Tuesday, August 6, 2013

Telengana and Independence

Those who oppose Telangana's right for self determination are the same who opposed India's right for self determination at the turn of previous century. They are the same who forced treaties of accession on umpteen numbers of independent states. Those who take pride in externalities of society, in being associated with mighty and rich, in richness of language and culture, in the grand unified country, often support oppression of people and their democratic rights in the name of cultural superiority and pride of a being in a unified nation. Why independence at the first place if it doesn't get you the right to decide your life, your political road ahead. If people of the land do not possess the independence to decide whether they wish to be associated with the rulers or not, when the association is forced, then they are not independent in true sense.

Courtesy: Sikeaux
The basic social structure of a slave society still remains in India though we keep hearing the ego-inflating slogans of the biggest democracy. Our infatuation with riches and power of kingdom is tell tale. I wonder whether it's hereditary to be enslaved, to be proud of the master's greatness (to enslave us). You can see an overflow of pride on a face whose great great grandfather once had a chance to wipe some kings' ass, especially when he explains it to you. You cannot match that sense of pride even if you had written a bestseller or discovered a neutron star.

In a country half the world away, an Indian origin doctor happens to be involved with delivery of a so-called royal baby. The entire media body in India is delighted, almost like being blessed by the lord himself. We just fell short of calling it a national holiday. And this is when not a single doctor is ready to treat runny nose in rural India. I wonder whether India even deserves to gain sovereignty from Britain. Had we been proud of our independence, an Indian doctor serving those who once enslaved us would have made us ashamed, not proud. But alas we love liking white asses and belonging to the family of those who had done this during the Raj.

With our propensity towards kings and kingdoms, we cannot call ourselves democracy. Independence from Britain had merely given us a method to elect the knights and kings, to hold complete command over our lives and liberties. When we leave the decisions of what happens with people of Telangana, Kashmir, Manipur, Chhattisgarh on the elected knights and their collective decisions with complete disregard to what the people actually want, then we know where we belong.