Jai Telangana or Jai Hind !
01 January 2010, Hyderabad (India)

2010 started for me at Hyderabad this time – a time when the city is at the heart of a serious crisis on the issue of a separate state of Telangana. A ride through the city streets a few hours into the new year made me see young men fill the air with cries of Jai Telangana all around. The standard greeting of ‘Happy New Year’ was substituted here with this new ‘war-cry’, so to say. It was not just the supporters of the cause who participated in this hullabaloo, but neutral outsiders like me too were forced to share the solidarity by yelling a Jai Telangana, lest we were blocked and gheroed by an angry mob of drunken men who can hardly be expected to acknowledge the fundamental rights I enjoy of personal liberty and freedom of movement.

The above incident hardly took a few moments and I was only too happy to be back safely in my room. But a recap of the forced solidarity that I was made to show made me wonder if in this country it is essential for people to conform to or to be biased to a particular ideology or philosophy? Whether is it essential that one needs to support a cause, be loyal to a religion or reverent to a culture only because ones kinfolk support it, are loyal to it or respect it?

I appreciate the noble ideals that our great Constitution upholds and the virtue with which this country has been built up after its independence by a resolute determination of its men and women. I am appreciative of the diversity in food, dance forms, language and physical appearances that this country has to offer. But what I am ashamed and embarrassed about is the parochial thinking of its present citizenry and more so of its leadership. An Indian today does not have the privilege of enjoying a one single brand identity of being an ‘Indian’. Rather, he is saddled with the burden of being a Gujrati, Bengali, Behari, Punjabi.................. the lumber of being a Jaat, Dalit, Brahmin, Kshatriya, Bania and the weight of being Muslim, Christian, Sikh or Hindu. Add to this the hundreds of sub classifications, cataloguing and combinations we have been ingenious in devising on the basis of our dialects, customs in social life, dressing styles and food habits; and what I get to see is anything but a united Indian identity. So when every time I hear a Jai Telangana over a Jai Hind it is nothing but a reminder of a dangerous under-current brimming in this country that is ready and waiting to draw lines across any imaginable and unimaginable facet of our diversity.

We present generation Indians will do a great service to ourselves and our future Indians by opening our minds and hearts to accept ourselves as a one composite unit and take pride in that alone; than bask in the parochial glory of our so too dear gotra, kasba, mazhab or jaat. The world looks upto India today as a powerhouse to drive the global economy. Our success lies in behaving and presenting ourselves as one strong unit. A Telangana or a Purvanchal or a Gorakhland will do much better for themselves in a stronger internal India than a fragmented union of underperforming regions overflowing with a mass of population already divided on social lines.

Jai Hind and Happy New Year!