Amit Sharma
We, the Indians, have been traditionally known to be amongst one of the most tolerant societies with a heterogenous mix of united population. Off late, it has been seen that few trivial things have led towards major controversies and further resulted into mass miscommunication campaigns, followed by violence and even bloodshed because of it. Lack of complete information, dying patience levels and misuse of social media are few amongst primary factors responsible for it. It is difficult to understand how people find time to spread negativity in the society when life is supposed to be so fast moving in the present era. Finding time to legitimately earn two square meals today is actually the biggest challenge as on date. Broadly speaking, to fight out hunger and poverty is equally tough challenge today but surprisingly, some people tend to leave such fundamental challenges aside and start beating about the push by flaring-up sentiments of others in order to disrupt the peace and harmony in our otherwise harmonious society.
It is a bare fact that we live in the largest democracy of the world, wherein there is complete freedom to express and speak, but at least, we must hold our senses and speak out to the extent which does not hurt anyone’s sentiments by becoming a reason for others to disturb communal harmony for propagating hatred in the society. I had read somewhere that religion is one of the biggest uniting/binding force as well as the biggest diving force. These days, it seems that the latter holds good and we don’t waste even a minute in spoiling communal harmony as and when some situation hints towards it. Unfortunately, our media houses or so-called news channels also don’t miss out in adding fuel to the fire. In their continuous debates amongst coveted experts on respective channels, they talk out for hours together on such critical issues, thereby adding fuel to the fire. Resultant of all this is that these issues get flared-up and lead towards extreme anomic conditions in the society but by that time, it is realised that the situation is going out of control, it becomes too difficult to reverse the situation.
Question here is that what we are upto and what we will end-up with ? We have already seen that few top examples like Punjab terrorism and Kashmir issue have almost died their own deaths over the time but not before taking lot of innocent lives and destroying lot of cultural and social fabric of these two one of the richest societies of the nation. Everything is cyclical, as we know it, but by the time, the turn of peace, again comes back, our society tends to suffer colossal losses in terms of life and property. So, let’s try to become agents of positive change rather than being propellors of negativity and hatred in the society.
I am really concerned about our younger generations who often tend to remain hooked-up in artificial world like social media, e-sports (betting and lottery games), drug addiction, violent stuff without understanding the long term repercussions of same. Long term impact of it is that the emotional fabric keeps gets weakened and youth become the softest prey to these unrest and anomic conditions whenever they arise. We should not forget that the biggest pandemic of our lifetimes, Corona, which has devastated many lives on planet earth is not yet over, man-made emergencies like Russia-Ukraine War is still going-on, our neighbours like Sri Lanka are almost on the verge of bankruptcy and there are many more ‘real issues’ which require our active contribution rather than these fictitious issues because of which we often loose our patience and raise the level of intolerance in our otherwise, peace-loving societies.
I think, there is absolutely no need to get perturbed with any kind of statement coming out from any sane or insane person and there is no reason to give immediate reaction to it or getting influenced by reactions given to it by some people of similar level of sanity or insanity. If we remain focused on the fundamental goals of life, we will hardly find any time to think or talk or react to such things, whether they relate to any religion or any culture or any sect or any nationality. Always remember a constructive noble thought that whatever little positive contributions we make with our deeds and thoughts towards society, the same shall have ramifying super-positive effects in the times to come, provided we tend to remain consistent in our endeavours towards them.
Finally, I want to request everyone reading this article that it is high time to realise that there is absolutely no gain but total loss by giving unnecessary prompt reactions especially on social media to any kind extreme statement made by few immature minds which can raise religious temperaments in the society for breaking communal harmony, which otherwise, has been existing since ages in our proud nation India. Let’s also resolve to prompt our nears and dears to break such chains of disharmony and temporary temperamental blow-ups in the near future so as to make our lives ‘worth-living’ !
(The writer is a senior Civil Servant serving in the Union Territory of J&K for more than two decades and can be reached at amit1kas@gmail.com )
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