Congrats David Cameron!! And Nick Clegg for making it happen. Time for some changes in good ol' Britain. I didn’t really follow the elections much, but thanks to twitter and a few political maniacs I follow, I pretty much got the gist. But this post isn’t about the British elections. No, it’s about a muddled up country which is known as the largest democracy in the world.
The recent elections in the UK and the US elections last year got me thinking on the system in India. Most countries have a two party system with third parties coming in to tip the balance. India used to have two major parties, right now new parties keep forming every day. With no clear majority, most govts in recent years are coalitions and even after forming the govt, allegiances keep shifting due to differing opinions. The adage “too many cooks spoil the broth” truly applies to India. The “cooks” have only succeeded in creating a hotchpotch, nothing else. No wonder we’re in such a mess.
Kids in school have always been taught that India is living proof of “unity in diversity”. But reality speaks otherwise. Look closely and you’ll see that the truth is the opposite; we are actually “diverse in our unity”. The very diversity that we flout is what makes it impossible for us to be united. The average Indian is a very confused soul. He is told that his first loyalty is to his country, but the poor guy lives in a community, which is in a state which is in the country. Add to that his religion and caste, and he’s stuck. He interacts more with the people of his community than with those who run the country. If he tries to stay out of it saying he’s an Indian first, people around will call him a coward (and trust me, nothing riles an Indian more than when someone calls him gutless, we’re a highly emotional & violent lot). Consequently, he gets dragged into narrow confines of caste, religion or state. Is this the unity we crave?
India united is, for me at least, an unrealistic vision. Why? Because we aren’t ready to let go of those notions that have been drilled into our psyche. Which leads to an even more interesting question, can India exist as a single country? We’ve been steadily disintegrating into states. It began with India and Pakistan, thanks to religion. Then we had Uttaranchal, Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh, courtesy of a difference in class. In the past few years we have the demands for Gorkhaland and Telangana. India, like the USA aimed to be a single entity comprising of a confederation of states. In case of the US, they’re at least “united”. Can’t really say that for India now can we?
In a lighter vein,here's something special about us Indians, Indians hate Indians. The people from the south find north Indians too loud and brash, the "northies" think every south Indian is from madras and loves eating idlis,northies are always picking a fight, southies think they are way too smart just because their brains work faster than a calculator. we call the indians from the north west "chinkis" and then we say we're not racial!! And thanks to fairness creams (for both men and women) the southerners want to be as fair as those up north, just to balance the equation and prove we aren't Africans.
I’m sure there’s a bunch of us out there who really wish Indians would rise above those narrow walls confining us, but then let’s face it, I don't see it happening. It’s not impossible, but it requires a lot of patience and that none of us have. We’ll just have to while away time lamenting.
