The Saffronisation of Hope
The Greek Philosopher, Epictetus, one I revere for his high morals and ethical philosophy wrote, “True education, consists in recognizing that there is only one thing that belongs to an individual fully — his will, or purpose.” And it is this will and purpose that embodies the ethical framework of our very existence.
As India rejoices on it’s 72nd Republic Day in what is a sobering time in world history, the sudden emergence of the tricolor at every bend and on every building today must also reveal the farcical patriotism and nationalism that this nation has been subjected to in the past few years.
The Founding Fathers in 1947 had a choice: one, to create out of poverty, illiteracy and no firm international ties, a country whose foundation would rest on the principles of liberty, equality, fraternity, secularism and social justice, a country that would metamorphose in a short time to rise to the occasion, and be at par with the rest of the world; or they could give birth to the idea of a nation whose present and future would be steeped in bigotry, pseudo-nationalism and hyper-patriotism, an offshoot of bloody communalism. Needless to say their buccaneering expedition in shaping the country rested on moral courage, and a collective power of discernment, one that was far higher than many who succeed them in office today.
Every year, the Republic Day is a commemoration of the valor and strength of our Armed Forces, a sign of sacrifice for the highest political good. It is also an annual reminder of the inception of the instructive interposition adopted as The Moral Right laid out in black and white in the world’s longest political document: The Constitution of India.
This seemingly large treatise that binds human to human and human to nation is a political document that delineates the ethical edifice of this country. It fortifies what is morally true, right and just.
The concerns of the fate of democracies throughout the world have only increased exponentially in the last few years. In India however, with the absence of a single common thread whether in terms of language, color, culture, custom and tradition, and hitherto with a dim but uncertain light to guide, the onus of protecting the Ethical Right is leveraged still further. It is “We” the people who are vested with this responsibility.
History will recall this episode as one where India slowly stepped into the Dark Ages with a pandemic on one side and the darker force of discrimination and partisanship on the other. As I write this, the world is witnessing the use of lathis and tear gas on unarmed farmers, the source of our sustenance, as their cries for help are met with admonition.
Instead of calling on another Head of state to take the R- day salute only to be met with rejection, could we not have saved our honour and instead bestowed this right on a farmer; who like the white of the canvas is the soul of this nation’s existence, ever present and yet carefully hidden by the chaos of color. Then again, what really is the color of discrimination today?
It is here I must appeal to the reader’s conscience; You may be the saffron, green or white in the flag but is the saffron in you, ready to acknowledge the white in me or the green in another? Are you and I ready to meet on a level playing field without fear or favour?
Our lives are symbols of hope to a new generation growing in an unsuspecting world. They do not know what the colors of secularism look like because while a half of them lay injected with saffron pride, the other half were infused with the yellow of fear of abandonment.
Must we live in a country whose present is yet to learn lessons from those that defined many a country’s facist past? Are we to pay reluctant obeisance to the saffron that seeks to unite India by dividing it in splinters first? Will the lacerated hearts and the lamentations of the unheard majority allow our conscience to be at peace?
The question remains, Are our politicians able to eat their morsel knowing fully well that the provider marches naked in the cold? Are we celebrating the fall of India from grace or the gradual ethical decline of our contemporaries?
What really are You celebrating today?
The Saffron against the White has been an ongoing war, a war that seeks to criminalise peace. India has become the struggle of indiscreet manifestations of zeal: Saffron fundamentalism. The rainbow of 1.3 billion colors and shades brought with it fraternity and brotherhood. Now now more. The shade of Hope has changed as there remains a bitter angst, the crimson of chaotic cheer. The confluence of colors has been replaced by one that now believes it is time to claim an atonement of the remissness of the past, a past where any signs of saffron were once interminably expelled. Reclaiming its place in the world has not been easy.
The black and white of Justice is now slave to the greys of moral turpitude. The scales have tilted this time to remind us that a woman’s dignity will be compromised, where a jester will be held prisoner in anticipation of a jocular moment that may never happen. The blindfold has just been tightened; truth must wait. It must be hidden under the bushel for as long as it can while scores are crucified for futuristic crimes that would work well in the plot of a well-written piece of fiction; for that is what we are living today; the pages of India’s unwritten story where the crown jewel of this country languishes without internet for fear of the unknown.
If we fail to reclaim this country through logic and reason and remain subservient to the forces of intolerance, the Preamble may soon read,
“We the People of India, solemnly resolve to cave in to a political largesse that pre-empts a behaviour of conformity to uniformity, to constitute India into a large saffron blob on the world map with few friends and fewer countries to respect the glory we once shared with the world, as we led from the front under Nehru, Gandhi and Patel, and secure
Persecution: to it’s minorities both subtle and overt
Imprisonment: for Entertainment both present and future
Intolerance against voices of reason
Strenuous ardor for prosecution of those who stand for the true, right and just
Where the temple, mosque and church will determine the degrees of inequality we experience
In this intemperate assembly of narrow-mindedness, we do hereby adopt the policy of silence, the policy of appeasement and the policy of complacency, that our families may not be judged and damaged and our voices may not be permanently silenced. It is on this background that we forgive ourselves for not remaining slaves to our conscience and instead choosing unwisely to descend into indifference and oblivion.
For those whose head and heart is in the right place, you will by now realise that this is in many ways a reality that like a dormant volcano which has been infused with new life is waiting to explode.
May the Next Republic Day truly give us fresh reason to lift our head with pride as we look to the Everest of Opportunities that this country is yet to scale. May we truly have reasons to “celebrate.”
