A few years back Just before I had joined college, I had gone for a short vacation to be with my cousin. There I had a very disturbing discussion with someone and it left me worried. I was frustrated to see so many believe that the very fabric of India is a facade and how inter-religious harmony is something that is a Utopian thought. I was told I was a kid who would grow up and understand the reality of life and how I would change my thinking accordingly. That prompted me to search for an answer and for a reaffirmation in my belief. I share with you the reply I got from my teacher. Ironically I got this mail on the 15th of August.
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Dr Anuradha Ghosh-:
I have lived by what I believe and that is exactly what I teach too. It is so easy to hate and spread the seeds of disunity but difficult it is to fight for a just cause, for equality, freedom and dignity for all people no matter what race, caste, religion, region they might belong to. I was born in a family that suffered the ravages of Hindu Muslim riots during partition as our ancestral home was in Bangladesh. Yet my father as well as uncle never saw it as an affair between communities while all others do. The rise of fundamentalism the world over is only the facade behind which lurks economic and power interests of the ruling elites in all communities.
What we need as individuals is roti, kapra and makan. We have no answers when farmers commit suicide; we euphemistically term starvation deaths as deaths due to disease; we create a violent order and mask our failings as individuals to fight for justice -economic, social and political. We feel secure in a make believe cocoon world and target the weaker to feel ourselves superior. Hence the blind war over Ram and Rahim, chinky and non-chinky, and the thousands of divides that tear our beings apart in a world that has suffered so many ravages.
Yet my faith in the human spirit remains unchanged. I believe in no God other than the will to achieve goodness in our self.The future cannot shake you if your conviction lies not in championing dogmatic national/regional/caste/ religious interests. The more you read and think the clearer will it be as to where from such thoughts emerge. You are 18 and at your age there were the Khudirams and Prafulla Chakis who died for the independence of this land. One might feel to what end. Perhaps to create symbols out of their lives that keep talking to us in the form of myths and legends keeping alive the power that we have to write our own histories and change the face of the institutions that enchain us by creating spectacles of our lives.
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While the country continues to burn from Orissa to Kashmir, I think what she had to say gains a lot more importance today than ever before. I just hope there are people out there listening.
P.S. Where in god's name have you disappeared ma'am? We need to get back in touch. Let me see if I can hunt you down!
-----
Dr Anuradha Ghosh-:
I have lived by what I believe and that is exactly what I teach too. It is so easy to hate and spread the seeds of disunity but difficult it is to fight for a just cause, for equality, freedom and dignity for all people no matter what race, caste, religion, region they might belong to. I was born in a family that suffered the ravages of Hindu Muslim riots during partition as our ancestral home was in Bangladesh. Yet my father as well as uncle never saw it as an affair between communities while all others do. The rise of fundamentalism the world over is only the facade behind which lurks economic and power interests of the ruling elites in all communities.
What we need as individuals is roti, kapra and makan. We have no answers when farmers commit suicide; we euphemistically term starvation deaths as deaths due to disease; we create a violent order and mask our failings as individuals to fight for justice -economic, social and political. We feel secure in a make believe cocoon world and target the weaker to feel ourselves superior. Hence the blind war over Ram and Rahim, chinky and non-chinky, and the thousands of divides that tear our beings apart in a world that has suffered so many ravages.
Yet my faith in the human spirit remains unchanged. I believe in no God other than the will to achieve goodness in our self.The future cannot shake you if your conviction lies not in championing dogmatic national/regional/caste/ religious interests. The more you read and think the clearer will it be as to where from such thoughts emerge. You are 18 and at your age there were the Khudirams and Prafulla Chakis who died for the independence of this land. One might feel to what end. Perhaps to create symbols out of their lives that keep talking to us in the form of myths and legends keeping alive the power that we have to write our own histories and change the face of the institutions that enchain us by creating spectacles of our lives.
-----
While the country continues to burn from Orissa to Kashmir, I think what she had to say gains a lot more importance today than ever before. I just hope there are people out there listening.
P.S. Where in god's name have you disappeared ma'am? We need to get back in touch. Let me see if I can hunt you down!
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1 comment:
nice read
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