“Before a downfall the heart is haughty, but humility comes before honor”. Proverbs 18:12
What is Nation without its people? what is a nation without its voice? what is a nation without its freedom? what is a nation without its justice? The idea of a community begins in the heart of the people who make the choice to live together under a common good, the idea of a nationhood begins when communities putting aside their differences to come and work together for common good. It is on this basis nations and unions are formed across the globe. There is nothing called a perfect union, because its a union of imperfect people, but nationhood is only possible when people are willing to move towards a perfect union. Any politics that doesnt take a nation towards a perfect union, carrying along every section of that union fails in its integrity to leadership. The foundation of any union is possible when everybody involved in it seek or desire that union. If its not sought then it will not be realized. Somebody like me would question the big deal being made out of the idea of nationhood, but I wouldn’t neglect the logical necessity of it.
There are only few countries in this world which has been shaped and reshaped like the Indian Sub-Continent. No Nation is as diverse as India. It is like a colourful art with various cultures and languages, like an Icecream with its multiple flavours, like a garden with its variety of flowers, like a fish market with different kind of voices. A mini world I can say. India is a wonder in world’s eyes, with all its faulty lines, its truly a miracle to beckon.
A dessert drink called Falooda is very famous in India . It has these multiple layers of Takmariya, vermicelli,jelly, rose syrup, ice cream, nuts and cherry on the top. Usually they give a long spoon to penetrate every layer so that every bite would have the representation of all these layers, which gives its mixed taste and they serve it in a large cup. India is like this large cup of falooda. It has a history of a great ethnic and cultural mix through many centuries. Many have invaded this land for power, trade and for so many other reasons, these invasions and interactions shaped the identity of the Nation which is today a multi-dimensional union. Every experience and experimentation it went through holds together like the cup of Falooda, its tasty because of its diversity. May be its not literally a total sweet experinence of that of tasting a falooda, the nation has seen both its best and worst times in history, but the purpose of the union is much greater than digging a falooda. Its a positive nation through various changes still resolved to be one under the constitution of India.
The Constitution of India begins with the words ‘We the people of India’. It foundationally defines what the Nation of India stands for, it stands for the people of this nation, without its people , the nation is as dead as a Rock.
The Recent happenings in India has really caused deep hurts in our society. Its a symptom of a disease which existed for a long time. Many communities have peacefully lived together all through the years , but political powers and the recent change in India’s political climate have unleashed its worst fears, its worst nightmares, its worst character. Many of the recent policies of the government made communities to feel victimized. This is uncalled for, but above all, the hatred seen in the speeches of those in the most responsible of positions makes us to conclude that we are not heading towards a right direction as a nation. No government is perfect, but if its not right, its simply not desirable.
The Violence across the Nation especially in New Delhi, the vision bed of India which has the responsibility to stand as an example of solidarity,dignity and model for the entire country is suffering in its orchestrated accident and is left to lick its wounds of chaos. If the constitution of the Nation is not fully realized in the capital of this country what signals of hope does the leadership wants to convey to the most vulnerable parts of this land? If the most loudest of voices can be silenced in fear what happens to the most feeblest of them?
The bigger conclusion aimed to be derived out of this script is not the definition of a nation, but the definition of the people we are becoming, the kind of humans we are shaping ourselves to be. This is not ‘You’ versus ‘Me’ problem, this is not ‘Us’ versus ‘Them’ problem, this is not a ‘Majority’ vs ‘Minority’ problem, this is not even ‘Government’ vs ‘Opposition’ problem. This is a ‘Good’ vs ‘Evil’ problem, this is ‘Right’ vs ‘Wrong’ problem. On the whole this is a moral problem we are facing in our communities. We are shaking hard the gates of hell thinking that its a theme park of extreme fun, we are destroying ourselves thinking that we are destroying others. If we don’t wake up now , we will sleep forever!
First of all, there is nothing called majority or minority in a democracy. This is one of the biggest perceptional problem we inherited casually.Everybody exists in their right to be humans and citizens, their freedom to choose their beliefs and express it through their lifestyle without causing trouble or pain to others is fundamental and pivotal to the health of any democratic nation. Majority should not be defined by numbers, so is the minority. ‘Majority’ should be defined by where truth is, where good is, where love is, where justice is. ‘Minority’ should be defined by where lies are, where hate is, where evil is, and where injustice thrives. Love builds any society, hatred destroys everything love has built. Love always has a future, hate never does. It has this supernatural ability to destroy even those who value and encourage it.
