Nations erect statues to symbolize what they stand for. “Send (the) homeless, tempest-tossed to me. I lift my lamp beside the golden door”, reads the inscription on the Statue of Liberty—the lady with the torch. The idea of India is unity in diversity. India has erected a statue of Unity, in Sardar Patel’s image, twice as tall as the statue of Liberty.
India’s democratic and secular constitution provides a homeland to citizens of a larger number of religions and races and speaking a greater variety of languages than citizens of any other country. Whereas, tall statues are feats of engineering which can be completed in a few years, nation-building is a complex process, which takes decades, even centuries. And it can be shaken in a moment. The foundation of the idea of India—of unity in diversity—was severely shaken by the passage of the Citizenship Amendment Act by India’s Parliament this month.
The ruling party’s leaders say they are implementing the vision of a unified India that Sardar Patel had, whose statue, the tallest statue in the world, they have built at a cost of Rs. 3000 crores. They seem to have lost sight of another statue, less grand than their Statue of Unity but more evocative, which provided a better description of India’s journey to build an inclusive nation. This one, on Delhi’s Mother Teresa Crescent, shows Mahatma Gandhi leading a line of diverse Indians—Hindus, Muslims, Sikhs, and others—on the Dandi March to peacefully claim their freedom from a foreign Empire.
In this 150th anniversary of Gandhiji, it behooves our leaders to recall the vision of India that inspired the birth of our free country 72 years ago. It was a grand vision of unity in diversity that inspired the world too. Gandhiji invited people to study all religions with him in the Bible Room of the Gujarat Vidyapeeth. Where, along with words from many scriptures, his own words are inscribed: “I do not want my house to be walled in and my windows to be stuffed. I want the cultures of all lands to be blown about my house as freely as possible.”
Globally, the vision of one world is cracking. International cooperation on trade and climate is failing. Walls are rising within many countries between people with different visions of what a good society is. As RabindranathTagore feared, the world is being broken up into fragments by narrow domestic walls. Social media, which was expected to bring people together, is perversely driving them apart into conceptually gated communities of people who think alike. They do not listen any more to people not like themselves.
Can India become a beacon of unity in diversity as it once was? It will have to heal itself before it can throw light on others. Indians will have to learn to listen to each other calmly, to hear others’ points-of-views, to know others’ fears and hopes, and to respect and celebrate the differences amongst themselves.
Listening deeply to others, especially to those not like ourselves, will tone up the health of our society and our nation. We must learn to listen to why someone has a different point-of-view, and to learn who this different person is—not our stereotype of him or her. Sadly, our public discourse, on electronic and social media, and even in our elected assemblies, has degenerated into squabbles about who to blame.
Listening, like breathing, is a very simple action. Children learn to breathe and to listen soon after they are born. Then, growing up, they seem to forget the values of breathing and listening. Yoga teaches us how to breathe well again. By simply breathing deeply and well, the health of our complex bodies and minds is improved. Yoga as a means for personal well-being is India’s gift to the world. It is celebrated in a UN International Yoga Day.
To achieve our vision of unity in diversity, let us switch off our smart-phones and stop tweeting and insulting each other for just one day. Let us reach out to a citizen of our country not like us. Let us listen to who she or he really is. Let’s celebrate a national listening day. And lead the world to an international listening day.