Are we a nation?

Tamil Nadu and Karnataka fight over the waters of the Cauvery, Maharashtra and Karnataka have a border dispute, there is violence in Mumbai against non-Maharashtrians (specifically North Indians) & violent protests in Bihar against the violence in Mumbai, Tamil MPs threaten to quit if Indian Govt does not ‘warn’ Sri Lanka against atrocities on Sri Lankan Tamils, terror reigns in Kashmir & the North-east in the name of the ‘struggle for independence’, the list can go on.

I wonder whether India deserves to be called a country. Each state has a different language, a different culture and in some cases they loathe each other. Many South Indians (rightly?) refuse to speak Hindi, which they say has been imposed upon them. People of many other states also do not readily accept Hindi as the ‘national’ language. So as a way to get around the language problem we use English, a foreign language, to communicate. In elections regional parties get a significant chunk of the vote, which means regional issues matter a lot. All states want job reservations for ‘locals’. And I see an increasing incidence of regionalism in the last few years.

A nation has something which binds it together – a common culture, religion, ethnic composition, a sense of brotherhood, etc. Yes, there will be some people who will still practice regionalism but as long as they are a minority kept in check the nation is safe. But from what I see the only thing that binds India together is being under British rule. What commonality did the British rule give us? A common administrative system & a common hatred of British rule. A majority of Indians practice Hinduism but I see a vast diversity in the way they practice it so I don’t see it as a glue 2hich can bind this nation we call India. The glue which the British gave us may wear off soon and we must find something else.

We used to proudly say we are a country with unity in diversity. But we have to ask ourselves whether this diversity is too diverse for us to call ourselves a nation. Is regionalism slowly triumphing over nationalism?