Jana Gana Mana...
The trigger for this post may be from a Malayalam movie's trailer but the underlying emotion that these three words signify has probably grown with me through the years. The trailer shows how a seemingly common man is suppressed by the system around him and ends with him taking a somewhat unilateral yet drastic action against a symbolic perpetrator of that system. What is depicted in that scene is not how one is supposed to react, neither is it how I've seen news emanate from India on how the masses react. India is a huge country. Not just in terms of the area but the diversity of the citizens spread along the length and breadth of this land-mass. On a macro level, one may think that what we see in the news is affecting a lot of people but at a micro level, even if its a population of 1.4 billion, each person is living their own life trying to meet their ends on a day-to-day basis.
But what is it that unites us as a nation? It can be argued on the basis of emotion that its our love for cricket or our respect for the armed services. But beneath all of that, often hidden, is a sense of belonging to the land and the idea of the nation. I don't mean to generalize but largely beginning from the lower-middle class going up, one's presence in the country isn't questioned on a daily basis. You are welcome to practice your religion, live your life and stay under the radar if you choose to. It's easier said than done but it is by and large true. Yes, there is the dance of democracy where political parties aim to bring people together but ultimately, their aim is to serve their own interests and that co-incidentally is tied to them serving the people. If you look at it mathematically, any number of votes that results in the outcome of an election is eventually a sum total of individual votes added up. It is the power of one multiplied many-fold.
So what do those three words signify? Why did they touch a nerve for me? For me personally, it stood out more than just the beginning of our national anthem. That very anthem is but only a trigger. Maybe it is a trigger because I live outside the country. Standing out and looking in sounds aspirational but in some ways, my ability to stand out and still look in and still feel a sense of belonging is because of the prevailing environment in which I grew up. I have met individuals from conflict areas or places in the world where they had to escape from their given state in their country of origin. I am blessed that my "escape" if it should be clubbed in that term is one driven by my ambitions and ability to do so. As with any collective small or big, a nation also has its share of problems. Some that affect many and some that affect just a few. But to emerge out of and feel a sense of belonging to a nation that is for the most part safe from active conflict is indeed a blessing. In lieu of that blessing, all I can do is continue to maintain and build on those virtues instilled in me by that land. Those very virtues that make me stand and place my arm on my heart when I hear the words "Jana Gana Mana..."
