Strange title?
Isn't it?
Strange indeed.
To hear about the existence of three nations within a country is strange.
To observe it through your own eyes is stranger indeed !
But on the basis of what I have observed and experienced in the past two months, I have now started believing that there are three, and not two, nations within this country.
India...
Bhaरत...and
हिन्दुस्तान...
India...one extreme...cut off from the rest of the nation....limited to a handful of cities, but the 'Indians' consider as if they are the majority in this country...
On the other extreme, you have हिन्दुस्तान...the larges of the three 'nations'; area wise as well as population wise...For many of the citizens of हिन्दुस्तान, 'India' seems to be a far-off land.....The faces might seem similar, but the culture (and now even the language) seems so different.....
And then you have, hovering between the two extremes, Bhaरत......Bhaरत, the 'bridge' between India and हिन्दुस्तान....
Citizens of Bhaरत...a strange lot......
had their Past in हिन्दुस्तान,
spend their Present in Bhaरत
while they see their Future in India....
I spent the last two month travelling across 'India' ( Delhi, Hyderabad), 'Bhaरत' ( Lucknow, Jaipur, Raipur), and हिन्दुस्तान ( Bijnor, Miryalguda, Bhadai village (Muzaffarpur))...and the more I travelled, the more I became convinced of the existence of the three 'nations' within one country..
Wondering what's the point talking about these 'three nations' now?
Well, some recent events, though differing in the magnitude of their gravity, have again made me think on this 'difference' between the 'three nations'....
On one hand you had Bhaरत hooked on to the grand drama played on in the national capital with leading actors from opposing groups venting their emotions on a grand scale, brought to us live by the 'braking' news !
On the other hand, you had 'Indians' debating on the 'meaning' and 'relevance' of a song currently in news for all the wrong reason. To see some of the 'prominent' citizens of 'India' giving their 'views' on the merits and demerits of a song (something to with someone's belly) which even the garbage bin might decline to accept, was simply disgusting.
They hardly have anytime to think of what is going in the other two nations, except when doing so might help them win some awards ( recall the several Miss World speeches "I want to help the poor, the downtrodden...")..
At the same time you also had residents of Jagatsinghpur (Orrisa) in हिन्दुस्तान, the site for the proposed POSCO plant, protesting against the move to take the land from them....
It is not difficult to imagine which of these events would have garnered the maximum attention from our so called 'national Media' !
The farther the two extremes get from each other, the more intense and sincere the reconciling efforts have to be...
The farther the two extremes get from each other, more is the likelihood of difference in opinion (which may at times even lead to clashes) followed by clashes between the two extremes..
The farther the two extremes get from each other, more has to be the role played by Bhaरत in bringing them thogether..
The farther the two extremes get from each other, more is the likelihood of widening of inequality between them...
This inequality will not be good for the the growth, the economy, 'three nations', this one country where we all live, and for US....
By the way, which country do you live in ?
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