08-15-2008, 07:06 AM
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin--><b> We need a new destiny </b>
Pioneer.com
Jagmohan
India has been let down by its people and leaders
What happened in Parliament on July 22 and in Bangalore, Ahmedabad and Surat a few days later and what is now happening in Jammu show the direction in which our democracy has been moving during the last 61 years. Things are truly falling apart, and no one seems to know how to collect the unraveled threads of national fabric and reweave them into a strong and soothing texture.
<b>In fact, the journey of independence itself commenced on a false note. "At the stroke of mid-night when the world sleeps, India will wake to life and freedom." These historic words, spoken by Jawaharlal Nehru on the midnight of August 14-15, 1947, have their own fascination. They sparkle with passion and enthrall Indians even today. </b>
But were these words true? <b>Was the world sleeping or watching India? And did we wake up fully? In fact, most Indians slept in the darkness of their homes. Some were awake because they were trembling in fear with blood-thirsty mobs on the rampage. The main architect of India's freedom, Mahatma Gandhi, looked lonely and forlorn. His "heart was burning" and he felt as if he had been "thrown into a fire-pit".</b>
The light of freedom about which Nehru spoke so eloquently was too weak to pierce through the darkness created by the long period of India's social and cultural degeneration. Standing on a pedestal under glittering artificial lights, it was easy to declare, "We will create a mighty India -- mighty in thought, mighty in deeds, mighty in culture and mighty in service to humanity." But no one seemed to know, or even cared to know, how that 'might' would be created and the darkness dispelled.
<b>In any case, what was that 'destiny' that was referred to so passionately? The 'appointed day' -- the day appointed by destiny -- as Nehru called it, was also the day which was preceded by a tragedy caused by the acts of commission and omission of those whom 'destiny' had put at the helm of affairs -- the tragedy that led to India's partition which witnessed riots, rape, plunder and loss of life and property on an unprecedented scale.</b>
"It is a fateful moment for us in India," said Nehru in the same speech. Undoubtedly, it was so. But it demanded more than idealism; it demanded 'resolute practicality' to inject meaning and content in that idealism. Nehru could provide the inspiration; but this inspiration had to be accompanied by strong and sustained action.
For declarations to get translated into realities, a leadership with extraordinary courage and commitment was needed not only in the arena of politics but also in the intellectual, social, cultural and spiritual spheres. Regrettably, at a momentous period of India's history, this was not forthcoming.
It was a comparatively easy task to provide, by way of a liberal and democratic Constitution, a pattern of polity whose aims and objectives were to create both purity and productivity in public life. But it was difficult to inject the ethos of purity and productivity into the system. There was no one to undertake this task.
The clay of the people who had to run the system and the social and cultural environment in which it had to function essentially remained the same as before. And it did not take long for a fairly sound Constitution to look like a grammar of democratic anarchy in practice.
From the very first day of our independence, the people in general and the national leadership in particular have developed a propensity to keep aside the hard crusts of problems and remain content with breaking softer grounds. Even now, while chronic problems, we continue to nurse illusions and derive satisfaction from short-term gains and outward glitter.
These days, one often hears about India's impressive foreign exchange reserves, its outstanding performance in the information technology sector, its rising volume of trade and high rate of savings and investments. But comparatively little is said or done about the ever-widening income gap between the rich and the poor, worsening problems of unemployment and under-employment, continuance of acute poverty and malnutrition, rapid increase in the number of slum-dwellers and sharp deterioration in both rural and urban environment.
<b>Let me provide you with an insight into the reality after 61 years of our 'tryst with destiny'. India today has the largest number of poor, the largest number of illiterate and the largest number of malnourished people in the world. More than 250 million men, women and children go to bed hungry every day. One out of three women is underweight. About 40 per cent of the total low birth weight children below five in the world are Indians; 57 million children of this age are undernourished, their percentage (48) is higher than that of Ethiopia (47 per cent). Six out of seven Indian women are illiterate.
In the cities, slums have been proliferating, growing 250 per cent faster than the overall population. Mumbai, with about 12 million living in such settlements, has become the global capital of slums. India is still reckoned as one of the most corrupt nations in the world. Terrorism, subversion and Maoist violence have brutalised the atmosphere. While the problems of internal security are mounting, the efficacy of governance has been declining.</b>
The inconvenient reality is that India has been let down by its people and leaders. The Indian mind and soul are getting drier by the day. No wonder the super-structure erected upon this mind and soul has developed cracks, which are ominously wide and dangerous. India's 'tryst with destiny' has turned out to be a fantasy. Our nation must re-visualise its destiny and fix a new tryst with it.
