India is our mother. It is through our motherland that we have an identity in this world. When we travel around the world, people do not recognize us by our religion or caste but by our ‘Indianness’. We are seen as the children of India.
India will always be perfect, in her imperfection, in the eyes of her children. Sadly, sometimes some of us Indians in our political, religious, and social biases degrade our own nation.
My mother was born with a condition— a limp. I never noticed her limp till I was in grade 7 and a fellow student questioned me about my mother walking with a limp.
It was for the first time I noticed her condition. In all the years since my birth, I never saw any flaw in her because all I saw was her love for me, and the identity I have in this world because of her. When I noticed her limp, it did not change her image in my eyes. Today as a 45-year-old man, I cannot see any flaws in my mother because all I am focused on is her love and care for me and my children. People who look at imperfections are people who are looking for excuses for their own failures.
In India, today, we have some citizens who prefer to see only the failures of our country, and then they compare these drawbacks with other nations. Irfan Pathan, the former Indian cricketer, recently tweeted, “My country, my beautiful country has the potential to be the greatest country in the world, BUT…”
Interestingly, last year also, around Eid, he tweeted, “If you have the slightest of humanity you will not support what’s happening in Palestine.”
I called him out, asserting that his statement was a reflection of his biased mindset and religious bigotry.
The problem with citizens like Irfan Pathan is that they take India for granted and assume that ‘their idea’ of India is the ‘only idea’ of India. They try to talk about the Constitution of India, but in reality are governed by the tenets of their religious books, practices, and dogmas.
Celebrities like Irfan Pathan talk about the Constitution of India but fail to define the meaning of the word ‘secular’ enshrined in the Constitution when it was amended during the Prime Ministerial tenure of Indira Gandhi.
I am certain that Irfan Pathan will not know the real definition of the word ‘secular’. Pathan like most celebrities who sometimes try to grow an intellectual, liberal hat to look modern, opine that ‘secularism’ is the acceptance of all religion in matters of governance. This, unfortunately, has misinterpreted the meaning of the word ‘secular’, a blow that India has been subjected to for decades now.
Secularism is not acceptance of all religions in matters of governance but the acceptance of no religion in such matters. To be a secular nation is to be a nation where the government does not govern its citizens based on religious identities, but rather on the simple fact that you are a citizen of the nation. I do not understand the reasons why some self-styled liberals sow the seeds of hate and division based on their selfish desires.
Irfan Pathan lives in a nation with a majority of Hindus. Muslims in India have thrived. Compare that to Hindus in the Islamic nation of Pakistan. Compare that to the Christians living in Pakistan.
Every day minorities in Pakistan are facing atrocities because of the actions of the majoritarian and fundamentalist Muslim outlook. India is a country with an exemplary history that testifies to its inclusiveness as an unbiased nation. Hindus, Muslims, Christians, Sikhs, and many more of different faiths live cohesively together as Indians, and more so as humans. Religious minorities thrive in India because Hindus do not see them as outsiders but as fellow citizens.
People like Irfan Pathan need to be grateful to Mother India that it has a majority Hindu population that lives by the ethos of ‘Sanatan Dharma’ and not ‘Jihad’. India is not perfect because we Indians are not perfect. It is in its imperfection that the real beauty of our nation thrives. India is a tolerant nation because its values profess tolerance and inclusivity. But that tolerance must not be taken for granted.
We need to respect our motherland as its children because, in the eyes of a child, a mother is always perfect.