Monday 17 March 2014

From a british colony to world’s largest democracy : the journey is still unfinished










When India became independent in 1947 from the realms of the traumatizing British rule, it became officially one of the most diverse nations on the planet considering the number of people that came together at that time belonging from different religions, castes and regions to form an incredible nation called “India”. Hindus, Muslims, Sikhs, and Christians came together to form what turned out to be the world’s largest democracy. That amalgamation of people from different religions gave India a “tag on the paper” of being the most democratic and culturally diverse country where people are not differentiated on the basis of religion. Today, India is seen as the world’s largest democracy where people from different communities live together amicably.


However, the reality on the ground is completely opposite. India, in the last 6 decades since its independence, has seen countless number of communal riots. India’s glorious history has been marred by bloodshed with innocent people being butchered, women brutally raped, and childre
n lacerated to soothe the communal ego of a few morons. Hundreds and thousands of people have died in these communal riots for no reason. Regionality has also created communal differences among people and recent telengana issue bears absolute testimony to it. People have suffered and emotionally burnt themselves in these communal violences whereas our appalling political system has enjoyed this in their unjustified lust for power. Politicians have long used these communal differences to cumulate their vote-bank. Instead of diverting their attention on the development of the nation as a whole, they were busy in playing secular vs communal card to widen their vote base and earn some cheap political mileage. This has happened over and over again during each and every election over the last 60 years and it still continues to happen. This all has led to a vicious type of governance, which is largely motivated with creating divide in the society on the basis of religion, instead of concentrating on providing a pro-development governance. All of this has further worsened the situation for India on the democratic front and adversely effected the economic development of the country as the focus of our politicians have been more on instigating the feelings of the people rather than helping India and its people to prosper in economic terms.


 Why is it that even after 66 years of our independence, we haven’t been able to inculcate a feeling of oneness and togetherness in 1.25 billion people that live in a country known as “India”. Why is that we still fight over religion issues and are always ready to cut throats of people over minor theological differences. Why the great democracy of India which we so much clamour about has failed in achieving its objective of bringing people together. The questions are many but answers are none. But, one thing is for sure, till the time political parties in India continue to use this communal card, we won’t be able to come out of this mess. Let’s hope that things change in the upcoming general elections.







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