THE TALE OF TWO INDIAS
In an era of social media, where the reel life instances are in sharp contrast to the real life evidences, there remains a constant display of duality in terms of the competing or contrasting opposites. This display of duality remains pronounced not only at an individual level but also at the societal and/or national level. It is not the lack of resources and talent but an inequality and the different interpretations for different sections of the society that has created this divide. Even in a country like India, if genuine efforts are made to study the confounding diversity from close quarters, we will understand that we have two very separate India’s within one united India that do the things differently. The two separate India’s are unequal in terms of the economic, political, social and cultural yardsticks
One India is of an extremely rich and influential people who are politically connected, work hand in gloves with the ruling dispensation, have immense wealth, immense power, easy accessibility to healthcare and control the heartbeat of the country. They do whatever they want to do as per their will, are granted bank loans without collaterals and on default are privileged enough to get that loan weaved off. They, by choice, wear distressed and/or ripped jeans, take pleasure in theatrics, give honorary treatment and lavish hospitality to their guests and spend unlimited money on pre-weddings.
The other India, on other hand, is an India of oppressed citizens who are easily susceptible and prone to exploitation. They are so much engrained in their own struggle for survival that, forget about the healthcare, they even find it difficult to meet the two ends. They have limited access to the basic needs of life like food, shelter, clothing and education which later on leads to other problems like poor literacy, unemployment, malnutrition etc. This India of fragile, frail and infirm citizens who at every walk of life need support for their survival, woefully, comprises of the majority of India. Although being the main working force of the country yet they are totally dependent upon the national welfare schemes, need jobs, water and electricity connections. They are the most vulnerable group and are easily exploited by the powerful people who run the system. Even for the grant of meagre loans they have to struggle and in case of default have to face the wrath of the system which most of the times results in their self and/or family suicide.
Unfortunately, the gap between these two India’s is widening and on one hand, we have an India of super-rich (only 1%) who own almost 60% of total wealth and on other hand, we have another India of whopping 70% who own only 7% of national wealth. As per the survey in 2022, India’s richest 100 have more wealth than 55 crore people and in 2024 more than 80 crore people are still dependent upon 5kg of free food grains each month. Apart from inequality in economic field, there also persists a social and gender discrimination. However, the economic disparity is the root cause of yawning gap even of other fields too between the two India’s.
In the current age of social media and the internet, where everything has a worldwide reach, it is impossible to hide one India from the other. No doubt, we have one minor India which is beautiful and inspiring, we have also other major India which is full of uncomfortable reality. As it gives us a pride and honour to project the minor India of super-rich, it equally gives us pain and sorrow to talk about the majority of impoverished India. This is an honest reality check and in no way, projecting these two extremely polar India’s, should be considered as anti-national or something to undermine the integrity of country
Like any nation has light and dark, good and evil within it, we also have the tale of two India’s within one united India. We need to unite these two India’s at the earliest, bridge the yawning gap between the two and provide level playing field for all so that the last man standing has the same opportunity to prove self as has the one who leads the queue.
Dr. Pawan Suri
Comments
Post a Comment