“Maharashtra is just for Marathis” Such regionalist statements only serve in encouraging China’s motive to break India into pieces.
India has 18 official languages, over 1500 local languages and thousands of dialects. Indian states are formed mostly along the language lines; and to some extent, along regional identities. Though one might debate this arrangement, the fact remains that the current national structure is truly ‘unity in diversity’.
Today, however, this strength is turning into weakness. Many small regions speaking a local language, whether it is Telengana, Bundelkhand or Gorkhaland is crying out for independence. Maybe in some odd cases people will find solace in a state which speaks their mother tongue, but at what cost?
Caste and dialects are too many to divide India. There is a limit regarding how far one can go on dividing based on regional or linguistic identities. Such fragmentation will not work for India, simply because the nation is what it is because it is diverse, plural and it gives freedom to all to speak numerous languages and practise countless beliefs.
One event and two major decisions during the past two centuries changed the course of India’s, as well as the world’s future.
The fateful event was the Battle of Plassey. Just 19 years before the Americans gained independence from the British Empire after a long struggle, Britain colonized India. Thus began a horrific period of subjugation, discrimination, exploitation and torture. The once thriving Indian industry and economy were virtually destroyed. However, to ensure smooth administrative operations as well as their businesses the British laid a lot of emphasis on infrastructure. Railroad, bridges, telephone, electricity and magnificent buildings, most of which are still in use, are just a few examples of the infrastructural blitzkrieg.
The Industrial Revolution allowed the Western world to establish superiority over the East, especially over India and China. Not many of us know that the Industrial Revolution owed a lot to India, the richest land of the time, from where wealth was plundered. Large amounts of gold, precious stones and other valuables were looted and treasured in Britain, which, in a way not only funded the Revolution, but also helped in laying down the foundation of the Western economy as we know it today. According to British historian William Dig by (‘Prosperous British India’) “From 1757 to 1815, 1000 million pounds were drained away from India” by the British.
While the Battle of Plassey allowed the British to take over India and bleed it dry, ironically if it had not happened India today might easily have resembled Iran, Indonesia or even Sudan.
Two Decisions
Till around mid-1700s, the Indian education system was based on Sanskrit or Persian. When the British arrived, the nation woke up to the modern world; however, at the cost of its connections with the past.
Raja Ram Mohan Roy (1774 1833), the ‘Renaissance Man’ realized that if Indians did not learn English, mathematics and science, the country’s progress would be hindered. His vision not only upheld the spirit of technology and advocated the study of English, western science and medicine, but he himself also started India’s first Technical College.
When India had to decide among English, Sanskrit and Persian as the chosen medium of education, another eminent reformer Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar (1820 – 1891) decided to opt for vernacular (Bengali in Bengal) and English alongside Sanskrit.
An English education led to the advent of millions of British ‘clerks’ or ‘brown sahibs’ in India. Even today, more than a handful suffer from ‘colonial consciousness’, viewing everything Indian from a colonial perspective.
At the same time, one should not forget that the English education allowed Indians to learn about the West, its success and achievements. Swami Vivekananda, Gandhiji and Netaji were products of the same system.
Had not these incidents occurred and decisions taken, India could still have been languishing today as a ‘backward’ country. May be this was her destiny, written long ago by the ‘Bharata Bhagya Vidhaata’ so that India could rise to today’s near superpower status, enduring a long struggle and enormous losses!!
