Tuesday, July 29, 2014

The Rise of irrational and unreasonable India

Two years back, on a January evening, while coming from Kanha National Park I stopped at Madla(MP) and spent a full night in that small town surrounded on three sides by Narmada River. Madla was the capital of many dynasties in the past. It is believed that, this place (then known as Mahishmati) served as venue for the most famous debate of Adi Sankara (with Mandana Mishra).

Serious debates shook the floor of assembly while drafting constitution, discussions on amendments etc. Members supported or opposed other’s line of thinking. We also heard about the serious splits like Moderates vs Extremists (during the days of Tilak), Gandhi vs Ambedkar (during Round Table conferences), Gandhi vs Bose (especially when Bose became the president of INC) etc. during independence movement.

Mythology itself is stuffed with serious arguments. Gargi challenged Yajnavalkya on questions related to soul so on and so forth. None of these ended in violent riots or killed people.

In recent times, challenging opinions of living or historical figures (or their ideas) are considered as biggest crime. It was not long ago a cartoon on Ambedkar by Shankar (original cartoon was drawn some half a century back when Ambedkar was alive) created a big row.

Can we call this as progress? 

Are we slowly losing our reasoning capability and power to think logically? How can you explain the violence popping up across India? Someone posted something on Facebook and one guy got killed in Pune. I really doubt those killers even read that particular Facebook post. Neighbors who were on good terms, suddenly become enemies and start running for other’s head because somewhere someone told something.  

Delhi, Gujrat, Marad, Tripura, Mau, Asom, Musafarnagar, Moradabad, Saharanpur… the list is endless. How many more riots we Indians have to witness, to understand, blood gushing out of each victims’ body are red in colour? Pain or bullets doesn’t recognize or spare Hindu’s, Muslim’s, Christian’s or Sikhs? How come an eve teasing or a Facebook post metamorphose in to religious riots? How come an accident involving a couple of people can start riots in a big town? Now-a-days a random fight between two people over a trivial matter can lead to big riots where hundreds can die!!! Pathetic!!!

Words like difference in opinion, arguments, debate, logic, reasoning etc are only for competitive exams and business only not to use in daily life?

Sajeev

No comments:

Post a Comment