Er Neeraj Dubey
According to Mahatma Gandhi, “Happiness is when what you think, what you say, and what you do are in harmony”. There is hardly any other country in the world than India which has a great diversity of culture, religion, language, tradition, community etc. People live and think in terms of their respective religions, faiths and tongues, and seek to serve their selfish ends without thinking of the national good. Such thinking is dangerous and is bound to lead to the disintegration of the country in the long run. The need of the hour, therefore, is to fight the forces of dis-unity and dis-harmony and to work ceaselessly for the achievement of national harmony and peace. Learning to live in peace and harmony is a dynamic, holistic and lifelong process through which mutual respect, understanding, caring and sharing, compassion, social responsibility, solidarity, and tolerance of diversity among individuals and groups (ethnic, social, cultural, religious, national & regional) are internalized and practiced together to solve problems and to work towards a just and free, peaceful and democratic society. Communal harmony is the coming together of all the communities of the country and living together with a sense of brotherhood and equality, irrespective of their caste, creed, religion etc. Communal harmony does not only mean an absence of communal tensions, strife’s and riots. It is something deeper, something emotional. Communal harmony implies mutual understanding, peaceful co-existence, cooperation and coordination among all the constituents of a community. Harmony means proper conformity of the parts to one another and to the whole. Our country is passing through turbulent times and faced with numerous challenges – communalism being the most serious one. We should sink our personal differences in larger interests of the country and adopt a common approach to national problems if we want to achieve the laudable goal of national integration and communal harmony. Let us all be proud of our beloved nation. We all have to collectively strive to make India vibrant, strong and supreme. However, is it necessary to talk about nation-building in this age of liberalization and globalization? What are the foundations – the pillars of a nation-building? Is Communal/ social or religious harmony the most important requisite for the progress of a nation? If yes, then what are the fundamental measures to foster and maintain this communal harmony? The British never called our country a nation. They always referred to it as the Indian sub-continent. They knew that once it becomes a nation – like in the past, with one culture, one language, one emotional integration – they would not be able to rule it. Hence, all their efforts were focused to disintegrate this country on the lines of race, religion, caste, language and province. ‘Divide and rule’ became their ruling mantra. The British were very proud of their nation but tried their best intellectually and educationally to weaken the same patriotic attachment in our people by painting our culture, history, literature as trash and our forefathers as uncivilized. Loving and nurturing our motherland – our nation is as essential as loving and worshipping our own mother. Every nation has its defined parameters in terms of political borders, its language, its culture, its history, its people. They have emotional integration as land and its history belongs to its forefathers. A bigger unit than a nation is neither sustainable nor desirable. We won our independence after paying a huge price and unprecedented sacrifices in the hope that we, as a nation, will be politically, socially and emotionally integrated. But, unfortunately in the last 60 years we have been witnessing and encountering the secessionist and dissipative tendencies, movements and insurgencies through the length and breadth of this country. From J&K to Kerala, the North-East to Gujarat – we have been facing communal riots, insurgency, naxalism and now terrorism. According to philosophers and intellectuals there are six pillars on which nation-building can be erected and sustained. :-
* Education and Experiments through Education; Science, Technology, Engineering.
A good education is the foundation of a successful human life, education is the harbinger of social progress and education provides the building-blocks of a great nation. There must be a free Compulsory and quality education for all. A true education must inculcate/educate the following among its students, i.e. knowledge righteousness and control of mind civilization.
* Safety and Security: – Safety & security of society and nation must be strictly enforced.
* Prosperity – (Economic Development and Absence of Complacency) – Through generation of sufficient power, creating infrastructure through trained efficient, honest, healthy labour-force, human Resource Development and through advanced agriculture, business, trade, manufacturing industries.
* Health and Clean Environment of the Society – A healthy population is a happy population and that leads to a healthy nation.
* Entertainment – Let us have the Development of arts, crafts, music, dance, drama – all varieties of fine arts and creativity. However, we have to remember that economic development leads to a better life – luxurious life – involving arts and music. Excess of it leads to luxury, lethargy and laziness; inertia and inactivity. If it is allowed to develop, to set in, it follows with the beginning of downfall.
* Harmony and Hope: – Social Harmony is the bedrock of democracy. It is the essence of prosperity and the harbinger of justice. Without harmony among the different sections of society, neither knowledge proceeds further nor the economic prosperity. Justice and protection is denied to unprivileged people.
Harmony is natural, dis-harmony is man-made. There is cosmic harmony in the universe and organic harmony in a living body. When this harmony gets disturbed in a body, it becomes sick and when natural or ecological harmony is broken, it leads to disasters. Cost of social dis-harmony or communal conflicts is enormous – in social, economical or political terms.
Diversity is the beauty of nature, equality is un-natural. Food is nice if it has different tastes. A garden is beautiful if it has different variety of trees and flowers. A mela or fair is attractive if it has different shops, colours, items, dresses or entertainment. Nature loves diversity and differences. Even twins in a family differ in a hundred ways and no two peas are alike. Strength is in unity. Anyone is powerful till he/she belongs to community and community has only one religion called communitariansm. A nation is strong as long as its citizens speak in one voice and are willing to sacrifice their lives for the sake of her honour.
(The author is Sr Asst Professor-GCET- Jammu)
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