This poem embodies the fate of India’s Secularism which was based on the Nehruvian vision that aimed towards binding the country’s disparate communities together under one roof. Now that the ‘majoritarian nation’ envisions of the current fascist regime has come into view, we realise that ‘Dharma’ was never our enemy, it was always Communalism.
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India,
Ours is a secular country
In a religious equidistant fervour.
Ours is a secular country,
And my synesthete friend tells me that the colour of Ayaats and Shlokas isn’t red.
India,
then why do you bleed?
Our leaders tell us that Secularism is not only in our constitution but also in our veins.
India,
Is that why you bleed?
Bharat Mata or Gau Mata?
India,
Oprah Winfrey tells me that –
‘Biology is the least that makes someone a mother.’
India,
Is Maternal love Dharmic?
Is that why my mother changed my name from Mandira to Indira?
India,
Kabir tells me that –
Hindus and Muslims do not want discipline,
They just want to eat tasty food, cook in the same fire,
just not the same food, plate, and prayer.
India,
Ours is still the same,
From British Raj to Bhagwa Raj,
Nehruvian to Marxist,
European secularists to Counter Christian theocracy,
We’re still conquest oriented, hegemonial, and radical.
The theists are still unhappy,
We still rape our women in their graves,
We still burn carbs in Ramzaan and Ekadashi,
Temples and Mosques on other days,
Sometimes trains, buses, and dead bodies for a change.
India,
We’ve led the legacy,
We’re ‘still’ very secular.
India,
Ours is still the same,
We’re still colonised,
Not by the British, but by our communal guise.
India,
He’s still alive,
He struts on the global stage, preaches Savarkar
And practises Pogrom and Hindutva Asana on International Yoga Day.
Identifies his subjects from their clothes,
Burqas and skull caps ferment his loathe.
India,
We’re ‘still’ secular,
We still accommodate Vedas and Gitas,
But not Shari’ah or the Vatican.
And if they try to dissent,
We still assassinate.
India,
Ours is still the same,
We’ve altered a bit in a Leftist format,
If they endorse religion in the state,
We cut them off from their greater civilisational ethos.
India,
We’re ‘still’ secular,
And still pagan, kafir, idolatrous and superstitious.
India,
Ours is still the same.
We still cast and elect in orange and green.
We still uphold the unholy trinities,
India,
We’re ‘still’ very secular,
And where our secularism starts,
Is still,
where our freedom ends.
Disclaimer: Views expressed by the writer are exclusively personal and do not reflect the stand or policy of The Second Angle
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