Embrace of All Subcontinental History and Strive for Truth
Subcontinent’s history has rivers of blood flowing through it. Our civilized psyches have been scarred with slashes from our barbarity. The pain is deep, and it is kept simmering through our hatred. But even hatred is taboo, because we are brothers, and co-travelers of the same destiny. We, Subcontinentals, have all been partners in self-mutilation. But if history has torn us, it has also forged our mettle, our identity. We cannot escape history or ignore history. All we can do is to embrace history.
Our identities are tied to various ethnicities, various ideologies, various historical events, various historical personalities. These define us and rightly so. If we derive our sense of belonging and pride from the above, why are we not willing to accept the dark chapters as well of the concerned historical events, ideologies, groups and personalities? Are we so 2-dimensional, that regret would add a facet to our thinking, that our personalities would collapse under its weight? Are we rather willing to carry the burden of culpability and shame of our history on our souls dressed up as denial and pride?
For if we do that, we are shutting the doors for our intellect, through which enlightenment should come. We would be unwilling to learn the lessons. We would skew our personalities so much, trying to justify the unjustifiable. To some extent we are free to form and mould our own identities. There where there is a choice, we ourselves choose which historical associations we want as the building blocks to our identity, but once we choose these, we should accept both their glowing aspects as well as their shaming aspects; we should publicly acknowledge those shaming chapters of history; we should not be hesitant in expressing our regrets at the shameful turn of history; and we should not hesitate in drawing lessons from such chapters.
For those aspects of identity, over which we have no control, which we inherit as part of our birth, again we should enjoy both the glowing pride such history infuses in our breasts and lament the list of criminal charges that may cling to such history. One can again cope with this inheritance of guilt, by turning it inwards and tormenting one’s own soul with it, or by confronting it, acknowledging it and repenting it. Repentance is the only way for one’s soul to escape the torment, for the soul to feel its strength and for it to taste life as it should taste – as free.
The Subcontinent needs both pride in its history but also reconciliation. Only Truth, Regret and Repentance make Reconciliation possible. A Pan-Subcontinentalist would derive pride from his identity and from Subcontinent’s history where ever possible, but would also be open to regret and repentance, where history requires it of him. A Pan-Subcontinentalist’s soul would be uncaged, unchained, unburdened by History. The Pan-Subcontinentalist will embrace History with all its warts. This would allow him to both be firmly anchored in his Identity but also to be in peace with it. The Pan-Subcontinentalist would in his own way thus contribute to Peace in the Subcontinent.
When talking about History, it is also important that one has the courage to dig for the Truth. The Truth should prevail! Satyamev Jayate! There are people however, who however want to twist History to their agendas, to make it fit their ideologies. The Pan-Subcontinentalist would fight against this trait and would always stand for the Truth, come what may! For the Subcontinental to evolve, he needs to learn how to face the Truth about the region, about his History.
The Pan-Subcontinentalist basks in the glory of Subcontinent's history, contributes to the healing of History's wounds, and seeks Truth hidden in History's drapes.
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