One of my best friends (yeah I have more than one, like everyone I know) always said I think a little too much. Initially I didn’t believe him, but slowly I realized he was right. I realized that I was actually a believer of Sod’s law. Although what I will write here or in my future posts might not be about how my worst fears came true at the worst time, it was just a nod to the fact (and my friend) that I do think too much. So I thought today, that why only think? Why not write it all somewhere to share with others and to read it later?
But, most of the time, thinking is good, especially if you think healthy. What do I think most of the time? Apart from thinking about my woes (yeah my life sucks, like everyone else’s), most of the time I think about this beloved country of mine, her problems, her future, the enormously complex socio-economic-political system here and her triumphant over these, most of the times in the most strange places.
So I kept thinking this for quite a while. This one day I started thinking about the 1984 anti-sikh riots, read about them and as I pondered more about them, I realized what an extraordinary ability of ‘letting it go’ and ‘be in peace’ India has. About 25 years ago (which I firmly believe, is very little time for civilizations as a whole), Sikhs were massacred brutally after the assassination of Indira Gandhi. Before that (and even after that, for a while), there was insurgency in Punjab and demand for Khalistan. For the people who were born in late 80s and later, there is always this simple image of a Sikh- an admirable, happy-go-lucky, well-built and if in army (and even if not, just in different ways)-serving mother India with all the fervor he has. It would have never occurred to them that whatever happened in Punjab and the riots, were even possible, seeing how friendly and dedicated to the country Sikhs are. Just after 20-25 years, the bond between Sikhs and Hindus and other religions, grows stronger every day in India. If this isn’t the triumph of India’s ability to assimilate all lovingly under her arms and of Indian civilization to be a melting pot for every civilization and of ability of Indian people as a whole, be it Hindu, Sikh, Christian or Muslims, to let go what happened and become one again?
There is this one more example. An Israeli author, Alex Stein, stated that India should free Kashmir. I, obviously as an Indian, disagree with him here. But that’s not what I wanted to discuss. He formed this opinion while backpacking in Kashmir, when he talked to some people there. Now, everyone knows that Jews face some threats in many Islamic states (Remember Daniel Pearl?). Still, Alex stein moved in a country with over a 15 million Muslims and an over-whelming Muslim state of that country without any fear of harm. Would he be doing same in Pakistan? Not I think. (the whole Alex Stein example is from an article from Nirpal Dhaliwal, although the original article was discussing something different). It’s one more example of this simple fact that India is single civilization out of many with a place for absolutely everyone in some way or another. If only India wasn’t in such an unfortunate position geo-politically (surrounded by three 'highly unstable' and 'terrorized' countries and by one increasingly aggressive emerging power is no joke) and if only the British hadn’t done some really unfortunate experiments on this sub-continent and lastly, if only there weren’t some powerful people damaging the country only to keep their power, we would have become mystically beautiful and stable as a country. It’s still a wonder that after so many unfortunate events, we let go them all and stood strong as a country and as a civilization as whole. This is the wonder we discussed above and I firmly believe that it might not solve every single problem we have here, but it will certainly keep us together.
