Tuesday, August 21, 2012

Intolerance

Vasu Reddy From Chicago
vasureddy@aol.com

India as a largest democracy on earth has over a billion people, and very large population of various caste, creed, religion and color which adds to the diversity of the country.  People simply refer to each other with single word syllables such as Hyderabadi, mumbaiya, Bihari, benarasi, Punjabi, madrasi or whatever the term that defines the original place they belong to within India.  Most of these terms are endearing and quite affectionate.

There is absolutely no difference in people from various states or regions and they all live happily together in large metropolis areas or small colonies, and when displaced from their native habitat to work in other parts of the country they readily pack-up and move and quickly make a new home in the new environs and typically learn the language and ways of the natives and quickly intertwine with the locals.  Even the smallest towns have people from various parts of the country who do specific type of work and are readily accepted in the community.

Adding to the people being displaced because of work, India also has a massive population of various religions who once again intertwine into the fabric of life in big and small towns and villages.  The beauty of the variations of people and their religions and languages makes a fantastic panorama of life on a daily and regular basis.  Rarely would you see people have difficulty with each other, their way of life, religion and language.  They are all Indians and live happily together and do their work and be great neighbors and friends.

The entire country is one great mosaic of variations in living and how people are happy despite their habits and color and religion and language.  Every once in a while some incident happens and disrupts the whole life of entire communities, in some instances something as simple as the internet can cause mass exodus of people simply leaving their homes and going back to their ancestral roots.  As strange as it sounds the entire community of people simple pack-up and leave everything they have, worked for and live for.

This doesn’t have anything to do with communal violence, religious intolerance or any international incident that provokes or makes people do inhuman deeds.  Simple misinformation makes them scared and leave everything they worked for all their life, and going back to their native land, which probably is not as hospitable as they believe it is as things might not be the same now, as they might believe to be, but the fear of persecution in their adopted regions within their own country makes them flee in mass and just go back to what they believe their home is.  In reality where they live are their home and they should never feel that they are in danger from others in the community.

This happens too often in India, and somehow the fear factor is fed so quickly and dramatically for any sane action to be taken.  Neither the politicians nor the law enforcement foresee this happening and take appropriate actions to help ease the fear factor.

India with its great people’s fabric must learn to be sensitive to everyone and everything, and every way of life.  To see people get scared and simply leave everything and move back to what they feel is their ancestral land is crazy, as this is a country they all belong to and where they live is their home.   Neither politician nor fundamentalist should dictate to people on how they should live and why they should fear each other.  Stop the nonsense and let Indians be Indians, and let them live in peace and happiness.

No comments:

Where is the Intelligence coming into AI?

I am the survivor of library learning, without calculator graduate, encyclopedia and national geographic information gatherer,  William Shak...