Assam
burns. Yet again. Not owing to any ethnic clashes between "illegal
migrants" and "son of the soil", but factional fights between two races (
the Nagas and the Assamese in this case). The same so called "brothers
of the north east" , who waste no time for unified candle light marches
in Jantar Manar whenever an incident of discrimination or injustice is
meted out to any fellow brother of the region in Delhi - they are up in arms in their own territory.
Folks say - This is politics. Politicians are cropping this issue up to gain mileage. Rubbish, I say. Even if that had an iota of truth, politics,after all, is just a mirror image of the of the society at large. This whole issue is all about Chauvinism. About this new found attitude of new age India built upon intolerance. The Idea of "We are better than the rest" . In Delhi, we say "Uh we are from such a cosmopolitan culture. What would the north Indians know" Back in north east, "The Assamese thinks he is better than the nagas , and vice -versa" And subconsciously, a false sense of superiority creeps up - which gets manifested in different forms . N this is not limited to NE alone. While in Maharashtra you would hear "Maharastrians are a class apart ( n they willl rhyme out all names from, Tendulkar to Mangeshkar), Kolkata main "What bengal thinks today, India thinks tomorrow attitude". Everywhere, an ingrained attitude has crept up in the sub groups - "We are better than the rest" This chauvinism in all likelihood helps to satisfy a alter ego, probably helping in developing a false sense of superiority. And this chauvinism doesnot end in that subgroup. If some from Delhi has satisfied himself with "Punjabis are better than rest debate" , the next fight would be on "Amritsari Punjabis are better than the Chandigarh ones" . Only when we are abroad , do we think as Indians, but that too in the context of "Indians are better than the west in this and that" . Nobody thinks like "iNDIANS are good, but Brits are good too in their own way too" . Just like a Punjabi wont think " Our culture is good, but so is the culture of the Tamils" . Its just a mad race of one upmanship - and finding out faults with the others- which consciously gets exploited in Incidents like the one happening in Assam. I am not too sure if I am making any sense in the post - but false illusions of superiority ( n this is crept right from school - remember how our school was always better than "theirs", but while within school " our "house" was better than the other "houses") is just creating lot of animosity. Its festering chauvinism, and the whole bunch of terrorism based activities ( be it ULFA in Assam, or the Khalistan proponents of Punjab) is just a manifestation of this. Its high time we build the foundations of more pluralistic, contended society without any air of false illusions. Every race has good people and positive aspects, every race has bad people and negative aspects. Let not fight for one upmanship over here. Period.
Folks say - This is politics. Politicians are cropping this issue up to gain mileage. Rubbish, I say. Even if that had an iota of truth, politics,after all, is just a mirror image of the of the society at large. This whole issue is all about Chauvinism. About this new found attitude of new age India built upon intolerance. The Idea of "We are better than the rest" . In Delhi, we say "Uh we are from such a cosmopolitan culture. What would the north Indians know" Back in north east, "The Assamese thinks he is better than the nagas , and vice -versa" And subconsciously, a false sense of superiority creeps up - which gets manifested in different forms . N this is not limited to NE alone. While in Maharashtra you would hear "Maharastrians are a class apart ( n they willl rhyme out all names from, Tendulkar to Mangeshkar), Kolkata main "What bengal thinks today, India thinks tomorrow attitude". Everywhere, an ingrained attitude has crept up in the sub groups - "We are better than the rest" This chauvinism in all likelihood helps to satisfy a alter ego, probably helping in developing a false sense of superiority. And this chauvinism doesnot end in that subgroup. If some from Delhi has satisfied himself with "Punjabis are better than rest debate" , the next fight would be on "Amritsari Punjabis are better than the Chandigarh ones" . Only when we are abroad , do we think as Indians, but that too in the context of "Indians are better than the west in this and that" . Nobody thinks like "iNDIANS are good, but Brits are good too in their own way too" . Just like a Punjabi wont think " Our culture is good, but so is the culture of the Tamils" . Its just a mad race of one upmanship - and finding out faults with the others- which consciously gets exploited in Incidents like the one happening in Assam. I am not too sure if I am making any sense in the post - but false illusions of superiority ( n this is crept right from school - remember how our school was always better than "theirs", but while within school " our "house" was better than the other "houses") is just creating lot of animosity. Its festering chauvinism, and the whole bunch of terrorism based activities ( be it ULFA in Assam, or the Khalistan proponents of Punjab) is just a manifestation of this. Its high time we build the foundations of more pluralistic, contended society without any air of false illusions. Every race has good people and positive aspects, every race has bad people and negative aspects. Let not fight for one upmanship over here. Period.
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