Not farther from the truth

Why I don’t believe Chinese Research

A few weeks back, I wrote about being trolled by my own schoolmate while I differed with on India. Differing perspectives are normal in a democracy except in N. Korea, China, and totalitarian Russia. However, suppression of diverse views has come of age, and under the garb of nationalism, national identity, and sensationalism, right-wing radicalism is becoming a mainstay. Right-wing radicals have rightly capsized and exploited the suppressed sentiments such as nationhood and nationality. BJP as a polity is dominating the thought process too. That is exactly what’s driving China’s Xi. Citizens can do whatever they wish but need to align with the identity espoused by a core group from the dominant outfit. It is exactly for this reason that I do not believe in any Chinese research. You may find a Sinophobe in me. However, let me admit, I am a Communist Party Phobe. The ordinary Chinese are just like us, driven by sentiments, apprehensive, somewhat insecure, somewhat reclusive, and often intimidated by the political class and unsure of their future, struggling to bring their families. They are exactly like us, and I can identify with them since I am one amongst them.

Does it Matter?
What happens with the Chinese Citizen does not matter to us. We willfully ignore until we face an onslaught on Doklam, and Ladhak. It does not matter until we lose power in Mumbai from cyberattacks that originate from China. How would a democracy prevent all such happening of historical proportions? A totalitarian voice can also be part of democracy, the same way Indira was for India. However, democracy provides a way out from such a totalitarian fortitude and mess. Multiple voices and replacements of dominance bring a better perspective. The recent past provides enough evidence that democracies are no panacea, but they are better institutions than the ones dominated by a single voice.

Unity in Diversity
It is not a Congress Cliche; that’s the backbone that forms the nation’s DNA formed over thousands of years. It definitely is not 80 years old.

We all know the amazing history of India. Waves over waves of immigrants migrated and settled in different parts of India, calling it their motherland. Culture, faith, and foundational ethos emerged, survived, and flourished in India. Genomic amalgamation, too, happened with the passage of time. This gave rise to a polity called Hindu, not a religion but a way of living, an art of living. Just ask yourselves, how can a mongoloid race from North East (Seven Sister) identify themselves with the drastically different Dravidian identity down in Southern India? The only mystic thing that binds is Hinduism (not a religion but an identity formed from a living polity).

There are immense stories of plunder and numerous stories of the lost land. That is definitely painful, but unfortunately, the land is not Hinduism. People make that identity. The nation has a checkered history of astute rulers who united these fragments, and there are numerous examples of shortsightedness that created these fragments. However, as I reflect on the passage of time, that is a natural cycle, and the identity has survived despite the tumultuous history of treachery and trepidations.

That very identity is under threat. Just imagine, a person like me, who is now a citizen of another country, is afraid of writing on the farmer’s protest.

Does it ring the bell? Or this Individual Freedom Group from a distant land will be called Deshdrohi and slapped with sedition? Yes, we are heading towards a totalitarian state, and that yearning is a palpable need of the plebians.

Shashank Heda
Dallas, Texas

India is now only ‘partly free’, says global report
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-india-56249596