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Pioneer.com
Jagmohan
India has been let down by its people and leaders
What happened in Parliament on July 22 and in Bangalore, Ahmedabad and Surat a few days later and what is now happening in Jammu show the direction in which our democracy has been moving during the last 61 years. Things are truly falling apart, and no one seems to know how to collect the unraveled threads of national fabric and reweave them into a strong and soothing texture.
<b>In fact, the journey of independence itself commenced on a false note. "At the stroke of mid-night when the world sleeps, India will wake to life and freedom." These historic words, spoken by Jawaharlal Nehru on the midnight of August 14-15, 1947, have their own fascination. They sparkle with passion and enthrall Indians even today. </b>
But were these words true? <b>Was the world sleeping or watching India? And did we wake up fully? In fact, most Indians slept in the darkness of their homes. Some were awake because they were trembling in fear with blood-thirsty mobs on the rampage. The main architect of India's freedom, Mahatma Gandhi, looked lonely and forlorn. His "heart was burning" and he felt as if he had been "thrown into a fire-pit".</b>
The light of freedom about which Nehru spoke so eloquently was too weak to pierce through the darkness created by the long period of India's social and cultural degeneration. Standing on a pedestal under glittering artificial lights, it was easy to declare, "We will create a mighty India -- mighty in thought, mighty in deeds, mighty in culture and mighty in service to humanity." But no one seemed to know, or even cared to know, how that 'might' would be created and the darkness dispelled.
<b>In any case, what was that 'destiny' that was referred to so passionately? The 'appointed day' -- the day appointed by destiny -- as Nehru called it, was also the day which was preceded by a tragedy caused by the acts of commission and omission of those whom 'destiny' had put at the helm of affairs -- the tragedy that led to India's partition which witnessed riots, rape, plunder and loss of life and property on an unprecedented scale.</b>
"It is a fateful moment for us in India," said Nehru in the same speech. Undoubtedly, it was so. But it demanded more than idealism; it demanded 'resolute practicality' to inject meaning and content in that idealism. Nehru could provide the inspiration; but this inspiration had to be accompanied by strong and sustained action.
For declarations to get translated into realities, a leadership with extraordinary courage and commitment was needed not only in the arena of politics but also in the intellectual, social, cultural and spiritual spheres. Regrettably, at a momentous period of India's history, this was not forthcoming.
It was a comparatively easy task to provide, by way of a liberal and democratic Constitution, a pattern of polity whose aims and objectives were to create both purity and productivity in public life. But it was difficult to inject the ethos of purity and productivity into the system. There was no one to undertake this task.
The clay of the people who had to run the system and the social and cultural environment in which it had to function essentially remained the same as before. And it did not take long for a fairly sound Constitution to look like a grammar of democratic anarchy in practice.
From the very first day of our independence, the people in general and the national leadership in particular have developed a propensity to keep aside the hard crusts of problems and remain content with breaking softer grounds. Even now, while chronic problems, we continue to nurse illusions and derive satisfaction from short-term gains and outward glitter.
These days, one often hears about India's impressive foreign exchange reserves, its outstanding performance in the information technology sector, its rising volume of trade and high rate of savings and investments. But comparatively little is said or done about the ever-widening income gap between the rich and the poor, worsening problems of unemployment and under-employment, continuance of acute poverty and malnutrition, rapid increase in the number of slum-dwellers and sharp deterioration in both rural and urban environment.
<b>Let me provide you with an insight into the reality after 61 years of our 'tryst with destiny'. India today has the largest number of poor, the largest number of illiterate and the largest number of malnourished people in the world. More than 250 million men, women and children go to bed hungry every day. One out of three women is underweight. About 40 per cent of the total low birth weight children below five in the world are Indians; 57 million children of this age are undernourished, their percentage (48) is higher than that of Ethiopia (47 per cent). Six out of seven Indian women are illiterate.
In the cities, slums have been proliferating, growing 250 per cent faster than the overall population. Mumbai, with about 12 million living in such settlements, has become the global capital of slums. India is still reckoned as one of the most corrupt nations in the world. Terrorism, subversion and Maoist violence have brutalised the atmosphere. While the problems of internal security are mounting, the efficacy of governance has been declining.</b>
The inconvenient reality is that India has been let down by its people and leaders. The Indian mind and soul are getting drier by the day. No wonder the super-structure erected upon this mind and soul has developed cracks, which are ominously wide and dangerous. India's 'tryst with destiny' has turned out to be a fantasy. Our nation must re-visualise its destiny and fix a new tryst with it.
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