The most sacred document in the Republic of India begins with these ennobling words. Words, that fell silent yesterday as the country marked the 59th year of adopting its Constitution. Liberty, Equality and Fraternity - after 62 years they do not stop a mob of educated thugs from assaulting their fellow citizens, whether it is a group of girls getting a few drinks at a pub or school children and their parents celebrating the glorious republic in Nashik.
Defenders of our faith, guardians of our culture - who authorized these titles for hooligans? There are 18 official regional languages in India and many more dialects. Every citizen is free to express themselves in any one or more of them. That is the diverse and unique cultural heritage of our country. If children in Nashik wish to sing songs in Bhojpuri, then so be it. Any persons who are not members of their school have no business opposing their choice of language and least of all beating them up and vandalizing the school property. Far from preservation of culture, such actions of the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena amount to criminal behavior at the least. The words from our Constitution stare at the state of affairs and the words from our Constitution seem silent.
"The ways employed by our boys may be debatable but their objective was absolutely right and justified... We will continue to fight against asatya, adharma and anyay even if some of our men have been arrested. This is a small price to pay for a larger cause."
- Such is the concern shown by our fellow citizen, a Pramod Muttalik, now President of the Shri Ram Sena and former convenor of the Bajrang Dal. Mr. Muttalik, just to remind you and your cronies, curbing any Indian's freedom to express themselves is 'anyay'. Assaulting women by beating them up and dragging them by their hair is 'adharma'. And claiming to defend a culture whose ethos of tolerance you choose to ignore, 'asatya'. And if you wish to be Shri Ram's Sena, then do ask yourself - would Shri Ram dare to attack a woman in the manner in which you have insulted so many? Your organization clearly has neither read the Ramayana and definitely not laid its eyes on the Constitution of India - the very document that gave birth to the country whose morals you have set out to defend.
You reject the verdict of the people in Jammu and Kashmir, calling the elections 'wrought with fraud'. The very political party you hope to bring back to power through your efforts of cleansing us of all evil refuses to acknowledge your legitimacy to save its own thorny record of allowing groups such as yours to spring up in the first place. You and your brothers are an aberration who must realize that there is no room for your hooliganism in our country. It is best you retire and re-educate yourselves. This time do read the Ramayana and the Constitution of India with sincerity and attention. So words from both do not feel silenced. Let words become deeds.
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Couldn't agree more with your views. But their actions remind us the importance of education for all, and going by the current emphasis laid on it, sadly, we might see more of similar events.
ReplyDeleteThe people who perpetrate such organizations are 'educated' in the general sense of the term - the question is what kind of education are we instilling in them if they cannot respect the basic tenets of free speech on which the nation they claim to be protecting was founded?
ReplyDeleteWhat is amusing about the entire affair is how it has managed to embarrass the BJP which the party these guys seem to be campaigning for, if you have a look at their website.
The incident needs to be subjected to not just severe judicial scrutiny, but also a public outcry so people do not consider it the nature of our majority.
The outcry that you talk about may provide relief to wounds from this incident. While protesting, we must not forget the preventive measure - an urgent reformation of the educational system. Let these institutions take up some responsibility for embedding morals and ethics on which this country is based on. Shri Ram Sene's actions are totally intolerable, but what they stand for must certainly be debated.
ReplyDeleteThis country is not based on any morals or ethics. No secular country can be. India is a country based on laws. What Sri Ram Sene stands for is not to be debated within a legal or policy framework. It can only be debated within a moralistic framework, and that is not something the government or citizenry is responsible for. That is a subjective, individualistic viewpoint alone.
ReplyDeleteWell, you may want to think about that again. Is India different from the US or UK only because of the laws that govern the people? Being an Indian means more than just laws. It has more to do with its philosophy, culture, religions etc. It would be interesting to know how the laws of our land originated and their relationship with ethics and morals of the eminent people who brought them into existence. If we debate within the legal framework only, there is very little to debate apart from choosing between black and white and formulating ways to strengthen either side. Every viewpoint is debatable according to 'Laws of our Land' and viewpoints usually originate in an individual, whether he is a responsible citizen or not does not entirely depend only on his track record of obeying the laws that govern him.
ReplyDeletePranav, within a policy or legal framework, only laws matter. Indians being different people from the US and UK is another matter. That is a matter of culture or heritage that you might treasure personally. Within a legal framework one does not look at things not mentioned in the Constitution. You seem to be debating something entirely different. What Ram Sene stands for is not a matter to be debated by the Supreme Court but by individuals who profess a certain faith. If something falls within the Constitution of India, any citizen should be allowed to practice those actions. As a last point, our laws come almost verbatim from the US and UK's laws. The Indian Penal Code was written by Lord Macaulay, who did not profess any of India's "philosophies, religions or culture" that you mention.
ReplyDeleteI do not view this incident entirely through the prism of 'laws of India'. Goes without saying that the Sene's actions were totally intolerable. Agreed, every citizen must be allowed to practice those actions that the Constitution of India allows him to. Again, there is nothing to debate about this Sene's actions. Neither do I profess curbing the rights of any citizen nor force him to indulge/not indulge in certain activities. The question we all must ask ourselves for the time being is what does it mean 'to be an Indian' today. May introspection and awareness give way to more clarity amongst us about being Indians or mere Macaulay's Children.
ReplyDeleteIt is not a question of 'merely' being Macaulay's Children. We are the children of our constitution, (a major part of which was constructed by Macaulay) and our constitution is a unique document, a uniquely Indian document. It was an effort to incorporate features of some of the best legal documents in the world in to one and create a state united by it. While celebration of the nation's diversity of thought, religions, cultures is necessary, so is an understanding of the bottom line -
ReplyDeleteWe are Indian despite our diversities and because we believe we can all live together bound by the Constitution of India.
The debate about what your morals are have nothing to do with the Indian state - they are yours personally. Now you may apply Hindu, Islamic, Christian, Sikh, Buddhist or secular philosophy to judge whether your morals and beliefs are right or wrong. As for the rest of society, its best they act within the directives of the Constitution since that is the only document that rules us all equally.
Pranav, I wrote an earlier post on what you're talking about. It's called " You say you want a revolution"...I was questioning what it means to be an Indian. I must repeat that is a different debate than the one in this post. Indianness should have nothing to do with any one particular religious group. I hope you appreciate that.
ReplyDeleteI wholeheartedly agreed with this post and the idea present in the discussion that an ideal society would not allow such behavior and that public behavior should not violate the letter and spirit of the Constitution. Those who violate the ideals of the Indian Constitution (and in this case the Ramayana too!) definitely ought to realize their error. My only objection is this: do such people even care or draw inspiration from either book?
ReplyDeleteYou can throw the book (both!) at them all you want but it will make no difference in my view. Their idea of India, and I fear that of the vast majority of Indians, is informed by neither the Constitution the Ramayana. Their opinion was never consulted in providing all Indians the freedom to do as they wish, stating all are born equal and treated as so before the law, and that the rights of minorities shall be protected and respected. Still, one expects them to abide by, and even uphold these provisions! I don't know what the solution is to end such opportunistic and competitive intolerance but I doubt merely reading the constitution (and it's quite a long read!) will be sufficient.