The title may sound a little embarrassing; it may not give a picture as perceived by others, both in positive and negative sense. To some it may just be theoretical mess, to some it may be a glance of reality. Reality which exists but, not entirely, not accurately, yet it sometimes exist in its fullest form. It’s like the case with ‘black’ population in America, sometimes they are over sympathised and sometimes they are still at the receiving end of racism, though very minutely, but still does. Similarly, the case of ‘Divided Union of India’ is there in very minute but yet substantial way. Substantial - because this divides is often ignited and profiled for specific benefits of a specific few, e.g. political agendas and propagandas.
Some may say this divide exists everywhere, but the divide in India it exists in so many forms, natures, theatres and platform that if one sees it from the above, it would be hard for him to believe that this is one country and people here are collectively, in some way, are called Indians.
India is divided in countless manners, Geo-politically, Culturally, Ethnically, etc. so when it comes to India as a country, it is a mess of everything.
I’ll begin with Ethnic division. Indian Ethnic bifurcation is so complex that sometimes it actually seems like a miracle. Our Ethnic background, unlike America where Europeans settled with the natives of totally different Ethnicity, is mix of every Ethnic background in the world. 3000 years ago, when the Indus valley civilisation was at peak, the people were of Indo-Euro Ethnic background. When the Aryan civilisation grew, people were already mix of Asians, Europeans and Mongoloids. Whereas the Dravidians had African Ethnic background. Today an Indian's Ethnic background can be traced and matched with every human on face of the earth as we’ve had mixed generic settlements through out history, this theory can be proved true to a great extent, though not accurately.
So, when we see this point of division, it is present in a form of majority settlement of a particular Ethnic group. The North, West and Central Indians have majority trait of Indo-European Ethnic background. They share this with people of countries like Pakistan and Afghanistan. The East and North-East parts' settlers have majority traits of Mongoloid Ethnic background and have similarities with the people from China, Mongol and other eastern Asian countries. And finally, South-Central, South Western, Southern and South-Eastern people share Ethnic background with Africans, with thin body frame, curly top, etc.
Everyone, though have different majority traits that distinguish their appearance from the others in India, they have some common traits, though dormant, that distinguishes them from their original Ethnic tribes.
This division is then drwan politically. And people of different traits, are categorised in a peculiar way. N-E region and it's people are left behind in the main stream and thus serves as an example of this devide.
Culturally, O God, this is like the worst thing. India is divided into countless sub-cultures- Religions, Castes, Languages, Foods, etc. most of the times, these cultures are not integrated and made into one. It’s because of the diversity in our masses and weak (intentional) political will. We know how America integrated all its subjects and also the migrants and used their ability for not only individual but national growth.
Indians have this peculiar character, when they go out of their cultural region; they become the most tolerant folks, adjusting to everything and create good conditions for living, and expect (host) people to accept them. While the same Indians, when return to their regions, they become the most intolerant men on earth. When they’re guest, they want respect and coherence from the host, and when things reverse, and they become the hosts, they want their guests to be at helm’s end, extracting their right to steer their (guests/migrants) lives to grow and prosper, for example, Tamils in Tamilnadu can’t tolerate North Indians in their state doing business, but the same Tamils would come to Mumbai and become the most friendly peoples.
Another sub-cultural factor is Language. Most of the Indians, belonging to semi-urban areas and rural areas are the most intolerant folks towards other languages. If a person speaks his native language in that place, he’s considered a chauvinistic, un-adjusting, prudent alien.
Well as far as religion is considered, I think India is the most vibrant place in the world. Every major religion in the world is represented in India. Not only represented, but given nourishment to grow and prosper. There are Hindus (inclusive of Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, etc.), Muslims, Christians, Jews, Parsis and Iranis, and everyone has adapted to the local culture. Since, most of Indian Muslims and Christians are converts (thus they’re still unacceptable to Arabs and Europeans) so they easily survive and adjust. There’re some cases of violence, but they are politically motivated (almost always). Caste, well as a student in school I never knew what this (Caste) thing meant, same is the case with majority of the youth. Caste is a politically created phenomenon. If you talk of suppression of lower castes, god, stop kidding me, in 21st century who has the time to think over such things. It’s the card of those god damn, jobless idiots who can’t help but create dramas and issues of petty things. Ironically, almost 51% of government seats in government offices (all the types) are reserved for the minorities. Did the Americans reserve even half that number for the natives? Huh! Dirty politics.
The last ‘division’ I would like to discuss is through geo-political reasons. India is formed into several states. These states are formed on the basis of regional cultures, languages, etc. like Maharashtra is formed where Marathi’s spoken, Gujarat is formed where Guajarati’s spoken, Tamil Nadu is formed where Tamil is spoken, etc. Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Uttarakhand, N-E states, J & K and disputed Telangana and Vidharbha are based on Cultural statehood phenomena. Such ideas cause immense intolerance amongst the locals. Political leverage from "son-of-the-soil" agenda works miracle in rural areas (sometimes urban ares too). Now, since this is a political subject I won’t write more, I can give an example though; just imagine an absolute Hispanic state in US, I’m not talking of the majority here, I meas a state for the Hispanics exculsively.
Solution, the only solution is that we revert to our tolerance. The trait of Tolerance through which the Indian civilisation is still standing, standing for more than 5000 years now. We’re losing tolerance, and that is why we’re falling. Indians have another peculiar character, we don’t stand by our own examples, we just stick to the west for examples. The example here is the US. Its success is based on tolerance, Tolerance of Africans, Italians, Hispanics, Irish, and all the other migrants. The end of civil war is a sample; its demography is a sample. If we look, we can find numerous examples, we just need to learn to live in coherence with everyone in this country. We know to live in coherence with the world, now we must learn the same thing amongst ourselves (Indians). And not try to politicise every god damn thing.
