Wednesday, September 19, 2007

National insanity

Now that the dust has settled somewhat on the Ram Sethu issue with the government maintaining a silence , let us ponder on what a sane nation might do.

Nations with a continuous civilization such as ours,(which though interrupted throughout history by various invaders, was never wiped out) , generally take pride in their heritage. Often such nations are interested in knowing about the history of their nations. An example would be Israel where archaeology, of which Biblical archaeology is a part, is a valued research tool used to define it as a nation. In fact, much of Israel’s claim to the particular piece of land is based on its beliefs. In such nations, institutes of research, though populated occasionally by members of specific persuasions and ideologies, do not have their research agenda determined by whichever ruling party currently occupies power. These institutes are fairly independent and focus on understanding the past. In any other nation, the discovery of a land bridge connecting two pieces of land would have elicited curiosity, wonder, perhaps even the desire to study the phenomenon even further.
Not so in India.

In India alone, any discovery of an ancient civilization which has its mooring in a specific religion is at once denied legitimacy. Without any facts to back statements, the ASI can at once claim that it is not a man-made bridge but a natural rock formation. All stories that Hindus consider historical can be painted with the brush of being a myth and therefore not true.

Chief Ministers can then publicly decry the protest by Hindus as motivated by something other than a desire to protect their religious heritage. These incompetent people, who may not even have a high school diploma, go on record asking whether Lord Rama had an engineering degree etc.

Subsequently, buses can be torched and people burned in protest.

Another insane episode in national history.

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