India and its secular dream

While the atrocities on Christians in Orissa and Karnataka are deplorable, one has to look at the inevitability of such events. Human history is not brimming with examples of heterogeneous societies with sections living with each other in harmony. An intelligent outsider with inputs on our history would not hesitate to conclude that the general tendency of human beings is to flock together and try for supremacy in the smallest quarter, growing up to a country, and thence to the world. This nature has helped humans come down from the trees (metaphorically) and form fledgling and powerful units of existence (basically meta-organisms from hunting groups to today's nation states), but has also created monsters like Adolf Hitler only a few decades back.

India established itself as a secular state, a very noble idea, laid out by Gandhi and Nehru and their fellow leaders. It looked achievable at the time of the formation of a new nation state, with the general population united against the British, that and the brimming patriotism must have blinded the leaders who overlooked the history of a geographical area and a society mostly divided on the basis of caste, language, religion, ethnicity and any other trait that one group might find unique to themselves. Nevertheless, it was the right moral decision, it still is an experiment in progress. By dreaming and then implementing a constitution towards a secular utopia, past leaders have left us a legacy to be proud of. To take it forward, and achieve such a difficult goal, while taking along more than a billion individuals grouped in innumerable sections, would take us more than a century (which is an estimate as vague as I can think of) and maturity beyond a human's ability. It is not impossible, but it needs strength, will and more importantly prioritization (or a war, the uniting effects of which are more or less temporary as history tells us).

A tenet that makes this task more difficult is that of a humane and moral approach towards bringing about such change. Our neighbour towards the east is a perfect example of drastic mass change brought through political power. This approach has not yet been proven right or wrong, but its inhuman nature is definitely not something that contemporary (last 50 years) citizens have gained from. Future will be the witness to the greatness of such a society, and then judge on the sacrifices made by such a nation. We have taken a different, populous approach. That is our legacy, and that is what we have to take forward.

A word on selfish community based leadership. If we assume that these forces achieve what they want, which is a homogeneous society, do we have some notion of whether they will stop there, or keep dividing society into groups just to keep themselves busy with mischief? We don't have to go too far in the past to find casteism as a prime example of how sectionalist forces quickly turn themselves into elitist forces, and an oppression of a different kind starts. Our current leadership should never forget about such a shameful history, and must be driven from it with extreme prejudice.

As populous and democratic approaches go, majorities rule the roost. A government needs extreme willingness towards a secular society, which ours has not shown yet. Stringent action is the only bulwark against oppressive elements, and inaction would just encourage sectional/sectarian polity to force its agenda of selfishness. Today it is hindus against christians and muslims. It is also tamils against sinhalese. It is assamese and marathas against biharis and bengalis. Tomorrow, new sections will be formed to fight against. We need to manifest strength against such nature. It will take away votes, it might take away a government, but moral righteousness needs to be accounted for. A good decision now, vehemently opposing and punishing communalism of any kind is the only option as the second step towards the dream of a secular utopia. Incidents like Orissa are inevitable in a larger nation like ours, but they provide us with an opportunity to gear up and motivate ourselves towards that dream.

The Bangalore Theatre Scene

I have started a new Yahoo Group which tries to keep track of whats happening on the Bangalore Theatre Scene.

Hopefully we will be able to keep a timetable and inform the members about the upcoming Plays.

I have chosen to call it The Bangalore Theatre, but hell, whats_in_a_name?

It would be a great help if people could help me out in this endevour. I hope we can have reviews included too, but…..

Lets start from scratch and try to build up a community that supports theatre, and wants to go watching.

Visit  http://groups.yahoo.com/group/the_bangalore_theatre

Mail me at runjan at gmail dot com (replace at with @, and dot with . and remove the spaces)

r.