Religious solidarity versus National solidarity
By vanny
@vandana7 (98830)
India
August 15, 2012 11:19pm CST
We live in a country. We exercise all rights that we are legally entitled to under its constitution. We also claim special benefits that the law offers us and which are not available to other citizens. We beat our chest saying we love our country as if love was some toothpaste that is applied daily on toothbrush. Oh yes, we are patriotic ..very patriotic ..because our movies tell us so, and there are beautiful songs that we can sing to near perfection. You bet, we love our nation.
We love it so much that we utilize the subsidized education and look for jobs elsewhere. We are patriotic so repatriate our earnings. Of course, we repatriate only part of the earnings because it is unfair on the part of our government to expect repatriation of entire earnings. We didnt utilize so much of national resources, right? So why should send everything? Instead, we convert part of it into black so that we dont have to repatriate that much. Those who dont know how to convert white monies into black monies, please take training from me, I worked in real estate company, and I could tell you how many chances you have to do that. And then, we look strangely at others in the nation that employs us, feeds us, clothes us, shelters us, and even offers us some medical and social benefits. We find their clothing weird, we find their names weird, we find their food unpalatable, we find their culture below our moral standards. Same goes for religion too.
And then, when somebody from from our religion, caste, creed, language whatever get killed elsewhere. We dont know him in person. Had I known him in person, I would in all probability cheated him of his funds. But he still is mine because he or his family members were once upon a time in my country. Or may be not. Never mind, he and me we have a common religion, so whether he reads my holy book or not, or whether I am an atheist or not, we still are one because you see, we have the same skin color and beard styles and clothing sense, right? Oh yes, we do have a lot in common, he cant communicate in English neither can I. That is the sole common ground of communication and I assure you despite our lack of command over alien language, we never have any misunderstanding. So when something happens to one of those people of my religion or language across the borders, I want my country to waste other citizens in the name of human rights, because it is the question of humanity and not national boundaries. I want my government to resort to calling names. I want additional appeasement for my community since somebody who is from my religion but didnt belong to my country is killed elsewhere.
I am a patriot. If you deny that, you've had it. All rights in all countries are mine irrespective of what I do. I mean it. Happy 16th August to all my fellow countrymen wherever you all are, didnt want to post this nastiness on our Independence day.
6 responses
@yugasini (12836)
• Anantapur, India
16 Aug 12
hi vandana madam,
hats off to your patriotic article about solidarity of religious and national, well written,i does not have that much brain to understand your language, you can write lot of articles on every subject,why i cannot gain that much command and knowledge on English,yes our govt should care the Indians those who are residing in other nations, not wasting of money in the name of humanity,have a nice day.
1 person likes this
@yugasini (12836)
• Anantapur, India
16 Aug 12
hi vandana madam,
thanks for the response, first our leader should be strong, the present Govt does not have that much ghuts, to send back the refugees of Bangladesh, do you know that, the so called maoists are trown from Bhutan strictly, that we have to do,but i does not find there is no such leader to us, they are selfish and funding their pockets not seeing the people and their troubles, some body come as prime minister and put a hard stick for all these things,have a nice day.
@vandana7 (98830)
• India
16 Aug 12
No Yugasini, if anything, I should say, we have no business to interfere with another country's internal matters.
When the person left the country he knew what was the score. He cant expect our people to go there and save him. I think that is what I meant to say. At the best, we can do it at ministerial levels. We cannot, I repeat cannot wage a war or kill the citizens of another country for that!!!
Take for example, Bangladesh immigrants arrived in Assam. Initially, we treated them as refugees, and gave them food, and place to stay. Now they are killing local people and taking away lands of local people. If any action is taken against them, there are uprisings in Mumbai, Pune, Bangalore, and Hyderabad. Do you think that is logical? Does it not prove that these people are not patriotic? If they are willing to sacrifice our citizens in the name of religion, and give preference to lives of muslims in another nation over lives of our citizens, I think that is treason. How can they take money for Mecca on one hand and do this to fellow countrymen who might have contributed directly or indirectly to that fund?
Assam incidentally is oil rich part of the country. So we cant afford to let it go.
@thesids (22180)
• Bhubaneswar, India
16 Aug 12
We beat our chest saying we love our country as if love was some toothpaste that is applied daily on toothbrush.
Shouldnt I be blaming the toothpaste or the toothbrush or even the tooth or even the chest for not being the place to apply the tooh-paste and brush!!!
(I think you missed this (blaming) out in the epic discussion - with some our great politicians would object and have deleted - citing National Interests)
I admire your patience to have waited for 16th. Happy 16th... looks like a better sunny morning after the rains yesterday
@vandana7 (98830)
• India
16 Aug 12
Tourists coming to our place are guests..we should be spending on them, instead they bring in monies deemed gifts. We do a rotten job of molesting them kidnapping them raping them, fleecing them, what nots. Great Indian culture ...
Our diaspora goes to countries like the US, and there too we earn, we take monies from them, and after that, we expect some rights of protection, and are perturbed when we dont get it. I dont get it - isn't it heads I win tails you lose situation?
