We are living in testing times with many sources of stress that take away from our mental bandwidth to recognize each other. Many will say that the central problem of our nation is its population, and many would argue that it is hidden in our politics - still others would mention corruption, the lack of infrastructure or quality education etc. as the key problems that the nation faces. We argue that a general lack of unity prevalent in our existing social structure tops them all. On one hand, we have built enviable military equipment such as the Agni, BrahMos, Chakra and have sent satellites in space, and yet, on the other hand, we still have undergraduate colleges in the twenty-first century that select students on the basis of religion quotas, and have caste-based matrimonial sites that consistently outperform the standard channels of matrimony. We have produced Olympic-winning badminton champions, and yet we take primary interest in their castes.
An interesting paradox is worth nothing here – we were ruled when we stood divided, and we choose to stay divided today even with the most suitable conditions for unity. Here are the facts – the inspirational story of Milkha Singh has reached us through Farhan Akhtar; go back a little in time, the Bollywood number Man tadpat Hari darshan ko aaj was sung by Rafi Sahab and Allah ka naam le was sung by Kishore Kumar; go back still further in time, sixteenth century Persian Muslim poet Raskhan wrote a Rachnavali (a collection of Hindi poems) in the praise of Lord Krishna and Balmukund, Harichand, Jagannath, and Brajmohan are a few Hindu poets who have praised Prophet Muhammad in their writings. Our country has also seen Muslim leaders in our former president APJ Abdul Kalam and in our former cricket captain MAK Pataudi. We have also shown the potential to forget our differences each time Sachin Tendulkar walked into the field to perform. In Indian classical music, Hindu performers have frequently taken taaleem from mausiqi ustaads and Muslim performers have frequently taken sikshaa from sangeet gurus and pundits. Therefore, it cannot be denied that we have abundant sources of inspiration to forget our differences in ways that require being open to new paths as was embedded in the Vedantic ideologies that once prevailed in the land.
Many languages of our land have survived the tides of colonial rule unlike those in many other former colonies such as Brazil, where the Tupi and the Guarani languages have almost died down in the process of making way for Portuguese as the new language of the land. Our familial ties continue to remain stronger than other nations that have observed the curse of economic growth.
The reality of India is that, within the last few years, new states have emerged, breaking free from larger land units (in contrast with Australia that has only six states despite being more than twice as large in area – and yes, there are no STD charges when you travel across states). Unity plays a very important role in the general progress of a nation. An environment of unity is one that builds mutual trust. Trust is important even at the most fundamental level of human involvement – the more one is able to trust others with their tasks, the lesser things one individually has to worry about. With unity, people are tolerant enough to engage in discussions with conflicting opinions. These discussions facilitate the identification of areas for improvement and a willingness to facilitate necessary changes in one’s own ways. Eradication of many social evils, for example, requires a common consciousness (or an equivalent unification of sentiments) toward an understanding of good from bad. For example, we have together pre-empted polygamy through the Hindu Marriage act in the past and have eliminated triple talaaq very recently. However, we still need to come together to solve the dowry problem; the security issues in most of the North-Eastern states; the river water disputes among almost all the Southern states; the canal water issues between Panjab and Haryana; et cetera. Clearly, there is a long way to go (e.g. we need to collectively think about how to make the Dowry Prohibition act work better). At the end of the day, unity should be a drive from within, and not driven by the presence of external threats (such as that of a war with China). We, the authors of this article, have come together to remind you all that unity is the need of the hour, and that we are capable of achieving it. We recognize that even between us authors, one can define a divide on the basis of gender, religion, community, geography, language, and politics … or one can just think about the message that we’ve just put forward!
Subrato Banerjee (Australia India Institute, University of Melbourne) and Bushara Bano (Aligarh Muslim University)