Saturday, November 29, 2008

Marathi Manoos, Hindustani, or Just a Human on Earth

I stumbled upon an article in NDTV.com which apparently is month old and the issue has cooled down now, but anyway it excellently serves my purpose. Here is the article in original form:

"".... Yes, we all should support Raj Thackeray and take his initiative ahead by doing more...

  1. We should teach our kids that if he is second in class, he shouldn't study harder, just beat up the student coming first and throw him out of the school.
  2. Parliament should have only Delhiites as it is located in Delhi.
  3. Prime Minister, President and all other leaders should only be from Delhi.
  4. No Hindi movie should be made in Mumbai. Only Marathi movies must be made there.
  5. Buses, trains, flights should be stopped at every state border and staff should be changed to local men.
  6. All Maharashtrians working abroad or in other states should be sent back as they are 'snatching' employment from locals.
  7. Lord Shiva, Ganesha and Parvati should not be worshiped in our state as they belong to north (Himalayas).
  8. Visits to Taj Mahal should be restricted to people from Uttar Pradesh (UP) only.
  9. Relief for farmers in Maharashtra should not come from Centre because that is the money collected as tax from whole of India, so why should it be given to someone in Maharashtra?
  10. Let us support Kashmiri militants because they are right in killing and injuring innocent people for the benefit of their state and community.
  11. Let us throw all MNCs out of Maharashtra. Why should they earn from us? We will open our own Maharashtra Microsoft, MH Pepsi and MH Marutis of the world.
  12. Let us stop using cellphones, emails, TV, foreign Movies and dramas. James Bond should also speak Marathi.
  13. We should be ready to die hungry or buy food at 10-times higher price, but should not accept imports from other states.
  14. We should not allow any industry to be set up in Maharashtra because all machinery comes from outside.
  15. We should stop using local trains as trains are not manufactured by Marathi manoos and the Railway Minister is also from Bihar.
  16. Ensure that all our children are born, grow, live and die without ever stepping out of Maharasthra, then they will become true Marathis.
We need to make it clear once and for all, we are Indian first. Mumbai is Mumbai because it is a part of India......""

Source: www.ndtv.com

By this time, you must have been thinking what a great write up it is defining the soul of Indian integrity and that a state is meaningless without the country. True. Indeed it is a great article not just because it provides insight into Raj Thackeray's so-called hate politics or divide and rule politics (doesn't politics itself mean divide and rule). This article also serves as a template to understand another important phenomenon. Now do a small exercise. Re-read the above article again, but whenever you encounter words related to the concept of "Maharashtra," replace it with "India" and replace the concept of "India" with "world." Then, the last line would read as follows:
We need to make it clear once and for all, we are world citizen first. India is India because it is a part of the world.
You may replace India with United States, Pakistan, France, or Somalia. Yet the results are same. But we have never been taught that neither in school nor by the media. Why? Because this kind of thought is called ANTI-NATIONAL. Unfortunately, the common sense is also not that common for us to have our own opinion on such issues. The government of different nations have been doing the same thing what Raj intends to do, divide and rule, but it is given a different name, patriotism. If it is in the best interest of a state to be united with the country, then I believe IT IS IN THE BEST INTEREST OF A COUNTRY TO BE UNITED WITH THE WORLD, ONE WORLD. I know patriotism and nationalism are touchy issues and many questions remain to be answered, but I cannot make this post endlessly long. I welcome questions, comments, and criticism. More information about the concept of one world can be found in www.garrydavis.org.
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3 comments:

  1. u have nicely put in a piece of my brain on this subject.. all these divisions are man made.. a patriot for one country is a terrorist for other.. its all at the level at which u percieve...

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  2. Even I believe the same , get United with the world. But as the world is divided and ruled as countries person is identified and recognised by his/her nationality. So it is nice to be proud to be about our country. It does not mean that we should separate our region/nation from others or hate others.

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    Replies
    1. I don't understand why should one be proud of one's country. A country is like a service provider. We have to judge whether we are getting the best services or not and not be in blind pride surrounding it.

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Creative constructive criticism is accepted and expected.