By: Vivek Rajappan
Book : Between Perception Battle and Reality
Author : M.R.Lalu
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Publisher : Authors Press, New Delhi
Pages: 193 : Price: 395
Seller : Amazon
India’s reawakening as a great civilization with global responsibility was its magnificent transformation, a subject of deep discussion and study. As a nation it has been striving for something bigger and glorious ever since the British left its soil. Governments that governed India since then had made great contributions to establish this land as an exemplary democracy. Probably, their efforts bore fruit and we as a nation have gone through various facets of democracy flourishing in India irrespective of its cultural variety menacingly disturbing its amiability occasionally. There has always been a thread of unity passing through the beads of variety connecting everybody and holding them together into one national heritage. This has been the impact of the inclusivity that India has nourished, cherished and propagated for millennia. This has again been the reason that we survived as a nation irrespective of attempts to dismantle its civilizational essence.
Great sacrifices were made by rishis, reformers, political leaders and common men. India fascinated many and continues to fascinate even today. India’s cultural essence and its renaissance can’t be examined without Swami Vivekananda being studied. He was largely instrumental in reviving India’s spiritual vigor, without which, he declared this nation would not survive. While presenting India’s spiritual depth to the west, Vivekananda candidly gave an indubitable account on what India represented as a civilization and why its existence gave a unique hope to the whole world. “Between Perception Battle and Reality” gives strong intuitions on this socio-political reality of India.
Undoubtedly, the book contemplates India’s frequently changing socio-political scenario. There are multiple factors that accelerate this change, it observes. It extensively presents the changes that India witnessed socially, politically and culturally and it also exhibits their effects on our social life. As a nation we became more diverse socially, culturally and politically but practically remained illiterate about maintaining amiability among societies. At the same time we failed to embrace the inner core of inclusiveness that remained the base of our societal essence. Diversity was not only the result of the ideologies we represented but we became strangely diverse in multiple aspects. In a never before manner, we continued to become emotionally ugly and acrimonious and conveniently forgot the fact that there could be values and practices and at least some genuine emotions like compassion and kindness that we could use to patch up our differences with.
We created classes on every passing day dividing the societies on imaginary differences and kept shifting our focus from trying to find ways to collectively progress. Diversity became too dividing a factor that we found less space for concomitance and factors that could have contributed for meaningful coexistence such as religion, region, language and other familiar subjects became prominent in our social discourse deeply dividing us entirely. The more we confined our thoughts inside the boundaries of a barricaded social atmosphere, the more we learnt to live under its pressure. In this process what we lost was an emotional link with the rest of the world. As a country we became more selfish and secluded behind the boundary that we built with bricks of animosity, greed, lust and colossal insensitivity and we lost the essential humanness, the quality that we were once known for.
We have experienced the rise and fall of rulers and parties that tested the power of the country’s democratic depth, veracity and style for decades. But the rise of a nationalist regime in India was determined to establish that aspect of India’s cultural renaissance which began with Swami Vivekananda. Political interventions and administrative reforms brought drastic changes in the way how the west and the rest viewed India and the fact that needs special appreciation is its audacity to liberate this country from its political duplicity. This political duplicity was the custom that India was made to deeply slip into, but Narendra Modi’s nationalist regime brought a defining moment into Indian politics that was cultural, nationalistic, unprecedentedly development oriented and inclusive. Keeping India’s civilizational ethos its guiding force, the regime successfully completed a decade and the country has witnessed progress. Politics in India was primarily focused on minority vote-bank based on the appeasement of particular communities that insisted for communal recognition and resisted all forms of collective progress. Their bargaining power had been so overwhelmingly suffocative that the regimes that ruled India remained shamefacedly servile to such forces in the name of secularism. This appeasement mechanism remained a prominent custom and system for long. Applauds were heard for parties that leaned toward prominent vote-bank regimentation and policies were born to appease religions and religious groups that stood together as a rigorous bargaining force gaining maximum benefits. Reforms were designed to satiate such groups and those who stayed a divided house, the majority, irrespective of its humongous population was disrespected and devalued.
The Modi era came as a catastrophic storm that dismantled many among the political class that once dominated India’s politics making minority appeasement their winning strategy. But divided in the name of the inauguration of the Ram Temple in Ayodhya, the political opposition of the Modi government had further swooped into a new low. The sheer spectacle of the event, the pran pratishtha symbolized the revival of India’s civilizational glory. The whole country erupted into a cultural euphoria with millions dancing in joy. The temple became a reality after centuries of struggle and sacrifice. An event of this spiritual significance and cultural magnitude was capable of churning the cultural essence of the country beyond politics but deliberate attempts to term it as Narendra Modi’s petty political gimmicks had dampened the naysayers’ prospects further. This arrogance of some parties possibly made the rift between them and the majority deeper. Profoundly disconnected from the cultural values of the country, they further slipped into severe insignificance but the cultural eminence of India is sure to rise again with the impact of a reinvigorated devotion to Lord Ram turning Ayodhya into a global spiritual attraction. With the consecration of Ram Mandir in Ayodhya, India’s civilizational essence received a fresh fillip and the dawn of a new Ram Rajya is expected to further bring Mahatma Gandhi’s ideals into action and Vivekananda’s vision into actuality. ‘Between Perception Battle and Reality‘ is an attempt to delve into a thought-provoking pattern of personal musings. It is really a meaningful journey through India’s fast changing socio-political scenario. (The author is a freelance journalist who can be reached at mrlalu30@gmail.com)
