United we stand, Divided we fall!!

India is my country and all Indians belonging to my caste are my brothers and sisters. I love my religion and I am proud of its rich and varied heritage. I shall always strive to be worthy of it, even if it is at the expense of other religions.
I shall give respect to my parents, teachers and elders and treat everyone with courtesy, provided they belong to the same caste, creed and religion as I do.
To my people and only my people, I pledge my devotion. In their well being and prosperity alone, lies my happiness.

Sounds a bit weird, doesn’t it? Well, welcome to the 21st century India, where people are not known by their talent or occupation, but by the caste or region they belong to! I vividly remember this particular story I had read as a kid. It was about this girl who was trying to break a bunch of 10 sticks. She tried a lot but was unable to do so. Then her elder sister advised her to untie the bunch and break the sticks one at a time. She was pretty successful in breaking those sticks subsequently. I don’t know how many of you remember this story. But, as most of our leaders have not studied beyond the first grade, they themselves know just this one story. The Britishers we so very much loathe for having ruled India for so many years have taught us one very important lesson. DIVIDE AND RULE!! And it is this very concept that our politicians are using in order to exploit the minor differences between us INDIANS.


According to Wikipedia [1] India is the most culturally, linguistically and genetically diverse geographical entity after the African continent. The total number of dialects in India is as high as 1,652. Over 800 million Indians (80.5%) are Hindu. Other religious groups include Muslims (13.4%), Christians (2.3%), Sikhs (1.9%), Buddhists (0.8%), Jains (0.4%), Jews, Zoroastrians, Bahá'ís and others. Tribals constitute 8.1% of the population. A country having this wide a spectrum of religions will obviously have its own share of minor clashes between the religions. But, in spite of these differences, we were one nation, one country, one INDIA. But off late, personal interests of these religious groups have substantially taken over the broader interests of the country. It is the age of “Survival of the fittest” [2], and in our country, survival of the fittest it is. Picture this, a traditional farmer, cannot take up a job as a laborer in spite of he not possessing any arable land. The reason – he belongs to the “group of farmers”, how dare he think of changing his profession? A bright young student is shooed away from a city where he has come to pursue his higher education. The reason – he belongs to a different region in India, how dare he think of relocating to a region that belongs to the locals?


We can’t blame our politicians and leaders for the sorry state of the country today. It is, we who have elected them, we, who blissfully ignored their shortcomings and we, who are fast becoming a part of this entire ideology of group-ism. If we were aware of our rights, our leaders, our laws and our constitution no person could have manipulated us to the extent that today in India we are almost at the brink of a civil war. For e.g. Article 19(1) [3] - d, e and g of the Indian constitution very rightly disproves the theory on which most of our leaders today are instigating regional imbalances. But, we are of those types of people, who like to party hard, ignorant about the situation in darker parts of the country. All we do is read the newspapers, read about the various tragic incidents in the country and shamelessly blame the government (read: politicians) for the same. We don’t realize how much strength we have as a union. The day we decide to be united and upfront about our love for the country, we will be a threat to many “developed” nations worldwide. We just lack the motivation and dedication required to do something good for the country. We just want to relax, listening to Pink Floyd play “Comfortably numb”. We don’t realize how numb we have become from inside. We want to accept things as they are. We don’t want to change!


It is time we sit up and take notice of the happenings, rather mis-happenings, around us. It is time we do much more than just sympathize. Things that are torturing your neighbor today might very soon be your plight. It is time we forget the minor differences that exist between us and come together for the greater cause. It is time we stop condescending and look at people as human beings. I know this utopian concept of unity, harmony and peace is easier said than done. But, in times of crisis situations like these, when the very safety of our motherland is at stake, when the internal enemies of our country outnumber the external ones, when peace and tranquility become extinct words, it is worth expending our efforts to bring about a very small change. It is time we all dig back into those school textbooks of ours and re-read the very pledge we solemnly agreed to fulfill everyday in our childhood. It is time we remember, “UNITED WE STAND, DIVIDED WE FALL”



[1] – www.wikipedia.org - Wikipedia is a free, multilingual encyclopedia project supported by the non-profit Wikimedia Foundation. Its name is a portmanteau of the words wiki (a technology for creating collaborative websites) and encyclopedia.
[2] – Survival of the fittest – It is the rat race between individuals or groups forever competing with each other in order to outdo the other. It is with reference to the actual “Survival of the Fittest” concept, proposed by Charles Darwin in his “Theory of Evolution”.
[3] - Article 19(1) - http://indiacode.nic.in/coiweb/fullact1.asp?tfnm=00%2022