Oh India!

I guess India was founded on ideals that were too lofty, too idealistic and unsustainable in the long run. I mean there is probably no other nation in the world which has been forged together with such disparate groups whose interests are so different, and at most times antagonistic to each other. Probably, the Balkanization of India is inevitable. We can only pray that it doesn't happen in our lifetime, because it is guaranteed to be messy, bloody and chaotic!

Lets accept it, the concept of India as a nation is only 60 years old. There has never existed an Indian nation, ever in the history. There have been empires of Ashoka, the Mughals, the Marathas etc., but there has never been an India, united in mind, or in body. Hindu nationalists point towards the great empire of Shivaji's descendants, who united India, 'from Attock to Cuttack', as they say. This was barely a state, with warlords ruling and with the local populace having no common cause with the plundering, ravaging raids of the Maratha army. The Mughal empire united the entire subcontinent, but the overwhelming majority remained hostile to the rule of outsiders, whose customs and rituals, they could never relate to. British India, was never even a state. It was a patchwork of territories occupied by cunning Britishers, fiefdoms and despotic kingdoms.

The concept of India or Akhand Bharat, personified by Bharat Mata, came to the fore only at the time of Independence. Fanned by Congress and Hindu nationalists alike, it succeeded in laying the foundation of the concept of the Indian nation, but antagonized the Muslims, many of whom eventually seceded from what they perceived would be Hindu hegemony. And thus was born India, for the first time in history- divided by caste, creed, religion, customs and what not, United, only by its recent struggle for independence.

The moth eaten India (unlike the envisaged Akhand Bharat) could endure for eternity if the ruling political classes chose to 'Put India first'. But they chose to put the interests of their vote banks before the nation. So you have Mayawati, courting the Dalits, bringing disgrace to Babasaheb Ambedkar's legacy that she proclaims to uphold, you have Narendra Modi, who, till a few years ago, was spewing venom against the Muslims, you have Rahul Baba, who sometimes woos Muslims, and sometimes woos Dalits- Well whatever gets him a seat in UP! This race of politicians, united in their rejection of the idea of India has threatened the very existence of the nation.

The Assam violence and the corresponding flight of North easterners should not be viewed as an isolated event. Along with instances such as the Gujarat riots, the flight of the Kashmiri Pandits, the anti-sikh pogrom etc.,  it threatens to tear this nation apart. For whatever be the ideals, lofty, idealistic or unsustainable, this nation has endured for 60 years! It has given hope and opportunity to millions. India is already surrounded by a string of failed states on all sides. Look at what their leaders have done to their people, what abject misery those populations have been reduced to. For all its shortcomings and structural fallacies, India needs to endure. There is no other alternative.