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One of the biggest tragedies that have befallen the
nation in the post independence era is the class of the so-called
intellectuals, who would go to any extent to earn themselves laurels
even if it requires denigrating their own motherland.
Arundhati Roy who has already been made an
international figure by being rewarded the Booker’s Prize, now seems
to be eyeing for more international recognition. Recently, during a book
reading function in New York, Roy surprised the audience as she stopped
reading her award winning book midway and said she wanted to speak on an
issue, which had been bothering her for quite some time. Amidst frequent
clapping, she told the audience that, “The biggest PR myth of all
times is that India is a democracy. In reality, it is not.”
Had India not been a democracy Roy would not have
been able to bargain insult of her motherland for international fame and
publicity. India is a democracy and in a democracy every individual has
the right to voice his opinion, but India is also one national family
and it is expected that the family issues are not taken to strangers for
redress. Had Roy been genuinely concerned about the state of democracy
in India without caring for laurels, she could have voiced her
reservations on appropriate forums in India. The Indian media, which is
predominantly controlled by the same forces to which Roy owes
allegiance, would have been overwhelmingly obliged to air her views.
Roy sighted the cases of Kashmir and the
North-eastern states to prove her point that India is not democratic. It
seems that in her perception India is not one single nation, as she
finds the presence of the Indian army in Kashmir and the North-eastern
states akin to the US occupation of Iraq. She feels that India is “one
of the leading experts” in “occupation” and that “the occupation
of Kashmir has taken place over years”. She pointed out that in
Kashmir Valley alone some 80,000 people have been killed and there are
some 7,00,000 military personnel. Assuming that the given statistics is
correct, what Roy did not dare to mention is the blood bath that would
have prevailed had the Indian military not been present in the Valley.
Though she termed the presence of the Indian military in Kashmir and the
North-east, which is doing its level best to ensure peace in the
violence-hit areas, as “occupation”, Roy had nothing to say against
the jehadis in Kashmir and the church sponsored separatists in the
North-east whose hands are smeared with the blood of countless innocent
men, women and children. It is obvious that Roy endorses Musharraf’s
viewpoint in the matter, that the violent terrorists are “freedom
fighters”. No wonder a few years ago, Roy had defended and supported
SAR Geelani who was accused of attack on the Parliament and
anti-national activities.
Speaking on the Narmada dam issue, Roy used the
language often used by the Christian missionaries and the UN calling the
tribals the “indigenous people”. The concept of “indigenous
people”, though applicable to the other parts of the world like
Africa, Australia, North and South America, does not apply to India. The
native Indians in America, the aboriginals in Australia, the pygmies in
Africa, were the original inhabitants of the respective lands but when
the white man from Europe went to these lands, he conquered violently
and unethically, rendering the indigenous people a deplorable minority.
But this is not the case with India. In India from times immemorial the
so-called vanvasi and non-vanvasi populations have been co-existing.
There is no evidence of any white “Aryan” race coming from foreign
lands and invading the black “Dravidian” race of the original
inhabitants, a myth formulated by Max Muller. The latest archaeological
and historical discoveries have proved that Aryan-Dravidian myth
conceptualised and propagated by the British was a deliberate attempt to
divide the Indian population.
India has, time and again, asserted that it is one
indigenous people implying one undivided nation. But that does not go
well with the church which is an instrument of continued western
imperialism. Right from the days of the British Raj, the church with its
evil divisive designs has been propagating that the Vanvasis are the
indigenous people and instigating them to liberate themselves from the
rule of the “Aryan invaders” which often results into violent
separatist movements as can be witnessed in the North-east.
While Roy painted a very horrendous picture of the
Gujarat riots where 1,00,000 Muslim minority (again one wonders the
source and authenticity of the figure) were forced to flee their homes,
there was not even a mention of the 4,00,000 Kashmiri pundit minority
that has been forced to live as refugees in their own country for the
last fifteen years.
In front of the international audience, Roy took
utmost care in her statements to be politically correct, correct in the
context of international polity, not the national polity. Probably the
natural desire to maintain the status of international personality made
her speak the language that would appeal to her western masters.
It is only because of India’s liberal democratic
nature that elements like Roy, who are compensated by their paymasters
in the west, are tolerated. Thanks to the large chunk of the so-called
liberal media that thrives mainly on resources that come from the west,
the likes of Roy, instead of being exposed, are projected as modern,
liberal, heroes who because of their westernized, sophisticated ways
become the objects of admiration and emulation for the Indian youth
which, following the legacy of Macaulay, sees everything that is coming
from the west as ideal.
The nexus of such fraudulent intellectuals and the
sold media is an effective and easy tool in the hands of the western
imperialists for the smooth implementation of their hideous agenda.
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