Disclaimer: I am not a commie, leftist, rightist, liberal, conservative, marxist, royist, mathewist etc.
I believe before we begin to arrive at any conclusion, it is very important to notice where we begin.
Most of the time we begin with an awareness of where our ‘faayda’ lies.
Then we conveniently use our intellectual ability to highlight those parts that make us right.
I believe it is very convenient to ‘not look’ at a world that we are not a part of.
Let us see…
1. The world’s populating is 6 billion people where 4 billion live on less than 4 dollars a day.
2. There are 577 billionaires in the world. Together they have more wealth than 195 of world’s poorest nations.
3. While you and I have daily concerns like ‘Got to pay my bills on time’ or ‘Saving tax’, there are a LOT more people who have daily concerns like ‘How can I keep my child alive’ or ‘Where am I going to get food for tomorrow?’
4. You and I cannot identify with that because we have never felt starvation, homelessness or been thrown out of our houses.
5. Let us not put labels on each other – call each other commies and leftists and rightists. Let us ask ourselves a question.
“Can the world be better?”
Of course yes.
I am not talking about utopia.
I am talking about hardcore ground-realities level improvement.
The hardcore reality improvement is that as Indians we campaigned for freedom some 60 years back and the situation did improve. Oppression did end. Freedom was indeed gained.
We might point out flaws in our freedom and say how things are not perfect – in Kashmir/ in North-East etc.
But at a very basic level – they are our problems. We are dealing with them, sometimes not very well, sometimes appallingly, but we are. It’s better than being ruled by the British.
Moral: Changes can be made. Positive changes can be made.
Imagine you are living in a house. The house has 10 rooms. You live in a room that is well furnished, has an A.C, a comfortable bed to sleep in, food to eat. The other 9 rooms are full of people starving, dying, diseased, malnourished, frustrated, deprived. How long will you be able to remain aloof of their agony, their pain and finally their anger, their hatred?
So, how do we bring about this change?
I am wondering.
Do you have an answer?