We as a nation, as a democracy, as a developing superpower and as a chest-thumping citizenry, are controversially, incomprehensibly and astoundingly living in an epoch of utter uncertainty, chaoticity and worrisome despair. Casting a furtive glance even, at the current socio-political context of India coloured by superficial nationalism, banal and horrific foibles as a collective of peoples, is so very depressing. Oftentimes, one wonders [if at all one does] as to how can we be so ignorant, so stupid, so damnably and irrevocably spiralling into the vortex of doom, plumb down the depths of self-induced ruin while braying from the roof-tops of being the world’s largest democracy of the people, by the people and for the people! Is this what Kushwant Singh called “The End of India”? The most pertinent question that should then arise is ‘how did we get into this mess in the first place, followed by where do we go from here and how? For in trying times as these, with varying levels of despondency, anxiety, angst, dread, and despair, caught up as it were in a “Catch 22” or within the “Stockholm Syndrome” or ‘between the devil and the deep blue sea’ there seems to be no futurability in sight. The suicidal tendencies of our democracy seem unstoppable, unending. The systemic ruin thanks to the structural violence continually promoted by the power structures doesn’t even allow us to ponder whether a better future is possible from the chaos of the present. We are one happy people busy playing ‘Raja aur Runk’ or ‘Captor and Victim’, with most of us blissfully ignorant or feigning ignorance that we are indeed on the verge of the abyss, just waiting to plunge down over-the-edge with the ground beneath our feet disappearing ever so rapidly. Are we a people caught up in the throes of ‘the illusion of the powerlessness of the people’? Are we a people suffering from collective
April - June 2019
depression, which is increasingly becoming a very common pathological mental condition of our times, either genetic, hormonal, traumainduced or are we just overwhelmingly giving in to the ‘temptation to despair’? The renowned anthropologist Margaret Mead once remarked, “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.” Can we then, in these despairing times, buoyed by pragmatic hope, build collective awareness leading to broad-based collective action powerful enough to redeem ourselves of the socio-political ills that we have called upon ourselves? It was the ever optimistic Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi who said, “When I despair, I remember that all thru’ history, the way of truth and love have always won. There have been tyrants and murderers, and for a time they can seem invincible, but in the end, they always fall. Think of it – always!” Can we be people of resurgent hope in hopeless times? Can we be the beacons of light dispelling the darkness of despair? Can we light the fire and keep alive the flame of hope for ourselves and for our children? Yes we can. Yes we will. Yes we have to – for you and for me and for the entire Indian state… Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s “Love In the Time of Cholera” inspires us with this [adapted & paraphrased], “Hope becomes greater and nobler in calamity and then hoping in the time of despair, is an act worthy of sainthood,” while George Eliot reminds us, “what we call despair is often only the painful eagerness of unfed hope.” Long Live India… Long Live the Indian Democracy… Let my country awake! Chris is a Salesian priest, passionate about Christ, peace, youth and media.
SANGATI
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