Growing up in a small village, I never realized as a kid how diverse we in India really are. My idea or the definition of diversity was limited to the video clips shown on Delhi Doordarshan, specially around the Independence/Republic Day celebrations, with tag lines like ‘Unity In Diversity’. I gladly accepted the fact (myth) that we are all united irrespective of being so diverse, especially when I saw the National Television vouching for the same.
Growing up as a kid is not easy. When you are young you make some perceptions and believes about various things around you. Some of them actually turn out to be as you had perceived them to be, while others do not fit the bill and you begin to question yourself and your believes: why is that boy with hair tied on his head and a turban on is yelled at as ‘oyae sardar 12 baj gayae’ or some other guy as ‘abae bihari idhar aa’ ?
As I moved around different states (3 precisely) for education purposes at various levels, I came across people from all spheres of life, from all parts of India, all haling from far flung areas, all speaking different languages, all having different customs and culture and yet all Indians. Every person has got some grudge or the other against people from different states within India - while locals in a South India town think that the students from North India are spoiling the culture by their way of living, people from East India are rarely considered Indians and are often mistaken for being Chinese or Nepalese by just about every one else.
While people in the far Northern state think themselves to be more a part of our Neighbor country , people in South India make their anger or frustration known to all others by not learning the National language at all and prefer to communicate with everyone in their local language, does not matter if you understand a word or not.
While every Punjabi is blamed for having earned India a bad name internationally by settling in every nook and corner of the world except off course the North Pole, Punjabis do not miss an opportunity to point their fingers at Gujaratis for their way of living.
While people from different states think it is worth the effort to demand a country of their own, others find it worthwhile to vandalize/torture whatever comes their way so that they do not have to give water to some other state.
Unity in diversity???
I would love to see some of that for sure.
February 29th, 2008 at 3:09 pm
I agree with some of the points you have raised in your article her but I would like to suggest that you forgot to mention positive sides of dynamic and diverse India. I agree on this that it is hard to view unity in diversity when we see people from different states pointing their fingers or building negative images of each other within their mind, But If you would really look in the beauty of Unity that still lies in the heart of our wonderful country you would include some positive things in your article about diversity. There is great diversity in our tradition, manners, habits, tastes and customs. Each and every region of the country portrays different customs and traditions. But though we all speak different language yet we are all Indians ‘Unity in Diversity’ has been the distinctive feature of our culture. I agree some people always blame other states and always there to make issues and criticize other states or regions in India but these are those people who never understood the meaning of national integration. One who blames point his fingers on other person for wrong doing or changing the local culture of a region is simple a looser. What Raj thakery has done recently is an attempt to destroy unity in diversity and leaders like him are doing nothing for the country they are just dividing the nation and trying to change the opinions of civilized Indians all over the world.
Enjoy
Tarun Dhalwal
March 13th, 2008 at 2:25 pm
I am interested in seeing that too. so if you see it, pass the word
March 28th, 2008 at 2:35 am
i don’t agree with you in all the points especially that joke part on the basis of cast.
these were simply Jokes .And if you pass the time with other person then thesecomments are not a great trouble to be worried about
April 4th, 2008 at 12:07 am
Aditya,
You don’t have to agree to anything I have written, it is just one side of the coin, there sure is another that I did not focus on this time.I do not intend to belittle India by any means what so ever.
You are entitled to your opinion, and I am to mine.
August 30th, 2008 at 5:24 pm
look, u have written it in such a manner that anybody reading it will believe that u r right. but i was not impressed.
to start with i am a student studying in south. i dont find people neglecting people from north as i am one. so u better come here and see the condition.
August 30th, 2008 at 8:05 pm
Hey, inderjaate thats a nice article and i was seraching thais content for my essay. on what other website can i find such nice aritcles?
September 1st, 2008 at 12:32 am
Sajal,
This blog entry is based on my experiences, you might not have experienced anything like this yourself but I can count few incidents just from the top of my head and again, as I mentioned earlier
“..it is just one side of the coin, there sure is another that I did not focus on this time.I do not intend to belittle India by any means what so ever.”
September 1st, 2008 at 12:39 am
Abdul,
Google would be a good place to start looking for any information you want.
happy googling
October 6th, 2008 at 10:37 pm
Very nice posting, It is very interesting.
Thanks