Generations to come, it may well be, will scarce believe that such a man as this one ever in flesh and blood walked upon this Earth.What a wonderful, and powerful, homage that is!
To think that Gandhi was only a mortal like you and me, and yet he achieved what he did. Gandhi had his own flaws and readily admitted that he was not perfect; heck, he even titled his autobiography as experiments with truth.
Gandhi is one of the few reasons why I continue to have special, warm, feelings for the old country. Critiquing contemporary India comes from that special, warm place, because of the tragic disconnect that I see between what is and what could have been.
Gandhi's vision for India was different from how a Muslim describes the conditions of Muslims in India:
Although the Muslims are near the bottom of the socio-economic ladder and at par with the Dalits in almost every human development index, the public discourse today is not about the economic and educational backwardness of this beleaguered community but about the huge affliction they are in the nation’s social fabric.How awful! What a tragedy that this is how quite a few of India's 150 million Muslims feel. Terrible!
The plight of the ordinary Muslim is getting progressively worse. Living on the margins of society, he has always been up against it in the field of education, in the job market, even when looking for accommodation. He is also burdened with the stigma of being in tacit collusion with terrorists. But hitherto, the discrimination and the distrust of the Muslim were covert. Now the gloves are off and the hatred is in-your-face.
The author, a former civil servant who is now into politics, continues:
Like never before, the Muslim is viewed not just as “the other” but as the root cause of the nation’s problems. The most pernicious myths are being given the widest publicity — about forced conversion of Hindu girls as a “love jihad” conspiracy to distort the population ratio, about every conversion to Islam creating one more enemy for Hindus, about 90 per cent of all rapes being committed by Muslims, about Muslims provoking riots, about there being no place for non-Muslims in areas where there are more than 35 per cent Muslims. The miasma of distrust, of hate, of prejudice hangs like a black cloud over the community. -I cannot begin to understand how India could have descended from Gandhi as their leader to celebrating Modi, who is, "a dangerous cliche," as Pankaj Mishra aptly described him. The Modi who even "referred to Mohandas Gandhi as Mohanlal Gandhi" at the rah-rah rally in New York City. What a steep fall for my old country!
I suppose they don't make Gandhis anymore. The world, not only India, can use a few.
3 comments:
Yes, Gandhi truly deserved the title of Mahatma, although I suspect you don't believe in an atma in the first place !
What do you mean "few reasons" ???? Really ?? Is that how you feel ?
The theme of your post - the marginalisation of Muslims in India is however grossly exaggerated. Of course, there is discrimination, there is prejudice, etc etc, but show me a place in the world where there isn't prejudice against somebody or the other. To however say the community is living on the margins of society is bullshit. There is enough and more opportunity for everybody in India.
Wild Bill says:
Ramesh:
I take it from your comment that only the Cow is sacred in India but not the Bull. Alas some have argued that 'Taboo' is a closer translation than 'sacred'. In either case, I suspect that calling empathy for how others feel excrement of any kind is exactly the sort of thing that would have driven Mahatma Gandhi to refuse not only the sustenance of bread but also the sweetness of juice until you could convince him that it would stop.
Yes, while I might not have articulated it that way in my previous posts, I had been dropping plenty of hints all along that the changes in India and its peoples are in directions that don't always appeal to me ... on top of that, the places that I so much adore--from grandmas' villages to Courtallam to ... are all changing for the worse ... so, yes, I meant the "few" ...
Sure, the literal translation means "great soul" but it is the metaphorical "soul" ...
Yes, there is prejudice and discrimination of many sorts in many societies ... but, we try to understand them, and correct those practices ... I would argue that a fundamental aspect there is not to sweep away the issues with a rhetorical " enough and more opportunity for everybody in India" when there is plenty of evidence to the contrary. Only a few years ago, Manmohan Singh's government prepared a detailed report on the status of Muslims in India and by various criteria the report concluded that India's Muslims fared only a tad better than the Dalits.
Reports about Muslims in Gujarat found that they fared worse than the national average.
You are way offbase by dismissing these and more evidence as "bullshit," and your comments echo how the Republican Party here dismisses the conditions of blacks and proudly asserts that blacks have as much opportunities as whites do.
Post a Comment