Sunday, January 31, 2010

Six reasons to ponder at Sixty




Somewhere I chanced upon an article "Why India is better than Pakistan in its 60 years after Independence"... There may be again some comparisons between the two as India recently went through "60 years of Indian constitution" - i.e of 60 years of being a federal democratic republic, but there is a fundamental issue here because in the Islamic "republic" of Pakistan , things shaped out quite different -- The first Constitution of Pakistan was adopted in 1956, but was suspended in 1958 by General Ayub Khan. The Constitution of 1973 — suspended in 1977, by Zia-ul-Haq, but re-instated in 1985 — ......

I am not going to spend my time comparing India with that joke (or rather headache) called Pakistan, may be a slightly more interesting one (to compare) would be http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_United_States_(1789-1849) ...

So now, something got me thinking - What has kept India together (with issues of course, but not fatal ones despite its billion plus population and despite foolish Governmental decisions from Nehru to Manmohan ) and yet liberal at the same time.. And here are my six reasons ( Its perhaps a combination of some or all of these...a combo or AND, OR ,...)

1) The 6000 year foundation ... : The 6000 of course is not an exact number, may be close, but I wanted it to rhyme too :) - I leave it to the archeologists ( interesting sidenote- http://www.dailypioneer.com/228303/Saraswati-flows-on-in-ASI-records.html ) ... and yes, there were wars within, but think about it, even wars were with rules.. no fighting at night, the charioteer should not kill the cavalry, no hitting "below the knees".. Those who flouted it in Mahabharata had to deal with the wheel of Karma ...

2) Hinduism . : The fact that the majority religion was a very tolerant and liberal one... well sometimes I felt that it was too tolerant of other religions and somewhat harsh on itself (thats perhaps a big topic for later).

Delivered on a Jan 16 th , its worth to quote a full paragraph from

http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Complete_Works_of_Swami_Vivekananda/Volume_3/Lectures_from_Colombo_to_Almora/First_Public_Lecture_in_the_East_(Colombo)


So much I have seen, and so far those of you who are students of the history of races are already aware of this fact. The debt which the world owes to our Motherland is immense. Taking country with country, there is not one race on this earth to which the world owes so much as to the patient Hindu, the mild Hindu. "The mild Hindu" sometimes is used as an expression of reproach; but if ever a reproach concealed a wonderful truth, it is in the term, "the mild Hindu", who has always been the blessed child of God. Civilisations have arisen in other parts of the world. In ancient times and in modern times, great ideas have emanated from strong and great races. In ancient and in modern times, wonderful ideas have been carried forward from one race to another. In ancient and in modern times, seeds of great truth and power have been cast abroad by the advancing tides of national life; but mark you, my friends, it has been always with the blast of war trumpets and with the march of embattled cohorts. Each idea had to be soaked in a deluge of blood. Each idea had to wade through the blood of millions of our fellow-beings. Each word of power had to be followed by the groans of millions, by the wails of orphans, by the tears of widows. This, in the main, other nations have taught; but India has for thousands of years peacefully existed. Here activity prevailed when even Greece did not exist, when Rome was not thought of, when the very fathers of the modern Europeans lived in the forests and painted themselves blue. Even earlier, when history has no record, and tradition dares not peer into the gloom of that intense past, even from then until now, ideas after ideas have marched out from her, but every word has been spoken with a blessing behind it and peace before it. We, of all nations of the world, have never been a conquering race, and that blessing is on our head, and therefore we live.

I wonder if I really need to continue, for the main reason(s) I guess is aleady clear in that paragraph, but stil for the sake of the rhyming six, here are the other 4

3) Diversity: I think its in the very blood of Indians to accept diveristy... be it languages , or philosophies or even.. political parties

4) Evolution rather than revolution : Do we have the equivalent of a French or a Russian or an American "revolution"... Nope and I think its again due to the fact that we as a Nation are more comfortable with evolution ... and hey, we have rebirths, so whats the hurry !

5) Family Values : With the foundation strong at home, I guess its easier to extend it to the society and the Nation... in fact even to "vasudhaiva kuTumbakam" or "yatra viswam bhavatyekaneedam", if only others too agreed

6) External factors: Though not fully desirable, a Pakistan, China and Bangladesh around us, and war-torn Sri Lanka near us, and attempts to thrust some aggressive ideologies on us, may have to some degree strengthened our bond

! vandE maataram !

Photo from the web - http://rlv.zcache.com/bharat_mata_bharat_mata_tshirt-p235109234917626630qixv_400.jpg

Tuesday, January 26, 2010

catching up

It has been an inactive 100 days or so on the blog - and oh well, perhaps a much less active year that passed by... Here I am, trying to "regroup" myself , gain back some of the lost momentum.. Looks like these days one has to view life from an "escalator perspective" rather than a "staircase perspective" - they keep going whether you plan to climb or not

Wink of a year and tweets have become much more popular, and I quite missed the tide... , trying to catch up now - http://twitter.com/drisyadrisya . In fact I wanted to do a blogpost during Sankranti ... kind of to tell myself that its a transition to a bit more active blogging (among reviving some other activities too) - but that was not to be.. and here I am on the "Republic" day going "re-public" again ... Having faced the starting trouble, the easiest way out has been to reformat the look :) .. but I promise myself , that substance will follow !