Bharat Mata ki Jai

Sitting at a friend’s place on a weekend night, I entered into a discussion about the latest political happenings around the country. Amid all the talks, there came this dialogue: say “Bharat Mata Ki Jai” if you are an Indian and a true patriot.

I felt happy that many of our generation, and specially the educated lot, are so attached to this country that they feel proud in hailing Bharat Mata. I also assumed that since they are so patriotic, they will do whatever possible to analyze the problems we are facing as a society and economy and solve them and take India to great heights, which I used to think patriotism was all about.

However, I could not get answers to some of the questions which were stuck in my mind.

We have always been talking about corruption as the biggest menace facing the society. We condemn politicians for this and vote on the basis of promises of clean government. However, we ourselves indulge into corruption day in and day out. At the slightest opportunity, we don’t hesitate to give Rs 200 to those police wale bhaiya for not wearing helmets. As event managers in college life, we always do some fraud in funds. We also try to justify these things saying that the amount involved in politicians’ case is very huge. However, we have only 1000 odd politicians as against 120 crore aam aadmi. I wonder, if those 1000 people can only be blamed for this corruption. We are also equally responsible for this state. And this is hurting the Bharat Mata.

Ours has been a tradition of cleaning the whole house at the time of Holi and Diwali. We love cleanliness. We have separate slippers for outside of the house and inside and for washrooms and kitchens. Somehow, this cleanliness consciousness gets lost the moment we step outside the house. However, we will always blame the government for this, never thinking that it is also our responsibility not to spread litter over the Bharat Mata.

We have a tradition of respecting the women by deifying them in the form of Saraswati, Laxmi or Durga. However, the attitude in common life leaves a lot to be desired. While the name plate outside the homes is still named after the male, the only place where women’s name come before men’s is in wedding cards in the form of “Mrs. And Mr. ABC invite you to the wedding of ….”. There also the name of women is omitted and her only identity becomes that of Mrs. ABC. People of my generation would always take part in debates about women empowerment and suggesting steps how to go ahead with it, but till today, thanks to Facebook, I see the profile names of girls being changed after marriage with a nice display picture with husband. We always criticize dowry, but I wonder how many of us can guarantee that they will not take any form of dowry. I thought this one thing would be very close to the heart of Bharat Mata, she being a female.

Unity in diversity. That’s what we have been taught about India since childhood. It also feels good to praise about this aspect when in a debate or writing exams. But how much do we respect this in day to day life. We have a habit of finding some sort of social cleavage. Many people have been branded as anti-nationals in the recent period. But within the so called ‘nationals’, there are many divisions. When we meet a new ‘Indian’, we will first see if he is from North India or South India or North-East India (Chinese?). Then about which region, and assign the tag accordingly: Bihari, Jat, Marathi. If from the same region, then which religion? Then caste, subcaste. And till date we can here lines like “arey yeh ***** toh aise he hote hain”. And I must not repeat the divisions between Hindus and Muslims. Why are there so many stereotypes? Who created them? We. Do we try to remove them? No. Do we accept that we have to remove this? No. Do we acknowledge that these divisions hurt the social fabric? No. For things like corruption, we have netas to blame. What about these divisions? Who will take responsibility for this?

Blame game. That’s one game we have been playing since time immemorial. I am reminded of this beautiful scene from the movie Swadesh: “Dalit brahman ko dosh dete hain. Brahman kahte hain ki dalit unki jati ko bhrast kr rhe hain. Lohar or kumhar lala ke karz ko dosh dete hain. Jamindar kisan ko dosh dete hain lekin unka haq nhi dete. Gaon me dikkat hai toh wo sarkar ki taraf ungli uthate hai aur wo kisi aur ki taraf. Hum sab ek doosre ko dosh de rhe hain. Jabki sachai yeh h ki hum sabhi doshi hain. Kyn ki samasya hum khud he hain, mein, aap, hum sab”. Where is the desh –bhakt in all these things? If we truly care about Bharat Mata, cannot we blame ourselves and try to improve ourselves and hence helping our desh, rather than forcing someone else to say “Bharat Mata ki Jai”.

I think I will have to explore the real meaning of the term Bharat, Bharat Mata and being patriotic. If patriotism can be proved just by saying Bharat Mata ki Jai, then I believe this is just an abdication of our responsibility to change ourselves for the better. Being patriotic to me is a much, much bigger thing then hailing Bharat Mata.

However, till I improve myself on these things, I will sing these lines from the movie Shanghai:

“Ho Bharat Mata ki,

Bharat Mata ki tum jai bolo jai,

Bharat Mata ki jai,

Sone ki chidiya, Dengue Malaria,

Gud bhi hai gobar bhi,

Bharat Mata ki Jai”