Independence celebrations come as an annual day of reckoning when the nations take stock of their journeys towards their true identities. Today, as India kicks off a grand celebration to celebrate its 76th year as free from the clutches of the British Raj, it would do well to realise what really went wrong for the supposed largest democracy in the world.
That conflicted hotspots like Kashmir observe the day as a Black Day to register their protest against the illegal occupation of their lands and brutal dismantling of their cultures, their ideals, their sovereignty and their identity, is enough reason to introspect about what is required to come back towards the right track.
Aiming for higher and higher rankings on the world’s economies list is a phenomenal goal but crumbles to dust if peace remains an elusive dream. With every new episode of religiously-incensed violence, there are fears that unrest will entrench its roots even deeper.
A stray bullet here, a lynching there, an Imam butchered over alleged consumption of meat and a young man hung from the tree because he dared love a Hindu girl, episodes of bigotry and intolerance echo across the length and breadth of the incredible land. The incidents, which continue to take place, were seemingly unconnected, yet the victims are usually united by a common factor: they were all members of minority groups.
So before Prime Minister Narendra Modi walks up the coveted stage and very smugly threatens Pakistan with his nuclear arsenal or wags a menacing finger at our shortcomings, he is advised to look deep within a log queue of issues reeking under his own nose. From Kashmir to Manipur, no one–man or woman–is safe. Grand posturing on the global stage as the flagbearer of democratic traditions and secularist values is not enough to camouflage the sinister designs of hardline vigilante Hindu rightwing groups. *
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