Ok..I am watching a program right now..in which he has come up with the same argument that I did a couple of discussions ago. Muslim population has been regrouped through social websites using false images of Burma, and there is urgent need to do something about it. The guy is screaming his guts out ..it is rumor. It is a gang of muslim terrorist that started loading such images on the Internet. Youngsters have been shown so many of them and it is being discussed so often that the have started believing it to be true, even when I have rationalized that if it was indeed muslims being killed the plea would be "for Allah's sake share" and not "for God's sake share". There were a few others who tried to talk to them..bringing in actual facts, but what they get to hear within their circles is hard to compete with, right? One of them said we need to overlook national boundaries and go ahead in defense of Burmese muslims. Yeah, so fine, you all form a force and go. Then he said let Indian government finance it, we dont have resources. lol So I said forget about Mecca trip this year, save fellow Muslim on humanitarian grounds. He said that is insulting Allah. Now you tell me, can you talk to them? I told them look nobody is out to get you all..somebody stands to gain if we fight, think of them. Kasab is only pawn. We kill the pawn and incur the wrath. We need to kill the mastermind pawn will die autmatically.
@vandana7 (98830)
• India
16 Aug 12
And before you think I am religious fanatic..I dont go to temples as often as an average Hindu goes. May be once in a month or even less.
I am just unhappy that kids who were NORMAL have been cleverly manipulated and are now beyond the ability to reason..:(
I am sure government will take appropriate action and though I am not satisfied with this government, I will stand by it till the rumors die, and hope all our friends too do something like deny the rumors when they come across it..instead of leaving it alone. When it is denied, the person is forced to read, and thereby seeds of doubt are implanted. Dont want any fight within ourselves after so many years of independence. Somebody wants civil war.
@debrakcarey (19887)
• United States
16 Aug 12
I have to admit I know nothing about India's political atmosphere. I read your discussion and felt you were very frustrated about the situation in your country. I'm sorry for that, I wish you peace and composure in your soul.
I do however relate to some of what you say. All I can offer is be true to yourself, act according to your principles, be kind to those in your path. After all, we can only control ourselves, we cannot make others do right.
I hope for the best for you. 
@vandana7 (98830)
• India
16 Aug 12
Thank you. And thanks for understanding what I said here. I am not the only one who is frustrated. The largest democracy in the world has made a mockery of the word. And I dont see any ray of hope going forward. Thankfully, I would be long gone before that. Hopefully..
@jennyze (7029)
• Indonesia
16 Aug 12
Wow, you independence day is just a day before Indonesian's (17 Aug). Maybe we are sisters after all. Okay, I would cover your back and you can cover mine...
I am not really sure what to make of your intention here... being patriotic, urging people to be more understanding of others?
I am not really sure what to make of your intention here... being patriotic, urging people to be more understanding of others?
hope it was for good reasons only and it was the Me
@mythociate (21437)
• Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
28 Oct 12
Happy August 16 to you too. I'm not a patriot, I'm an individuot. Sure, most patriotic ideals are nice; but not if people hold them at the expense of their individuality!
@vandana7 (98830)
• India
20 Dec 12
But it doesnt work that way does it? I mean, if each one of us were to go our individualistic way, then if somebody attacked us, nobody would come forward to protect us. Initially, we possibly had religion that prompted us to group together and protect each other. Then we grew into nations, and a cosmopolitan environment came about that had people of different religions and ethnicity. Why then, are we regressing to grouping by religion once more in this larger set up as nations mean larger set up, isn't it?
1 person likes this
@mythociate (21437)
• Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
28 Oct 12
or maybe I'm more of a Christiot, standing-up for the equal abundance of my brothers-&-sisters-in-Christ.
@mythociate (21437)
• Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
21 Dec 12
Are you saying nations are larger than religions? Because they are so-obviously not (most religions being INTERNATIONAL ... i.e. working across ALL nations).
And what I'm saying is that patriotism, Christianity etc. are all good AS THEY WORK FOR THE INDIVIDUAL (that ANY individual--even I--will break patriotism's- or Christianity's-"rules" if they get in the way of the contribution I need to make).
@rambansal (574)
• India
16 Aug 12
We Indians are hypocrites of the highest grade - we claim to be patriots but don't do anything that is patriotic, we preach honesty to others but involve ourselves in dishonesty of every kind, we like secular ideals but become religious when it comes to voting and competing with followers of other faiths, etc etc.
Anything happening anywhere in the country, we first probe caste, creed, religion, region, etc of the persons involved in the happening and then decide our response. We never behave as Indians and never consider others as Indians.
We are proud to be ruled democratically but without a trace of democracy in elections and formation of governments. It is ultimately money power that rules on us.
Yesterday, we are said to have celebrated our independence day while we are still not free - just a transition of power from foreign yet disciplined rulers to local but highly undisciplined rulers.
We don't exist as a nation and whatever was there, we lost that gradually after so-called independence.
