It is always easier to remember hounding memories. R. Guha does the same in his article “The Great Indian Chaos Theory” presenting an epilogue of disastrous events. He starts with describing the catastrophes of 2008- both internal and external that paralyzed every Indian irrespective of his faith and sect. Every state experienced a nightmare, be it a natural calamity like floods of Bihar and Tamil Nadu, or man-made disasters usurped by Hindu chauvinists in Orissa, MNS’ goons in Maharashtra or insurgent activites of ULFA and TRS. The trials and tribulation were not restricted to society and politics, it stretched its boundaries to economy as well. The financial tsunami of US hit its waves even on Indian shores. The Nifty and Sensex figures pummeled to rates beyond imagination. Even the stall vendor’s profit at 22K index rate faded away at 9K. Crude prices tumbled to less than half their price. Infrastructure and real estate projects were left in debris.
While everybody was convinced that 2008 was indeed the worst year in the Indian history, Guha goes deeper into the dark unfolding tragedies of 2002’s Gujarat riots, 1992’s Mumbai riots; 1984’s Khalistan insurgency, assassination of Indira Gandhi, Bhopal Gas tragedy; 1975’s political dictatorship; 1966’s mournful death of our treasured Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri,1962’s India’s loss to China until he goes on he reaches almost to the source of our independence-1948’s conflicts with the princely states of Kashmir and Hyderabad. Each of the events was more unfortunate than the other. With a whole list to select the worst year in India’s history from, the author rationalizes three reasons due to which it is almost impossible to point one worst year.
It is natural to agree with all three reasons: our imperfect state of knowledge, bias and preference of a person and media.
If we analyze from the point the author left us last, we will discover that our origin i.e. our struggle for freedom from colonial clutches was itself dynamic. While we had extremist leaders like Lok Manya Tilak, Lala Lajpatrai, Veer Bhagat Singh; Bapu strongly held his weapon of non-violence. The chauri-chaura incident, regular fasts, his message of satyagraha and her charismatic persona that the globe was inspired with, strengthened the whole notion of weaponless struggle. Simultaneous to the Indian struggle against the britishers, one of the marginalized section-the dalits protested against the Hindu elitism. Thousands of dalits converted to Budhism under the direction of Dr. Ambedkar. Adding to the chaos, the British made hay while playing with the hindu-muslim divide. This led to the prohibitor of beef and the prohibitor of cow meat celebrating their independence with a difference of just a day. At the very same time, the new Indian society was opening up to new ideas of women empowerment, women education, widow remarriage and abandon of sati. Imagine all of this happening in one room, under the same roof, within the same space!
Our India was born as a nation of billions that was impoverished, under nourished and illiterate. Our agriculture was in a pitiable state with traditional obsolete tools and complete dependency on rains for farm water. The number of private industry could be counted on hands. The public sector was under constant pressure as it was responsible from things as domestic as supplying ration to handling blast furnaces of SAIL’s steel.
The article mention has a mention of General Claude Auchinleck’s statement referring to India as ‘a nation out of a continent of many nations.’ Isn’t it obvious then that a country who has a desert in one corner houses rich alluvial fertile of the Ganges in another part, whose people in one quarter are always wool clad resides people in another locale who flutter about in knee short lunghis will always have differences. Yes, these differences are over language, over land, over river waters, over dams, over religion and over countless things. This is so because we are a part of the same ‘Sovereign Socialist Democartic Republic of India’ whose history is a witness to all our righteous kings under whose rule the hindu muslim lived side by side, where our rich Vedas, granthas and puranas had been written, centuries old languages like Sanskrit, Prakriut and Ardhamaghdi were spoken, in whose land gems, gold and silver were treasured.
Our country cannot be like Sweden or Norway because we are simply not Sweden and Norway. While I agree to most of author’s comments- it is difficult to digest this one: as an unnatural nation and an unlikely democracy, India was never destined for a smooth ride.
If our country is as varied as a continent, it is natural that the problems will be continent wide. So, it is very superficial to have India be like Sweden or Norway and each one will have a different pace of ‘smooth ride’. Instead, we’ve lived through a rich common history and continue to do so since sixty years as Indians, that itself is a magical feat in itself!
What the country needs now is a strong leadership- leadership from its government, from its aam aadmi and from its jawaans on borders. WE need to reinstigate te spirit of the iron man Sardar Vallabh Bhai Patel against insurgencies or revive Gandhiji’s charisma to instill the dead confidence in the hearts of Indian souls. Let history be revived, without us living in past, for we know- how so ever ‘our’ future awaits us.
