National integration, an unending saga
The existence of state, which is predominantly a political entity, has by far preceded that of a nation
Syed Mustafa Ahmad
The concept of a nation or a geographical unit with its inhabitants sharing certain basic commonalities, is a modern one. It can be said to have evolved in the 19th century, when national consciousness became a potential force, cutting across regional divides.
The existence of state, which is predominantly a political entity, has by far preceded that of a nation, a cultural entity empowering its inhabitants with a certain sense of belongingness. The effort towards synthesizing the two concepts into a nation state is termed as national integration.
The roots of the national integration can be found when the rulers like Ashoka and Chandragupta Maurya unified a large part of the subcontinent politically, then going by the name of Bharatvarsha.
India’s relative isolation from the rest of the world due to peculiar geographical features enabled it to develop as a rarefied cultural unit. The advent of the Turks, Afghans, Mughals, etc., gave it a rare picture of national integration.
However, it was the British and their colonisation of India that fused the India into a unified administrative and cultural unit. Moreover, it gave the Indians a sense of being one people being exploited by a common enemy.
The Revolt of 1857 was the first stirring of this new found pan- Indian nationalism. The Indian National Congress played a very potential part in harnessing this surge of patriotism to unite the Indians around a common economic and political platform.
The arrival of Mahatma Gandhi, the first all India leader of the masses, was the icing on the cake. Hence, India gradually strove for the cause of the unity and became a nation in 1947. It was the first step for the grand nation.
India opted for a Constitution which provided for a strong Centre and single citizenship. However, ample safeguards were provided to enable the states to flourish and for the minorities to protect their language and culture.
It was the one of the best steps to create a nation in the land of diversities. Hence, unity in the diversity was the driving force behind the Constitution. More than 500 or so princely states were integrated into India by the masterful diplomacy of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel. However, it is the secondary thing that the above-mentioned plan was somehow faulty in nature. It used force as the only solution to make the difficult possible. It looks flawless on the paper. The actual application of cooperative federalism and cultural integration didn’t quite meet the standards set.
The political hegemony of the Congress on the political scene for a long time, the swamping of other cultures by the Hindu Culture and the neglect of the Southern part of India were setbacks to the process of the national integration.
These gave rise to regionalism. The new slogan was to protect themselves from the northern Brahmanic culture, which had already taken root since the British policy of divide and rule.
There were certain laudable efforts to integrate people from all castes and cultures into the national mainstream. The instrument of economic planning has consistently tried for a more equitable distribution of economic resources.
States have been created on a popular demand and organized on a linguistic basis since 1956. Reservation has been provided, as per the Mandal Commission report, to the disadvantaged castes in public life and by virtue of three tierPanchayati Raj system, decision making has reached the grass root level.
However, all these efforts have come in the harmful shadow of shoddy implementation and a nexus between the influential classes and politicians. The fruits of the well thought plans never reached those, who were deemed to get it. It has acted as a big hurdle in the process of national integration.
It also should be kept in mind that until there is economic justice, it will be difficult to wipe out the threats to national integration. It is mainly due to lack of development and poor incomes that people become susceptible to secessionist activity.
The north eastern states are stark examples of how citizens are being manipulated on the basis of their hunger and poverty. It is only with gainful employment and modernization that they can shed the notion of being second class citizens of mainstream India.
The threats emanating from terrorism, communalism, narrow regionalism and casteism will not find fertile breeding ground if the fruits of development are distributed evenly.
Regionalism, per se, need not be a threat to national integration. It can be integrated into a wider national identity to yield wonderful results. The development of one region need not block the development of another. In fact, it can serve as a stimulus or catalyst in terms of a riffle effect.
Similarly, the culture of the majority need not overwhelm the culture of a minority. In reality, the whole point of India adopting secularism as a creed has been to preserve all kinds of identities and provide a climate for them to thrive in.
Hence, the mechanism to promote national integration is already in place, it simply needs to be enforced more effectively. The country will achieve the grand success when in reality, there is a unity in diversity. The aloofness of some states or union territories over others lead to the drastic results. It stops the growth of a country, sooner or later.
The efforts in this direction give us no cause to be complacent. Apart from a more equitable distribution of resources, mass education needs to percolate down to the lowest level to achieve a better understanding of nationhood.
Majority communalism like that of the Hindutva variety that recently came in the garb of the Delhi riots, needs to be clamped down strictly before it irreparably harms our social structure.
Cooperative federalism needs to be given more teeth and class and caste barriers need to be broken down. Recently, we celebrated Bhim Jayanti. The purpose of celebrating it was that we, after seventy years of Independence, are not in a position to over throw the caste system. There still is the binary of the top most caste and the lowest caste.
Dr Bhimrao Ambedkar quit Hinduism to Buddhism due to the rigid caste system. The formation of NITI Aayog in place of the Planning Commission to enhance cooperative federalism and scheme’s like ‘ Ek Bharat Shreshta Bharat’, are some steps in the right direction. But the efforts should be taken that the benefit reaches to the people, who are living at the village level.
As Gandhi had told that the prosperity of India lies in the villages. The top most always take benefit and the vulnerable are always left to fend for themselves.
National integration is not a one-step process which can be achieved in a single stroke or by a magical wand. It needs to be worked on continuously. It is also not a narrow concept that envisages the development of one nation over other but it is a multilateral concept, which keep globalization in mind and strive for internationalism.
It is told by Oliver Goldsmith that I am the citizen of the world. I want the whole universe to be concern. No preference of one land over another. The poet of East, Sir Muhammad Iqbal rightly remarked that the whole universe is ours. No distinction among nations.
The development of one nation leads to the development of the other nations. It is a well-knit world today. The need of the hour is to know the broader meaning of national integration.
The narrower meaning has brought a lot of misery. We want to progress collectively. Last but not the least, the COVID 19 has made us understand that political borders, cultural borders, economic borders, etc., don’t matter much.
When it comes to humanity, all the divine and the artificial barriers are left aside and the safety of humanity takes precedence. Collectively, we can bring a lot of change.
In the Mughal era, the GDP was 17%. We were happier at that time than today. There was no information technology, AI, cloud computing, etc. we have all these facilities at our disposal but still we are not close.
In a crowd of people, everyone feels alone. The slogans of development can never do miracles, however for a time being, they can prove miraculous, but at the end of the day, we need healing touch. With each passing day, our wounds are widening.
The necessity is that there should be some balm in the form of job, maturity, infrastructure development, healthcare facility, counselling, no double standards, etc. We eagerly are waiting for this. If not then nationalism has spilled a lot of blood. And God forbid like Pablo Neruda, we may hate to write the poems about the scenic beauty of the nature and take to the horrors of the nationalism.
(The writer can be reached at syedmustafaahmad9@gmail.com)
