Amidst the rubble of Indian Democracy

On 26th Jan 1950, India emerged as a democractic nation.

In democratic governance, theory states that the candidates preferred by maximum number of votes get to rule.

As India is indeed a very large country with so many distinctions amidst voters. Politicians face enormous problem of coming up strategies to ensure that they get enough votes to win.

Instead of rising above the din to create their own identity, these leaders opted to subterfuge the democratic process.

Each soon realized that it is very hard to gain majority by the most honest means. It would require one to live up to ideals that are way too difficult.

So each aspiring politician did the next best thing.

They strived to identify a group of voter that was large enough for them to have some hold.

In order to achieve maximum number of votes from this small subsection of populace, they looked for ideas that would appeal to everyone within that group and enable them to present as one homogenous identity.

Once the homogenous group with its own identity is established, some time is devoted in figuring out the issues that will make this group resonate as one.

Sometimes issues are all too self-evident. Sometimes issues have to be created out of nowhere.
Sometimes core issues have to distilled out of diverse range of real problems identified.

With the list of core issues, Politicians present themselves as the first person in India to be able to identify the issue and starts offering promises to resolve the issue. Shower of appeasement begins.

Appeasing a small group was only smaller part of the solution.

Larger part of problem was to ensure that the small group somehow managed to appear taller than rest when it came to counting of votes.

Since the homogenous group cannot be made drastically big, the next obvious thing is to make break all those that will not definitely not blend or are too large.

Rest of the voters that cannot clearly resonate with target homogenous group is hammered.

It is to be hammered and broken down into pieces in such a manner that each new piece is smaller than the target homogenous peice.

Thus, the lofty ideals of Democracy were reduced to game of chafing and hammering.

Each Politician continues along different variations of the same general theme and keeps coming up with different group from populace to appease and break the rest.

At every election, different homogenous group needs to be carved out. The group that is being appeased is showered with gifts such as reservations, guaranted employment, lowering of academic standards.

Sometimes its Muslims vs Hindus
Sometimes its Sikh Vs Hindus
Sometimes its Ram Janmabhoomi
Sometimes its Dalit
Sometimes its Women and domestic violence
Sometimes its Marathi vs rest of India

After all it is lot cheaper to shower 10 people with lavish gifts to secure entry than to work hard and gain trust of 100s.

Divide and Rule of Pandit Nehru

Disclaimer: I hold no grudge against anyone when I express my views, none of my comment are meant to be interpreted adversely. I am merely stating my interpretation of history of India.

I am certain that most of you have heard of the famous "Divide and rule" policy.

Most famous users were British rulers of India whose core aim was to exploit, loot and pillage while in India. Britishers used it amidst two Indian Kingdoms and also amidst Hindu and Muslims. Of all the things they did while they were ruling in India, Use of Divide & Rule Policy was probably the worst contribution of British to India.

Before Britishers came to India, India had monarchy with lots of Kings, Queens and Kingdoms, I believe there were around 500 kingdoms in 1947.

Britishers were most effectively persuaded by Gandhi who did publicly give up some of his own material comforts for the cause.

Many in Modern India assert that Gandhiji was a feminist. However I truth has more shades of gray and I can see the shrewdness of Gandhiji. He was fighting with Britishers for Indian identity and right to be ruled by one's own self. That was the TRUTH as he interpreted it. That was the TRUTH that gave him energy to do what he needed to do. He did realize that fight for the TRUTH was long and arduous battle and to win, he needed support of the masses.

He probably wondered if British would attack unarmed women in public. His ruse worked. He rapidly gained support of Indian woman. He continued working on with progressively mild mannerisms and thought provoking speeches.

Once women supported Gandhiji, many Indian men followed. So, there is certain truth in arguments that Gandhiji favored women over men to serve his ends, it can hardly be labelled as Feminism. Gandhiji was not exploiting Women to rule India. He certainly was not deploying Divide and Rule Policy over Genders. For most part, his desire was to prevent Britishers from using Divide and Rule Policy between Hindu and Muslims.

It is misrepresentation to call Gandhi's viewpoints on women as feminism. Most Women that surrounded Gandhiji were not seeking what modern feminist seek nowadays.

Gandhi with all his shortfalls were did correctly foresse that the TRUE India lived in its villagesand wanted progress to think of villages first. I do not even know what Gandhi had in mind.

Right to rule the Freed India went straight to Pandit Nehru. As if honoring the ancient traditions of monarch, it has more or less stayed within that family. Unfortunately for Indians, Divide and Rule Policy that was supposedly booted out with Britishers sneaked back in into Indian Politics.

PM Pandit Nehru in his policies consciously or unconsciously took refuge in British thimking and continued to create nation along the path that was already set out by Britishers. He was the probably the most influential Indian who was Indian in appearance and British in thinking. I've come up with a term "BROWN GORA" to describe such people. Not long ago, I was also one of them. (Now I do not know how to classify myself)

By focusing on British model of Urban Zones for Industry and few other thoughts predominantly derived from west, Pandit Nehru encouraged creation of many excellent educational all over India. Seeds were sown in converting modern India into a factory that supplied skilled and unskilled workers in all field and in all price ranges.These institutes still continue to sprout even today.

Thus, PM Nehru reused Divide and Rule Policy thus giving birth to Urban and Rural Divide. Division of Rich and Poor. Division of Indians who learnt British way of thinking versus those who did not. All those who were prepare to learn British ways prospered gradually turning into Brown Goras while those who refused went downwards.

Most Indians who resisted Britishers did start learning from Brown Goras what they had resisted from Britishers. Indian culture and values that so valiantly resisted against 200 years of British rule eroded extremely fast. In an desperate attempt to be prosperous, Rural India has graciously given ground to Brown Goras.

The Irony of this is apparant and totally in-your-face when you visit religious places such as Vrindavan.
All locals are walking around in Pants and Shirt or TShirts, while all foreigner neo-Vaishnavites from all over the West are parading with shaved heads, shikha, tilak, Dhoti and Kurta.

Barring few notable exceptions, all Congress leaders have continued the model of converting India into nation that supplies manpower as its core identity in the world. India has continued to morph into nation of skilled workers.

With supply being so much higher than the demand, trend of brain drain emerged. Skilled Workers set eyes on USA, UK and other western countries while semi skilled and unskilled workers opted Gulf or any other countries. People in Rural India aspired to move to Indian urbania for exactly identical reasons.

Tenacity, Resourcefulness, Intelligence, Workmanship of Migrant Indians continues to be well respected wherever they go. Indians in USA are generally more affluent relative to an American. Biharis in Mumbai are generally more tenacious than Maharashtrian. Maharashtrian in Gujarat is often better off than people in his immediate strata.

I too was one of them. I too was product of modern India that was created by Pandit Nehru and I did cross the Rich and Poor divide only to realize that there is one more layer below it.

Were it not for Divorce, I would have never thought about all this. I was happy that I was on the sunnier side of Pandit Nehru's Divide.

As I now realize how this divide and policy that was started long before I was conceived affect me so much, I sit wondering what does it mean for rest of my life.

I do question myself how much of Indian I still am.

How many Indians are still left?

More Important, What does it mean to be an Indian?

Is this blog worthwhile or should it chucked into electronic blackhole?