Border matters

I was 8 years old when the India - Pakistan war broke out in 1971. I was studying in fourth grade. In the school there was a fundraiser to help wounded soldiers. When my 9th birthday came, I asked my mother to donate the money for this cause instead of celebrating my birthday or buying a birthday present. I got 5 rupees from my father to donate . That was the highest in my class. This is a story my mother loved to repeat. And I never got tired of hearing it. When the war was going on, there used to be a scorecard in the newspaper which lists the casualties of both the Indian and Pakistani army and listed how many soldiers were killed, how many aircrafts were shot down and how many ships were sunk. I was so happy to see the larger numbers in the Pakistani column. Sympathy for enemy soldiers developed much later. And the happiest moment arrived when the Pakistan army surrendered.


This was probably the first time patriotic feelings aroused in me. I was a very patriotic kid then. I used to have an album of freedom fighters like Gandhi, Nehru, Subhash Chandra Bose and Bhagat Singh. This album was created by sticking the photos in the newspaper to the leaves of a notebook. One of my favorite pictures was that of the surrender of the Pakistani army in Dhaka. While in high school I loved reading Nandanar's military stories in Malayalam. Later while in college, I was very fond of Manoj Kumar's patriotic movies. Naturally the idea of a job and profession also revolved around military service. I also had a warrior's heritage both on my mother's side and father’s side. My great (great..) maternal uncles of Keezhpada served in the army of Palakkad raja and my great great great grandfather of Kurupath family was some sort of a leader in the Samudri’s army, the raja of Kozhikode. I don't even know if these were before the British colonization or Portuguese invasion.


So to join the military service, first I applied to the national defense academy (NDA). This is before you join the college. It is similar to WestPoint in the US. You study in the academy and come out with a degree and military officer job. I did not succeed. Later I appeared for the combined defense service (CDS) exam after graduation and failed there too. Finally after completing my masters went to the army education corps recruitment camp in Mysore. I failed in that attempt as well. Later, I realized that all the three who were selected studied in the military schools and had military connections. Recruitment camp is just a routine and the selection had taken place much before the process began. Corruption and nepotism run deep in Indian establishments. Experiences such as these dampen one's spirits. It probably happened to me too. Later, after reading about colonial wars and Korean and Vietnam wars. I started to think that borders only create border problems and started to wonder if we all would be better without borders.


Realization of the importance of keeping borders came when I had to experience the gulf war in Kuwait in person. I saw how every other system collapses when war breaks out. There were stories about dead bodies on the street, bodies in full uniform hanging from the pole and no one knew how or why. Banks were closed, there were abandoned vehicles on the highways, traffic lights stopped working, trash collection stopped and there was a stench of rotten garbage all the time.


Patriotic fervor lit up again during Kargil war. I was very concerned about the skirmish escalating into a nuclear war. However, that too had a happy ending with an astonishing Indian victory.


Even though I was fond of war stories and interested in battles I was an admirer of Gandhi too. In a way that was another kind of war. The most powerful nation on earth was defeated by a half naked fakir who refused to take up arms. Now, the world celebrates his birthday which falls on October 2nd. At the same time there is a trend in India to discredit his achievements and policies. I am a strong believer that all Indians will be living a totally different and inferior life if it wasn't for Mahatma Gandhi. There was news about people chanting zindabad to Godse, the Hindu fanatic who shot Gandhi. I am willing to keep my non-violence principles aside and beat the hell out of these folks if I meet one. I have been listening to some of Gandhi's favorite bhajans all day long. And they are Hindu devotional songs but many sung soulfully by Muslim artists.

Bismillah/Amjad Ali Khan - Vaishnav Janato & Ram Dhun - YouTube



Man Tarpat Hari Darsan Ko Aaj 

Mohammed Rafi/Naushad/Shakeel Baduyani

https://youtu.be/Dx9vGyiEXYM?si=2Wl6_lBmuVu7DM5S

It has been there all the time. One of my favorite Malayalam devotional song is written by a Muslim, Yusuf Ali Kacheri and composed by another Abdul Khader who had to change his name to Baburaj to get acceptance.

Charanam Nin - YouTube

Sung by a Christian, written by a Muslim and composed by another

Ramarama - YouTube


Religious harmony is probably the greatest achievement of Gandhiji. But it seems to be eroding in India. It is an existential threat to the idea of India.


There are other alarming events to worry about too. The way the Afghan army collapsed, so quickly and so completely should be a major worry. Western nations have separated church and state and have benefited greatly. It looks like faith overrides everything in south Asia. When men are more loyal to their faith than the country what happens to the states and political boundaries? India is a country with more divisions than any other place in the world. Divisions based on language, religion and caste and more, especially politics. And every group seems to have grievances. Everyone seems to be looking for some other group or past leaders to blame instead of seeking for solutions or working together towards remedies. These are not the illiterates or people suffering from poverty or injustice. These are some of the well educated and well exposed, living modern life, some living in countries like US and UK. That worries me a lot.


India needs a Mahatma badly.