Obsessive middle class hypocrisy

If anybody with an educative and inquisitive mind goes through Indian history and philosophy, the self proclaimed 'wow' factor would be clearly visible. An age old mountain of traditional burdens, a closed society with unknown fear of unseen future and the incapability to accept the inevitable have been the hallmark of this so called great country and civilization. Indians take pride in their history, culture and what not. Anything and everything which is nostalgic has to have an Indian touch and if something is not praiseworthy it could never have an Indian link. My only question remains - whom are we fooling?

I have dwelt at length in one of my past blog about the double standards present in the Indian mythology and history. We always preach "Adwaita" and believe in twin theories. We have created 33 crores of deities and have told the world that everyone is same. Back home, we were the proponent of casteism and division of labor theory based on social rank. Sudras could not be equalled with Brahmans and they had a different set of deities to pray. Yet we proudly announced the supremacy of our bramhinical knowledge. To have such an open policy of flexible rule only shows our eagerness to maintain the status quo.

We projected women as source of power and used all kinds of heinous crimes to suppress them. We told god is neutral and clarified that he had to do certain things for safeguarding his favorite protege. Our roots have been in deep shambles of fractured verdict though we speak of unified language.

Politics, the next populist brickbat is another prime example. We have all types of political ideologies flowing like rivers and in the back office of power while they are talking of national project of river integration. Here, the left is more right than their opposition and the ruling capitalists fear more of the working class for votes. The rules at center and state are different for the same political party, the economics mean something to prime minister and something else to his cabinet, while the executives are a bunch of hypocrites saved only to follow the lords.

This leaves only citizens to be fair. To my best knowledge, I have never come across anyone (including yours truly) who is fair, justified and rational. A south indian hates north indians in Bangalore but couldn't do without them in Gurgaon. East always believed that they were the unluckiest lot post independence, but never thinks of improving them on their own. Everybody wants industry, but exactly only at those locations where they think would best suit them. Indians say that materialistic world is to be denounced yet when it comes to decide social status money remains the sole deciding criteria. We are ready to discuss what Buddha or Christ did wrong but are not open for discussion about retrogressive hindu laws. We think politics couldn't be in isolation to religion but are opposed to theory if the religion is not Hinduism. We easily criticise Bill Clinton but shudder to even think about such things regarding some of our dear national leaders.

The time has come for the referendum. For the people to think and think from their heart. To come out openly and unequivocally about what they want. If they want a progressive country then north and south has to speak the same language, west has to embrace the qualities from east. We cannot remain indecisive and ask for a decisive verdict from the political class. After all they are only the public manifestation of the society at large.

A decision about whether we need a rule or prefer anarchy to suit our individual needs is the call of the hour.