THE CONCEPT OF A NATION

"We the poeple" have come a long way from the nomadic hunter gatherers to the present day civilisation. We have done well, we have made progress and made a better life available to everyone. But are we perfect, is this the pinnacle of the human civilisation, do all the roads lead down from the dizziying heights of our achievement.

Or should we look forward to a greater world, a better world free from terrorism, hate crimes etc etc. And before i get to rhetorical lemme set the context first. Who am i, where do i belong to, what is my national identity? what is my sub-national identity? and why does this "sub-nationality" exists"

Historically nations have been fromed on the basis of ethnic identity. People belonging to a particular tribe/race/religion grouped together and fromed states with the leader appointed as the "king". Progressively we moved to stronger concepts of nationhood like "Republic" and away from "princely" states. we invented governance and greater dissipation of power among the people in habiting the nation, we created "Democracy, Theocracy, Military rule, Communism" (Order not in any order of importance or merit). We created wars, redrew boundries, established world order and still there is something wrong....... wrong with the way percieve things .... interpret our freedom .... judge our success or failure.

When i am asked outside India where are you from i say "India"

When in India i say "Bihar"

When in Bihar i say "central Bihar" ...... so on and so forth

For the same question the response is different, and so lets be clear on one thing there are no simple explanations and solutions. There are no black and white answers. Well then where do we start the "objective" analysis?

We have a natural instinct to get identified with a group, as they say "There is something that doesnot love a wall". There is something inside us which doesnot respect Unity, which hates great congegretion of humanity called "Country". Is this an unsurmountable force which cannot be overcome or reasoned with? What is its name? Why are we infected with it? What good has it done ever except give wars and death? This force is Individualism. And yes its not "evil"

This instinct has kept us alive through the dark ages, get over huge mountains and seas..... but is it a Franskeintein monster now destroying the very tenants of humanity that we have created with ardous labour in the past 500 years of modern civilisation (Assuming last 500 years constitute the modern world..... and the figure is just a figment of my imagination if at all there is a phase in human evolution called as the modern age). Like all basic instincts this is simple as well

"Stick to a group to survive and resort to individualism to grab the maximum possible share of the spoils" Evolution if u believe me has changed the "group" of hunters to nation of today and "individualism" has evolved to fancy names like "Fundamental rights" "Human rights" "Right to live" etc etc . But at the heart of the issue is still the clash of the group interest and self interest.

The smaller the group i belong to the greater will be the my chances to outdo others for the largest share of the spoils and lesser will be the security cover against the attack from a more powerful group.

We can see this clash playing out in all spheres of our life, right wing political parties in every country trying to appeal to smaller and smaller sections of society to get a foothold and try to justify their existance as a voice of the people, and still trying to keep the flock together and not destroy the concept of the nation.

So, lets not blame Raj, here is a guy who wants to desperately try and justify his existance without the title he has "Thakrey" and to become relevant atleast in state level politics. He is just playing by his instincts. All those people and politicians who oestracise him now first try and look within and ask the questions "Have i not tried to appeal to my constituency on the basis of caste/religion/state/tribe" People like you and me.... have we not answered "Marathi,Bihari,Tamil" to the questions concerning your identity sometime or the other or asked someone "where in India?" to the friendly guy at London tube or New-york subway?.

"He who hath not sinned throw the first stone"