Every election season is an opportunity that welcomes our continued participation in public life.
Roshan
Many people call this election important, but we need to remember that all elections are
important. Between every election period so much happens in our lives, our cities, our
villages, our country, our world and universe. There have been Moon and Mars
explorations, wars fought, economies rising and sinking, natural disasters, national
emergencies like shortage of water, food and jobs, bad monsoons, crop failures, caste
wars, bad urban planning, gender inequity, ban on certain staple foods, increase in the
cost of living, funerals, marriages, births, suicides, high cost of education and so on.
In the midst of all this are those thinkers who try to solve these problems, committed
individuals who think and act to save natural resources, artists who make living much
less a burden, communities that live sustainability and inclusion (but swallowed in the
social media galaxy), farmers who feed the world, lawyers who represent the voiceless,
journalists who report the facts as they are, actors who take a stand and our children
who are hopeful of a better tomorrow. I am sure that as a family we have in some
instances dressed up our children as little iconic personalities who defined history. We
have seen hopeful children dressed as MK Gandhi, Subash Chandra Bose, Ambedkar,
Nehru, Lord Krishna, Hanuman, Mother Teresa and many other such famous
personalities.
How many times though have we believed in the personalities that our
children adorned?
When Fr Stanswamy passed away, much like when Gandhi, Ambedkar, Nehru, Martine
Luther King Jr, Mother Teresa or Nelson Mandela did, we were the first to recognise
them with a prestigious award of selfless social service that remained etched in the
knowledge of our family’s collective spirit. We need to agree that most of us were a far
cry from actually nurturing our children in the values of the personalities they
mimicked in costume. Common practice is, that we teach our children to appreciate
these personalities, but ensure that we do not let them walk their which changed the
course of history. As adults we also doubt ourselves (without properly trying) in trying
to be witnesses to our children in being these change makers.
We restrict ourselves to a reality that is beyond hope and somehow pass it on to our
children. The most popular implied values we impart to our children endorse an
apologist approach to the way reality is, while at one point we dressed our children as
change makers of the past. Do we not believe that they could be change makers of their
time too?
Unfortunately, most of us as privileged communities pass on the prestigious award
recognition tradition to our children, to the point of believing that nothing meaningful
in the interest of the community’s good can be accomplished by us. We embrace a
culture of endorsements and legitimise why we consume little doses of hopelessness
while we belong to a faith that is filled with hope, freedom and unconditional love. We
go a step further, we talk about our admiration for people who live by these values and
make their lives seem impossible to achieve. We build shrines of admiration for them on
WhatsApp, Facebook, Instagram and the likes while educating ourselves that we cannot
achieve what they have managed. While it is impossible for us to achieve what they have
managed, it is perfectly possible for us to achieve what we are called to manage.
Every election season is an opportunity that welcomes our continued participation in
public life; the part where we begin to give to Caesar what belongs to Caesar. As
Christians, we cannot overlook our duty towards a society that is free, hopeful and
thrives on unconditional love. We need to do justice to the thousands of lives of the early
Christians who lost their life to ensure that we live our lives as fearless Christians
passing on this sacred legacy. We are much more than building shrines of admiration
that we educate our children to uphold.
I have three wishes. Firstly, I wish all of us to follow through their convictions, politics
and their candidates who they voted for; to believe in something original and not wait
to be told what to believe in or admire by anyone. I believe we can be a stronger
democracy with the meaningful population of not just regular people, but citizens. So,
secondly I wish for us to be citizens who can be looked up to for not being apologists,
but to develop the scientific temper, humanism and the spirit of inquiry and reform – as
spelt out in our Fundamental Duties as Indian Citizens. Thirdly, I wish we further
increase our currency as a meaningful democracy. Hope this is not too much.
Many people call this election important, but we need to remember that all elections are
important. Between every election period so much happens in our lives, our cities, our
villages, our country, our world and universe. By the next election I hope we have a
legacy that goes beyond a single day voting to follow through our convictions, politics
and the candidates we voted for; to believe in something original and not be prompted
to believe or admire something by anyone. Secondly I wish for us to be citizens who are
not apologists, but those who develop the scientific temper, humanism and the spirit of
inquiry and reform – as spelt out in our Fundamental Duties as Indian Citizens. Thirdly,
I wish we further increase our currency as a meaningful minority community in this
great democracy we call India.
Through explorations on the Moon and Mars, wars, global economic uncertainties,
natural disasters, national concerns like – shortage of water and food, unemployment,
bad monsoons, crop failures, caste wars, bad urban planning, gender inequity, ban on
certain staple foods, increase in the cost of living, funerals, marriages, births, suicides,
high cost of education and so on – there is a seed of hope we nurture, even though it is a
sustainable future we may not live to see. Hope this is not too much to ask.
