You know, the more I think of this line (both, the simplistic and forced narrative as well as the false dichotomy aside) the more it seems as if it would be equally believable coming from a Pakistani liberal, where they have fetishised the Army in the late 1950s itself, around 60 years before we started down the same path. Why do we want to be like them? They are hardly the shining beacon of civilisation and/or democracy that anyone would strive to live in. But how close have we Indians come to becoming like them, if we already haven’t that is? And how soon before we surpass(?) their ‘achievements’ in glorifying the armed forces at the cost of democracy and its symbols, ending up just like them, with even liberals focused only on ‘social’ issues without tackling the elephant in the room (worshipping at the altar of the Olive Green) head-on? Or have we crossed the point of no return? Is there no hope now?
The real tukde-tukde gang are these people. They want to turn India into a Pakistan, millennia of syncretic civilisation into a mono-culture, Hinduism into an Abrahamic religion (in a land where the people of the book are also more open-minded and tolerant than the book itself asks them to be, perhaps because of the syncretic nature of the civilisation or shared history or whatever other reasons), democracy into a monarchy (and eventually a military dictatorship; if you have ever had a few drinks with some of these ‘educated’ Indians who crave for one, you’d know exactly what I mean), science into cow dung, mythology into history, and all our dreams, passions, and aspirations to rise to become more prosperous, civilised, and evolved to take place amongst the First World into some sort of angst against not getting our due for claiming to have discovered everything a million years ago, frustration for not being called a Vishwaguru and superpower, and irritation for not been given a free seat the international table of economic, military, or diplomatic power, blaming our past, our neighbours, our fellow-citizens, our history, our geography, our education, the artists, the thinkers, the media, the farmers, the traders, the teachers, the foreigners, the migrants, the British, the Mughals, the Muslims, the Christians, the Dalits, the Brahmins, the Baniyas, and everybody except holding our own selves responsible for the condition we are in.
Truly, if India were to break up or slide into dictatorship tomorrow, those people who have been shouting about ‘Akhand Bharat’ and ‘Jai Hind ki Sena’ would be squarely responsible. These people are so obsessed with Pakistan that they want to become one as soon as possible. Without realising how they will end up is right there for them to see. And it is not a pretty sight.
For the record: Neither a hijabi woman is automatically my hero nor a uniformed Army officer. My admiration for people is contextual, and concomitant to their words and deeds, their intentions and expectations, their empathy and humanness, their sense of responsibility and duty, their morality and righteousness. Not what they wear to work. To paraphrase Batman, ‘It’s not who you are underneath the costume you wear, but what you do that defines you.’
