LEND ME YOUR EARS ... 1

LEND ME YOUR EARS ... 1

Can you never think of anything beyond castigating Gandhi and Nehru, and, some of you, the communists or the Muslims, even if the post demands a treatment otherwise? Is this fixation reasonable or is it worthwhile or does it conduce to national well-being in any manner beyond exposing your stupendous shallowness and cowardice in terms of aligning ever with the established order, a feature which has been the bane of our erstwhile struggle against British servitude when a great many sided with the authorities to mow down the revolutionaries who sought to free the motherland?

I find it curious, this peculiar, perverse reaction to almost every post in some of the readers who make it a point to drive home their specific agenda in prejudiced terms irrespective of whatever the content of the post may be. They scant care to study the material on offer and rush in to place their perverse observations that, more often than not, have no bearing on the material content of the posts. It seems that Facebook offers them a platform where they can rant as they like, devoid of reasonable restrictions or restraint in terms of contextual relevance.

I find this equally very strange that a vast section of the polity should be so divided today along communal lines, and so explicitly so, that it leaves no room for amity or social cohesion or fraternal feelings between fellow countrymen, now deemed noxious neighbours, and that there should be such an increasing absence of that wonderful virtue of tolerance or, even better, that glorious attribute of acceptance that is unique in our Sanatan Dharma and has historically permeated the vast polity over millenia of mass diffusion. Harmony among the various sections of the polity, that ought to be the adornment of a civilised society, is evaporating by the day as Muslims keep clamouring for the rights of the Muslims and Hindus of a perverted kind keep ranting against them, ever citing historical instances of violation at their hands. The same scenario, and much worse, affects the Hindu minority in Pakistan and, sadly, in Bangladesh as well where I shudder to behold such filth levelled against the Hindus online that I can but wish these nations well that they may recover some day from such perpetration of social violence.

What horrifies me most is that so very frequently I find human beings irrational to the point that makes them utterly devoid of sanity in peaceful times. What better may then be expected of them when the situation, for whatever reason, comes to the boil? Are not the seeds of war sown during times of apparent peace? Consider these, my friends, before you cast your irresponsible and corrosive comments against the seminal greats who have brought you through thick and thin to where you stand today. Perhaps, they have not performed to your expectations. It then becomes binding on you to participate in the reconstruction process of society along peaceful lines instead of merely ranting your voice hoarse against perceived past injustices perpetrated in your opinion over which you have now no hold better than to improve upon such through your labour of love.

One more thing. Hindus and Muslims compose such a vast section of our society that they can ill afford to do without each other. We must, therefore, learn to love each other, come what may, consciously and without a tinge of weakness, respectfully and without yielding an inch in personal cultural conviction that could enforce conversion from the Hindu to the Muslim, and we must learn thereby how to live together in mutual acceptance and amity.

These affirmations of mine will be gleefully accepted by the liberals of expansive viewpoint but will be dismissed, I fear, by the bigoted of narrow convictions. What is needed is mutual trust and what better way to arrive at it than by the Muslims to stop converting the Hindus to their creed instead of picking faults alone with the government of the day which to popular Muslim perception is pronouncedly anti-Muslim. Sri Aurobindo had once said that unless the Muslims stopped converting the Hindus in India, peace between the two communities could never be and it is well worth remembering the sage's suggestion by the Muslims in this regard.

But that is no reason why an entire polity today has gone berserk to redress actual and imagined grievances in foolish, futile manner rather than in reasonable terms that could solve apparently intractable issues. Hence, my fervent plea to one and all, Hindus, Muslims, Christians et al, that all of you be civilised in social living, respectful to your neighbour at close quarters or at a distance and peaceful in every endeavour, even where it concerns blood-boiling issues, for in peace alone lies the well-being of the country and the flourishing of its future civilisation which is the cherished dream of all patriotic Indians, I suppose. Those that will not fall into line, that is, observe the code of national honour as enshrined in our Constitution, will be laid by the wayside by their own indulgence. For such a retribution to take place, please do not scratch your heads or pull your precious hair. History takes its own course and will deliver justice to each as to his deserving. This is an inviolable truth and will as yet come to pass as it has happened with unfailing precision in the past.

So, onward unto helpful, healthy, cooperative living and unto the task of rebuilding the unity of our fractured motherland. She deserves no less from her children. Right now you are disappointing her. Now do so no more.

Vande Mataram ! Jai Hind !

Written by Sugata Bose