Is India Being Controlled By Crony Capitalists Who Extract From The Marginalised And Minorites?
India, under a pseudo-nationalist regime, has become an establishment against the safe existence of dissents, intellectuals, journalists, Dalits, minorities and women. I feel that it extracts wealth from the marginalised to help corporate giants.
It’s a reality that 1% of India’s super-rich, today owns four times more wealth than 1 Billion of India’s poor, along with the growth of a dangerous tendency to dominate our national history and discourse through the narrative of a political project based on the poisonous ideology of Hindutva, which is nothing less than an assault upon the cultural identity of Hinduism and Bharat that originated from the banks of Indus River.
Outside Kerala, I have visited the cities—Madurai, Kanyakumari, Thanjavur, Chidambaram, Kanchipuram, Mysore, Hampi, Hyderabad, Mumbai, Jhansi, Ajmer, Fatehpur Sikri, Banaras, and the ancient monuments, sculptures and frescoes—Ajanta and Ellora Caves, and the lovely buildings of Goa, Surat, Jodhpur, Jaipur, Delhi, Agra and Kashmir, where the story of our past is told.
Besides these journeys, books, films, ruins, constructions, our past achievements in the social, cultural, scientific, political and economic spheres, and the conversation with people helped me to develop some insights into the idea of India.
As rightly said by the renowned American writer Mark Twain, “India is the land of dreams and romance, of fabulous wealth and fabulous poverty, of splendour and rags, of palaces and hovels, of genii and giants and Aladdin lamps, of tigers and elephants, the cobra and the jungle, the country of hundred nations and a hundred tongues, of a thousand religions and two million gods, the cradle of the human race, the birthplace of human speech, mother of history, grandmother of legend, great-grandmother of traditions, whose yesterday’s bear date with the modering antiquities for the rest of nations-the one sole country under the sun that is endowed with an imperishable interest for the alien prince and alien peasant, for lettered and ignorant, wise and fool, rich and poor, bond and free, the one land that all men desire to see, and having seen once, by even a glimpse, would not give that glimpse for the shows of all the rest of the world combined.”
Our Unity―Despite Struggles Over Power, Position And Domination, Could Never Be Conceived As Something Imposed By Anyone
Though we have lost several things in the unknown antiquity, the remains are enough to give an intelligible picture of India, the land of our forefathers, where they wept, suffered, laughed and loved. The iconic history of our synthesis, tremendous ups and downs, defeat and victory, harmony and discontent is unfolded before us.
The diversity of India is stupendous, historical and apparent as concerned to its physical appearance, emotional traits and habits, with different faces, food, clothing, language, attitude and arts, evolved upon shared cultural and foreign influence over hundreds of years.
Our unity―despite some struggles over power, position and domination―could never be conceived as something imposed by anyone, but it is extensive and made within our own fold through a culture of tolerance of belief and custom, being acknowledged and encouraged even today.
The arrival of the Aryans, Vedas and Upanishads, the development of Mahajanapadas, settled agriculture, warfare, conquests, bhakti movements―absorption of new concepts, ideas, philosophies, traditions and enlightenment, followed by foreign aggressions, imperialist colonial rule and our freedom struggle shaped the polity and society of India.
India during the fight for freedom, had many hopes and determination that got reflected by the contributions of stalwarts including Mahatma Gandhi, Nehru, Dr Ambedkar, Sardar Patel, Bose, Azad, Abdul Ghaffar Khan and Bhagat Singh. We adopted the best constitution of the World, which assures everyone the protection of rights and justice. But today, despite the process of elections, the unity, peace, democracy and secular foundation of our republic are under the threat of Fascism.
Who Owns India?
It was in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, I have been asked by a regular reader of YKA. When asked to write on the topic “Who Owns India?” and many thoughts came to my mind, the terrible death of infants in Uttar Pradesh, the martyrdom of brave jawans in Pulwama and elsewhere, the fate of Dalit sisters in Walayar, the fate of the family of the brutal assassination of Dabolkar, Pansare, Kalburgi, Gauri Langesh, T.P. Chandrashekaran, Abhimanyu, Kripesh and Sarath Lal, the suicide of around 12,000 farmers within a year. As well as the people who died in queues during Demonetization, the heartlessness of the centre that resulted in the tragic death and plight of migrant workers across the country during the lockdown, the suffering and pain of the overseas Indian diaspora, the increasing insecurity and mistrust among citizens, the suffocation of growing division and communal polarisation even during the outbreak of CoronaVirus.
And never to forget the discriminatory amendment of the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and the vicious attempts made to suppress democratic protests and the voice of students in the universities nationwide, the attempt for NRC and NPR―which is starkly different from what the Constitution of India envisages. The arrest of Safoora Zargar, Masrat Zahra and Peerzada Ashiq, the unemployed youth, the resignation of Kannan Gopinathan IAS, the resignation of a women IAS officer in Haryana who cited ‘personal security on government duty’ as reason and many more haunt me.
I may need to publish a series of books to articulate my views upon all those disgraceful incidents. I’m sure, India is truly theirs, mine and yours―who believe, respect and defend the Constitution of India, and our forefathers who built the country with their sweat, blood and tears, but not of those petty and dangerous communal thugs, who advocate the idea of bigotry, divide and hatred like Godse and Savarkar―leading to chaos, riots, mob-lynching, mass butchering of people, demolition of Masjids, Temples, statues and many more.