Im deeply saddened looking at the state of my country, the way my beloved fellowmen suffer. Strangely, I saw it coming. I believe every good heart bleeds, every righteous soul yearns for peace and brotherhood. In this time of extreme rush and emotions, I cannot help but think the state of the whole world. Normalizing hatred has become a trend in today’s politics, no more we are sensitive about our standards, no more we are desperate for a touch of humanity , no more we seek the truth of morality. Everybody wants to be drunk with the pride of false identity and deceptive power without having a remotest of concern about the consequences of hate. Remember people alone don’t have ideas, ideas too have people. It sweeps from one end to the other like the virus which kills and spreads like a wildfire to destroy. It has become casual nowadays in world politics to demean and demonize fellow human beings for the sake of power.
What’s more alarming to me is the trend in some nations of invoking Jesus Christ who is the symbol of Love and Justice for their hate agenda in politics, and many who profess Christ fall for it ,and many who belong to the Church very comfortably turn a blind eye towards hate mongering in the realms of power. I may not know the real problems every nation faces,but we all have to draw a line somewhere based on truth.One must not forget that the Church has the calling to be the conscience of the world, that we are ultimately under Christ’s righteous reign and are called to represent Christ Jesus. When we support hate, we become part of that hate and nullify God’s truth. It means we reject the call of Jesus Christ to be the salt and light of this earth, if salt loses its savour, how can it be useful? The world is watching,a hurting and broken world is in desperate need of the love of christ, if the Body of Christ fails to show up, it means we have lost our duty of leadership. How can we take the message of Love to the world ? What hope can we offer apart from unconditional love and compassion? If our politics is leading us to hate somebody, discriminate somebody, abuse somebody . Then its better to leave it, its not worth it. We cannot lose our higher calling for a cheap deal. We dont serve a political saviour, but the real saviour.
The Righteous Judge knows the heart of all mankind and will judge the nations in truth. We cannot afford to make the same mistakes of the past, lets not be biased with our standards. Even human history will question our fairness if we reserve our morality just because it benefits us. Every nation has their own issues, but I had to talk about this since what happens in any other nation is certainly related in every sense to our nation. Most importantly, the body of Christ is universal. We should desire every government to do well for its people, we should look to support every good step they take. But we should be careful not to be used for the wrong, our faith should not be misused to hurt and mistreat somebody. It will make a mess out of our message of the Gospel, which is foremost a message of love and service for all humanity.
In the end all the governments of this world will fail its people and the world will yearn for one righteous kingdom with Christ as king. We cannot deny that all these we are seeing around is a sign of things to come. Yes, its towards a hopeful future.
Any society which doesnt desire listening, discerning and learning will stop growing, when we stop to grow we start to decay. India with so much poverty, with lack of basic infrastructure and various health crisis. We have so many fundamental problems in supplying human needs and achieving the goal of equal opportunity to everyone. When we had to go on the path of progress, we are going on the path of vanity. When we have to constitute a welfare state, we are becoming an identity based totalitarian state. The means of power is to uplift the poor, weak and the downtrodden. Is our focus really in the right place?
The conscience of a nation doesnt lie in sky scrapers, hi-tech technologies and monstrous defence systems. It lies in human hearts, it lies in the ability of its people to love one another beyond the differences. The conscience of a nation is shaped by the thinking, feeling and doing of its people. We are a mirror image of each other, we grow and fall together as a nation. This is everybodys blame, its not a time for pointing out the fingers at each other but a time to take collective responsiblity. First its time to say that we are hurt, we are sorry, and accept that we need a change first, that we need to become better. Thats where I think transformation starts. If we can’t accept the mistakes of the past , its hard for us to move towards a better future. If we dont rise up now and say enough to hate, it will come as a flood upon all of us, it will not see whether we are rich or poor, good or bad but consume all who stand in its way. Let the greatness of this nation be defined by how we treat the most least and vulnerable of us all. Its important to look at our fellow human being as the one created by the image of God. A house divided against itself will not stand, so is a nation! Imagine a nation as a whole body, if we are hating one another, we are actually damaging different parts of our own body.
Jesus threw this question to the powers of the world, and its more relevant to our times “What good will it be for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul? Or what can anyone give in exchange for their soul?” Matthew 16:26. We are not going to even take our own properties, even our own bodies when we leave this world. Just think how fragile life is?Then why we have to let pride and hate consume us, lets live for a better and higher purpose. Its wise to make the best out of this life and it is possible only through love and humility towards one another.
Aletheia 