BHARAT vs. INDIA

BHARAT vs.  INDIA

How would you feel and what will you do if some day you find that your house is been encroached upon by someone, if you notice people forcing their way into your house where you and your family has been living in for years? How would you feel if you are evicted out of your house in return of a token amount of money? This situation might seem a bit absurd to you at this moment but imagine if you are someday put into this life threatening situation what will be your reaction? Would you meekly accept it or would you feel that you have no other option than to fight back the situation. Like when a bear tied to a tree is surrounded by dogs all around he has no option other than fighting the situation. At that moment you would surely not think about what odds will follow the situation as its aftermath.

      To us it seems absurd because we are living in a democratic country and we have full rights over our possessions and belongings. We know that no one can take it away from us. We know that there are rules prevailing to secure our property but we are unaware that this is what is happening with most of our fellowmen, with our countrymen. It is our Bharat that is being deteriorated because of our India. Strange isn’t it. You must be thinking that what's the difference between the two is. There is no difference between the two yet there is a huge difference that people have created. Everyone knows that the soul of India rests in the laps of Bharat. Most of the economical progress of India rests on the strong shoulders of our Bharat. But our countrymen, our Indians are becoming blind to this reality. Most of the farmers today who possess just small holdings are being forced out of their homes and their lands, their farms, their only means of employment and living. You must be thinking now that in this democratic country who would be forcing them out of their possessions? Isn’t it? I must then remind you that it is none other than our own government. Who says that the era of Hitler has gone? It’s here prevailing in India, dictatorship. The poor, meek farmers are evicted from their lands by the government diktats for building in a new township or for putting a new power plant or for building a new highway. But do they ever give a thought to what the farmer will do without his land. How will he run his family, how will he feed them? No, this has never been a cup of tea for our government. ‘Land acquisition’ has become the frontline in the escalating confrontation between RURAL BHARAT and INDUSTRIALIZED INDIA.

The daily headlines of the farmers getting agitated because of the takeover of their lands and property have made “the Bharat-India” divide starkly and tragically clear.

Every morning reading the news of a new suicide case shakes each and every nerve of the body. The suicides committed by the farmers are just because of this reason of land acquisition. But do we ever pay heed to this. No, we just read the news, feel pity for the dead and his family, but do we ever give a thought to the reason of these suicides. The number of suicides done by the villagers has crossed all limits exceeding more than 500 per month. We say that the people in the urban areas commit suicide because of stress and unemployment but even after knowing this we are forcing suicides into our Bharat by taking away the only means of living from the villagers. How would you feel if your only means of employment is snatched away from you in the name of governmental use and the prosperity of the country? What will you do when you will have to see your family hungry, starving for food? It requires a strong will power to cope up through such situations. This is the only reason why most of the farmers are committing suicides every day because they find themselves helpless and guilty of their family’s condition.

The main point arises now that can a ‘modern’ India- the India of new technologies, new factories, new power plants, apartments, air-conditioned multiplexes and commercial complexes-progress at the expense of an ageless Bharat, rooted in the soil? Yes the answer obviously is NO. When the government intervenes on behalf of India to acquire land from Bharat for the sake of public benefit I should ask who is the public that is benefiting and at what cost and to whom?

Apart from the economic reality, let’s have a look on the social and environmental equity. When the government takes over the farms, which once acted as a drain to the environmental impurities and to the poisons that we every day pour into the environment, they are converted into commercial lands and it now adds to the poisons in the environment rather than acting as a drain to them.

But who cares? Isn’t it. Such questions are now acquiring increasing urgency as India’s seemingly insatiable lust and hunger for land is growing sharper and so farms are being converted to commercial establishments. India is now increasing environmentally ruinous encroachments into the forests, farms and other fragile ecosystems. Even after knowing the aftermaths we prefer closing our eyes to such things and moving ahead with the economic development. The rivers are getting polluted to such levels that its water is not even suitable for irrigation, how can we think of drinking it then. All this is because now India is trying to progress at the expense of Bharat. But this reality is often forgotten, that India and Bharat are not two opposing entities but one. One cannot progress at the expense of the other, because there is no ‘other’ to exploit but itself.

Even if we blind ourselves to this reality that India and Bharat both cannot progress at the expense of the other because the two are ONE, this reality would not change and this is a fact.