After observing some festivals in Pune, I wonder if I am staying in a nation or among nations.
On the occasion of Ambedkar Jayanti (April 14, 2024) since 12 am there were bursting of crackers and music was played all day in a high volume. The roads were congested due to the gathering of many people all day long.
This made me wonder if India is truly liberated. Ambedkar was a phenomenal and inspirational person because of his commitment to self-development, education, equality, the Constitution and him being a plausible leader in the society. I wondered about why were Bollywood songs played in order to celebrate the Chairman of the Constituent assembly and a mass leader who had nothing to do with showbiz. I also recollected how silent October 2 is every year. On Gandhi Jayanti, no loudspeakers or bursting of crackers are experienced.
I wondered why were there no popular meetings of locals to discuss local issues relating to governance, rules and regulations, or even the constitution, education, equality, etc. What was happening had nothing to do with the person who was celebrated.
Similarly, on Ram Navami (April 17, 2024), I could hear devotional songs, recitation of mantras and kirtans. Are these celebrations a reflection of the people who were celebrated or the people who celebrated them? It is time that we put more thought into our celebrations. Celebrations in India need not always be consisting of loud music and dancing on the roads, especially given the sheer number of days that we celebrate. We need to reimagine celebrations so that they reflect the values and the principles of the person or the day that is being celebrated and also not cause public nuisance. For example, on Rabindra Jayanti (May 8, 2024), there was no loud music in Pune but I know of a talk that was held. The talk was meant to inspire the audience into imbibing the approach of Tagore in their daily lives. Another example is how Lokmanya Gangadhar Tilak used Ganesh Utsav and Shivaji Jayanti to organize people politically.
Gandhi Jayanti is not celebrated with much enthusiasm (compared to Ambedkar Jayanti) because Mahatma Gandhi was not associated with any caste or religion. By the way, celebration of the inauguration of the Ram temple at Ayodhya had nothing to do with patriotism or nationalism. However, I have witnessed that event being celebrated by playing the national anthem.
Are we really free? Are we really independent? Who is controlling us? Is it so that the masses cannot relate to Gandhi and Tagore because they did not come from Maharashtra? Then why could the relate to Ram?
It is because, people identify with Ambedkar for his caste and with Ram for his religion. However, both of them had taught to rise above both these identities.
Indian citizens need to first know what it means to be a citizen. To be free comes from the freedom to think. Freedom to think comes from critical and creative thinking. We are blinded by our caste and religious identities and enough cannot be said by the propaganda of political parties which feeds into identity based politics.
We must not let any religion or caste monopolize any colour. Orange need not be associated with Hindusim and Blue with the Dalits or green with the Muslims. Similarly, major leaders like Gokhale, Agarkar, Tilak, Dadabhai Naoroji, etc. also need to be celebrated but these celebrations need to be inspired by their lives and teachings.
I do not appreciate the fact that caste and religion have tremendous unifying power in India. As long a this is the case, as long as we stay divided, we are not free citizen of a nation. These might be strong words but the mind is more important than anything. Wealth, heaven and love are actually states of mind. Everything begins with a thought, for example the conception of a separate country called 'Pakistan'.
The words non-discrimination and secularism are the basis of unity. I do not understand how India has forgotten about her most ancient quality in which she and the world used to take pride in- 'unity in diversity'.
It was the westerners who divided and ruled. We became slaves because they wanted to rule. They rule even now as they had planted the seeds of sectarianism long ago. They created to system and left but we are stuck in the system. The root of the word 'Nation' comes from 'natio' which means race. So, in modern times and in a modern democratic republic, we need not belong to the same race to be members of a nation, but the calling to live as a modern and strong nation and maintain it is a calling to actually forget about our race/caste/creed/religion.
It is important to understand that to be a strong nation, we need not be jingoistic, divisive, uptight rigid. To be soft is a stronger quality. Only this quality gave us the resilience to continue inspite of umpteen number of invasions. At-least within the nation, softness, fraternity, unity, harmony and respect is needed and the lack of these should not be tolerated. This is where we need to demonstrate our strength. Jai Hind.
