, when an age ends, and when the soul of a nation, long suppressed, finds utterance...

...The ambition of the greatest man of our generation has been to wipe every tear from every eye. That may be beyond us, but so long as there are tears and suffering, so long our work will not be over. And so we have to labour and to work, and work hard, to give reality to our dreams. Those dreams are for India, but they are also for the world."

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An excerpt from Jawaharlal Nehru's Tryst of Destiny speech, August 15, 1947 .

Why two countries ?

We formed a country based on reason not religion . Our freedom struggle divided not on the bases of Marxist vs capitalist , liberals vs socialist. It divided on the basic question whether religion should be the determinant of nation building. One set of people agreed that it should be that’s why Pakistan emerged . They created a country based on the idea that their nation will emerge from religion. But the other set of people , Mahatma Gandhi , Nehru ji , Maulana Azad , Ambedkar , Rajendra Prasad, Sardar Vallab Bhai Patel etc they said no , our freedom struggle is for everybody , freedom for everyone and we will write a constitution and create a country that includes everyone . And give everyone equal rights . That is the fundamental premise that India is all about .

This idea of nationalism embraces dissent , embraces the right to differ , embraces acceptance. This entire principle is antithesis to the bjp’s nationalism which is exclusively discriminatory. You cannot conflate certain party , ideology, pm with the country . You cannot call someone anti-national just because he doesn’t agree with you .

A section of society systematically transmogrified into devotees of certain individual ( I.e. Modi ) . Anything against government and PM is anti-national to them. They call people names, forward WhatsApp messages and lives on lalochezia. They are an ideal citizen of a self-proclaimed world power . For them , country is Government. They feed their religious anxiety by watching the systematic alienation of minority on their TV sets .

Yeah , It is difficult for common people to resist the embryonic charm for Hindutva has created a conductive ambience for the BJP . We need to fight for this hard-earned democracy . And understand as a society , hatred can never do good to anyone . At a time when debate has been reduced by a cacophony of slogans and insults by bhakts , it is crucial to know that what this beautiful country stands for . We’ve endured this democracy over the decades and hopefully continue to do so .

At last I’m gonna quote a line from Kapil Sibal’s famous speech of Caa in parliament-

“ Don’t convert this Indian republic into a Jurassic republic where there are two dinasaurs . “