Few words on the January 26, 2022, 73rd Republic Day of India.
(Being republished on January 26, 2024.)
On this day India celebrates the Republic day , hoisting of the Tricolour is seen from on the top of the Raisina Hills to on the thatched roof of a dilapidated mud building at a remote village club house. The people of India feel that they are at liberty and feel relieved that this portion of the earth , geographic India is their own. But when the celebration is going on some Gafur Minya (s) or Hari Bauri (s) are suffering from a pang of anxiety and insecurity for not being able to collect his Addar Card, or having lost in the recent cyclonic disaster the very old, yellowish piece of paper which was, his father used to tell , the deed of their mud-built house. This is the lone example of a slum in a metropolitan city. It is the tip of an iceberg. Millions of examples of such helpless people are to be found in slums, villages, low cottages (jhupries) along the Railway lines and about the station platforms. These people have been collecting for more than seventy years, since the pre- independence days , not only from East Pakistan , now Bangladesh, Pakistan but also from our neighbouring countries as Nepal, Bhutan, Sri Lanka , Myanmar and areas around North East and North West of India.
Now some serious questions arise. These neighbouring countries , once against the colonial rule and launched fight against the foreign imperialism , what prompted them to indulge in inviting and accepting communalism and sectarianism so furiously ? Specially and particularly India was so vast a country and nationalism, in India, was so enrooted and was growing up during pre- independence periods so intense that the imperialists of the West began thinking of a poisonous diplomacy to break this country by injecting the plan of two-nation theory. Otherwise, they thought, India would be similar to the USSR and China and in future and it could be impossible for them to dominate through imposing economic or commercial imperialism. Added to that, after the First World War , Europe too, was rapidly getting fragmented on the basis of sects, religions and languages . And there grew , more stronger than previous to, an idea of bizarre Nationalism. To quote Rabindranath Tagore,
"And the idea of the nation is one of the most powerful anaesthetics that man has invented. Under the influence of its fumes the whole people can carry out its systematic programme of the most virulent self-seeking without being in the least aware of its moral perversion -- in fact, can be dangerously resentful if it is pointed out."
This soul-annihilating anaesthesia was exported form the western countries and imported by some of the power-hungry and highly ambitious leaders of Indian subcontinent. And the irresistible consequences of two-nation theory was heartlessly experimented and applied resulting in bloody holocaust and displacement of millions of people from their hereditary homes. At the cost of such human sacrifice our glorious "Days --Independence day, Republic day" appeared and these historical Days being celebrated with pompous enthusiasm and honour.
It is not my intention to reiterate that history of shivering off a great land and those days, full of troubles and tribulations ; but the glimpses of the history of India before and during the days of Independence, are worthy of remembering to know that that self-invited curse we are still bearing on. Again cast and creed distinction, communalism , a crude and shroud idea of nation and nationality are seen being surfaced in such a manner that the country India will no longer be a peaceful Nest of the universal humanity. The historical concept of the 'universal humanity' , enriched and lulled by the great sons of India -- Swami Vivekananda, Rabindranath Tagore , Mahatma Gandhi , Bhagat Sing (the great revolutionary who has been ranked as a rival of Mahatma, ideologically) Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose, and thousands of such personalities, would be evanescent ; chaos will be reigning and soul-haunting Witches will be dancing "the dance of destruction", if poison of racism and religious communalism is once injected into the mind of man, the Inferno waits not far- away, and that we experienced several times before, during and after our Independence,
"Hell hath no limits, nor is circumscribed
In one self place ; for where we are is hell,
And where hell is there must we ever be."
(''Doctor Faustus'' , Christopher Marlowe.)
So-called development will be of no use. Therefore, my brothers and sisters of India as well as the neighboring countries around, let us judge every incident with conscience and by applying truth and heart-felt humanity.
Dulal Chandra Bandyopadhyay.
26th January 2024.
Kolkata.
.
Khub tottho purno ..
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