On the occasion of Ambedkar Jayanti (April 14, 2024) since 12 am there were bursting of crackers and music was played all day in a high volume. The roads were congested due to the gathering of many people all day long.
This made me wonder if India is truly liberated. Ambedkar was a phenomenal and inspirational person because of his commitment to self-development, education, equality, the Constitution and him being a plausible leader in the society. I wondered about why were Bollywood songs played in order to celebrate the Chairman of the Constituent assembly and a mass leader who had nothing to do with showbiz. I also recollected how silent October 2 is every year. On Gandhi Jayanti, no loudspeakers or bursting of crackers are experienced.
I wondered why were there no popular meetings of locals to discuss local issues relating to governance, rules and regulations, or even the constitution, education, equality, etc. What was happening had nothing to do with the person who was celebrated.
Similarly, on Ram Navami (April 17, 2024), I could hear devotional songs, recitation of mantras and kirtans. Are these celebrations a reflection of the people who were celebrated or the people who celebrated them? It is time that we put more thought into our celebrations. Celebrations in India need not always be consisting of loud music and dancing on the roads, especially given the sheer number of days that we celebrate. We need to reimagine celebrations so that they reflect the values and the principles of the person or the day that is being celebrated and also not cause public nuisance. For example, on Rabindra Jayanti (May 8, 2024), there was no loud music in Pune but I know of a talk that was held. The talk was meant to inspire the audience into imbibing the approach of Tagore in their daily lives. Another example is how Lokmanya Gangadhar Tilak used Ganesh Utsav and Shivaji Jayanti to organize people politically.
Gandhi Jayanti is not celebrated with much enthusiasm (compared to Ambedkar Jayanti) because Mahatma Gandhi was not associated with any caste or religion. By the way, celebration of the inauguration of the Ram temple at Ayodhya had nothing to do with patriotism or nationalism. However, I have witnessed that event being celebrated by playing the national anthem.
Are we really free? Are we really independent? Who is controlling us? Is it so that the masses cannot relate to Gandhi and Tagore because they did not come from Maharashtra? Then why could the relate to Ram?
It is because, people identify with Ambedkar for his caste and with Ram for his religion. However, both of them had taught to rise above both these identities.
Indian citizens need to first know what it means to be a citizen. To be free comes from the freedom to think. Freedom to think comes from critical and creative thinking. We are blinded by our caste and religious identities and enough cannot be said by the propaganda of political parties which feeds into identity based politics.
We must not let any religion or caste monopolize any colour. Orange need not be associated with Hindusim and Blue with the Dalits or green with the Muslims. Similarly, major leaders like Gokhale, Agarkar, Tilak, Dadabhai Naoroji, etc. also need to be celebrated but these celebrations need to be inspired by their lives and teachings.
I do not appreciate the fact that caste and religion have tremendous unifying power in India. As long a this is the case, as long as we stay divided, we are not free citizen of a nation. These might be strong words but the mind is more important than anything. Wealth, heaven and love are actually states of mind. Everything begins with a thought, for example the conception of a separate country called 'Pakistan'.
The words non-discrimination and secularism are the basis of unity. I do not understand how India has forgotten about her most ancient quality in which she and the world used to take pride in- 'unity in diversity'.
It was the westerners who divided and ruled. We became slaves because they wanted to rule. They rule even now as they had planted the seeds of sectarianism long ago. They created to system and left but we are stuck in the system. The root of the word 'Nation' comes from 'natio' which means race. So, in modern times and in a modern democratic republic, we need not belong to the same race to be members of a nation, but the calling to live as a modern and strong nation and maintain it is a calling to actually forget about our race/caste/creed/religion.
It is important to understand that to be a strong nation, we need not be jingoistic, divisive, uptight rigid. To be soft is a stronger quality. Only this quality gave us the resilience to continue inspite of umpteen number of invasions. At-least within the nation, softness, fraternity, unity, harmony and respect is needed and the lack of these should not be tolerated. This is where we need to demonstrate our strength. Jai Hind.
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