While we pray
While we pray
Dilip Simeon
The historical people
prefer the hope of the future to the blessing of presence
We celebrate, once more, the advent of our nation upon the
stage of world history. But the people and traditions of India
were in existence for centuries prior to August 1947, so what are we
celebrating? What was new was India ’s
admission to the theatre of nation-states; its formalised entry into modernity.
Modern is a famously slippery term,
originating in Latin, indicating made just
now, today, and referring to recent or present time. Since it is over a
thousand years old, its current usage clearly refers as much to a condition of
the human spirit as to a historical period. It’s been now for a long time!
No matter how ancient the heritage claimed by nationalists
for their nation, the nation-state is
of relatively recent vintage – it dates to the Western revolutionary era of the
eighteenth century. That was also when the (geometrically derived) circular meaning of revolution underwent a change, and the word began to refer
to progress in a straight line. Nationalism merged with the vocabulary of the
assumed rectilinear course of modernity, and the nation-state emerged as the
spatial home of a fabricated abstraction called the Nation. With its conquest
by nationalism, the state began to be viewed less as an instrument of law, and more
as the instrument of the Nation. Somewhere along the way we forgot that
sovereignty is a human and not a divine matter. Along with minerals and
forests, human beings became a resource, and the inversion was complete. The
nation-state held sovereign power, and the people whose will was supposedly the
foundation of legitimate governance, were transformed into mere biomass,
building material to be sculpted into glorious nationhood. Nationalism became
enforced affinity, the modern form of prayer.
A partisan spirit has overtaken the polity. The standard of
relevance for ideas tends nowadays to point automatically to political parties.
We inhabit a world of cliché and accusation. Both forms of speech refer to the
Nation – the clichés speak of its bright future, while the accusations are
employed by partisan wrestlers bent upon showing themselves as more patriotic
than their opponents. Presumptuous phrases such as “world class”, “one billion
Indians”, and “the nation wants answers” bombard our minds every day.
Metaphysical abstractions such as “collective conscience of the nation” are
bandied about by judges. Yet more abstractions such as “Hindu nationalism” are
being presented for our edification. (Haven’t we had enough of this? Remember
the fate of Muslim nationalism?) Truthful speech is cast aside, intellectual
bankruptcy and deceit are on parade. Those who want us to remember 1528 ask us
to forget 2002. Those who stalled justice for the victims of 1984 tell us that
Maoists are India ’s
biggest security threat. Why shouldn’t the rampaging violence against women and children be given that status? Development is surrounded by criminality; and
reforms are taken to mean unrestrained assaults upon land, forests, rivers and
poor people. After the Uttarakhand disaster, news editors who regularly decry
environmental regulations as “green terror”, began denouncing the environmental
negligence of officialdom without a word of self-reflection.
The other dimension of national existence is its bondage to
conflict. World military expenditure in 2012 was estimated at $1,756 billion,
representing 2.5 per cent of global GDP, higher than in any year between 1945
and 2010. The world system is an enemy system and nationalism is ideologically
crucial to it. It exists as a tight nexus of arms industries, nuclear weapons
production, massive national arms budgets and growing surveillance empires. India ,
China and Pakistan
are the world’s top three arms importers, with India replacing China at the top of the list in 2011. Nations cannot exist without enemies, even
though this structure keeps the world perpetually on the edge of catastrophe.
The language of national animus enables everyone to disclaim responsibility for
conflict – it’s always (credibly) someone else’s fault. For India
and Pakistan ,
the daily military calisthenics at the Wagah border manifests the orchestrated
nature of national animosity.
War has become an internal affair – essential for the ruling
groups of all countries. South Asia abounds in private armies, the most prominent of which portray themselves as armed patriots of
their preferred identity. Maoist guerillas, lashkars
of Allah’s faithful, Hindutva cadre and commandos of various liberation forces,
all warriors of sacred causes are united in their fascination with martyrdom,
machismo and the long march towards the glorious future. As if international
conflict were not enough, we are now conditioned by everyday propaganda to
prepare for the militarisation of civil society as well. Communal tension and
violence have emerged as tools of clever governance. It might be difficult to
accept this, but war is not meant to be won. It is meant to be continuous.
By a recent estimate, bribes add between 35 to 40 per cent
to the cost of infrastructural projects. The fate of honest officers
underscores the fact that some of these payments must facilitate wrongful
clearances. This implies that some officers, businessmen and leaders are consciously
violating the law. Those who resist them are often depicted as enemies of
national progress. Can we please stop the nation worship, glory-talk and world
class mumbo-jumbo for a few minutes and think about the people in factories,
slums and villages? What is a nation less its people? India
ranks 181 out of 188 countries in terms of public expenditure on health; and
142 out of 194 in
life expectancy at birth. In expected years of schooling, India
ranks 142 out of 192 countries. In health and education taken together (with
the above indicators), India
ranks 163 out of 186. Does it look as if lofty nationalist phrase-mongering
will make a dent in this alarming social reality? Thirty-eight years ago,
during the Emergency, DTC buses carried slogans telling the public that we were
marching towards a happy tomorrow. Tomorrow seems to be taking its time. But
today is here. How we act and speak today is what will make a difference.
*********************
See also
The Right to Food
Congress, BJP netas fight over hoisting the tricolour in Mussoorie
It would have been comic if it were not so appallingly tragic and shameful. Two middle-aged men have been caught on camera clinging to a flag pole as they push and heckle each other trying to claim the honour of hoisting the Indian Tricolour on Independence Day. The two angry men were Mussoorie Mayor Manmohan Singh Malla of the Congress and a local BJP MLA Ganesh Joshi and each was adamant that he would unfurl the flag at Gandhi Chowk of the tourist town in Uttarakhand, recently ravaged by floods. On camera, the two men - one in a Gandhi cap and Nehru jacket, the other in politico white with dark glasses - are seen refusing to let go of the pole and snarling at each other as they make attempts to grab the rope that would release the flag. People around try to pull them away and many voices are heard requesting them to do it together.In the end, neither neta got to hoist the flag. A two-year-old child was made to do it instead to stop the fracas. The residents of Mussoorie are livid and say it was a disgusting experience. NB - Was it The Nation these men were so bothered about?!
Patriotic hooligans on the rampage
