Communal Harmony

I think I must be very frank in stating that I felt a dram of reluctance when I came across this topic at first. To me it seemed that oodles of things have hitherto been written about this topic till date and there is nothing new to write about this passé topic. But on second thought I was haunted by my pangs of conscience. Truely a lot has been said about this topic but the question remains as to whether this genre of writings has contributed to solving of this looming dark cloud of ominous doom that presently hovers over our country at the micro level and over the world at the macro level. But why are we ruffling our feathers over such an issue? Why is it so relevant for our present times? Let us discuss.

As we all know the core criterion for a country’s national integrity is its communal harmony and especially for a country like ours where oodles of people of different caste creed and religion live in unison, maintaining a delicate balance amongst various such kaleidoscopic communities is the bare necessity for the smooth functioning of our country. But is it not already well established in our country, otherwise how could it have run for such a long period of time? Well the matter is not so simple to draw a conclusion about. If we pan our vision we will see that at the nook and corners of our country are popping up some anti communal forces who work silently, almost imperceptibly, to break the very integrity of our nation. They of course are masqueraded criminals disguised as political leaders of god men. They percolate into the very fabric of the society and like cancer spoil the very essence of brotherhood the vital aspect of national integrity. They however evade the vices of law and continue to wreck havoc. The result is very clear to us. Kashmir, Gujarat in India and the war between the Muslim countries and the others are all due to communal disharmony. But what is the solution to this menacing problem?

Jawaharlal Nehru in his famous book, DISCOVERY OF INDIA mentioned that one must make the people of India at first think that they are Indians at the prime most and later Hindus or Muslims or Sikhs then and only then can we work towards communal harmony. To achieve this target according to him one must make the people of the country literate extensively so that they shed their gullible nature and thus do not become the victims of propaganda.

The above discussion boils down to a conclusion that lack of adequate information, zonal bias by ruling parties, illiteracy, poverty and many other such causes are primarily responsible for communal disharmony. Thus no amount of law or military activities can curb such social degradation until and unless the matter is tackled from the roots. It is high time that the think tanks of our country and of the world bring their ideas together and work in unison to uproot the devil from its roots.