'United We Stand & Divided We Fall'
- a phrase well known to all of us - it has been a moral of many a stories that we all have heard during our growing up years and at the same time pages of history are full of real life illustrations of how unity has helped most of the nations and have been destroyed by disunity.
India, perhaps is one of the biggest example of what unity and disunity does to a nation. Unity is what gave India its independence, but the disunity gave India - partition and slavery. India was a country of small princely states and due to disunity among the princes and kings, there were various attacks by foreign rulers and even British took maximum advantage of discord among various rulers and easily converted India into one of their colonies. Scars and wounds of partition that British gave us, have still not healed and the pain is still felt by India.
Although Indian history is in abundance with lessons of how divisive policies destroyed this once upon a time great country, politicians of today have chose to forget the history lessons and of course it also doesn't help that most of the politicians are not educated and wouldn't know the history of the land they represent. The way the politicians are running amok in a rat race to gain power, will soon make India a country with divided states rather than a super power or a united secular sovereignty that it is today.
Post-Independence India had 14 States and 7 Union Territories which has now become 28 States and 7 Union Territories. Some of the states where created by States Reorganisation Act of 1956, but others were created by dividing a state on the lines of linguistic and religious differences. Now we are facing the rancor for a separate state of Telangana and as well as the the problems in Kashmir are known to everyone. Certain decisions taken by politicians post-independence are coming to haunt us after six decades of independence. During the 1947, the politicians committed and agreed to restructure India on linguistic and religious basis and hence some of the states were formed on these lines where as some were left as they were and now taking a leaf out of that history, the politicians of today, albeit for their personal political mileage, are demanding the fulfillment of promises made in the past era - Kashmir being a big glaring and burning example of the same.
It is really surprising that our politicians will go through each and every word and sentence of the constitutional history to further their political supremacy, but will not pay heed to what India has had to bear in the guise of divisive politics. Of course it is not entirely correct on our part to put the blame squarely on the shoulders of our politicians, as they are one of us and are elected by us to represent us and the system. One can't expect them to become pious and God-like overnight as soon as they become politicians. 10 out of 10 times one will reap what they sow and in today's time it is true that each and everyone of us wants to be all powerful, influential and famous, whichever way we can. It is also our apathy towards our country in general that have given our politicians leeway that they can get away with anything.
But it is high time now when we all wake up and say enough is enough. We, as the public and our elected representative open up their eyes to see how the power rat race is hurting the country. The divisive politics destroyed the royal rulers of India and the same thing will happen to our rulers of today. Due to the stoicism and ruthless stubbornness of our politicians, India is on the destructive path leading to regional ghettos. In these ghettos, the rulers of the state (chief ministers/leaders of influential political parties) will divide people on the lines of language/religion/culture etc. and will drag India back to the days that were similar to that of Pre-British days, where in basic human characteristics of self preservation will once again surface and each ghetto or regional state will safeguard only their personal well-being and enrichment. The country will not benefit from this regionalism as macro decisions and economics will be rendered redundant and micro economics will rule the roost. This will not only hinder the country's development but also harm it's citizens.
Today if an American is asked as to where he is from, his evident reply will be that he is from the state of Texas or Indiana or California etc, but very rarely will he say that he is from America, and this is exactly what I am dreading will happen to us Indians. Today we proudly say we are from India, but a day will come when we start saying that we are from Karnataka or Maharashtra or Gujarat or Madhya Pradesh....
If we don't open our eyes now, it may be too late before we realize and maybe have already been enslaved by either China or America. As it is today our markets have been in the clutches of Chinese manufacturers and at the same time we are being bullied into submission over various policies by American politicos.....
If we don't open our eyes now, it may be too late before we realize and maybe have already been enslaved by either China or America. As it is today our markets have been in the clutches of Chinese manufacturers and at the same time we are being bullied into submission over various policies by American politicos.....
