Over her thousands of years of existence, India has evolved from being a beautiful maiden, a glorious woman, a ravaged mistress and eventually a hurt and an indifferent Mother to a billion indolent children. After living out each phase of her life, natural or forced, she grew as a nation. Changes that were brought about by the various people were easily accepted by her. The acceptance came in because she believed that the winds of change were for the better. But today the winds have stopped blowing over her and she can only see the dark clouds of apathy scattered all over.
The birth of the Indus Valley civilization led to the flourishing settlements at Mohenjo- Daro and Harappa. These civilizations introduced the world to a beautiful maiden called India. The prosperity of the then Bronze Age resulted in a community of people who were basking in the glory of increasing trade, arts and a new sense of civilized culture. The maiden was enjoying her days of serenity and calm.
Geographic changes and the Aryan invasion gradually put an end to the carefree days of the maiden. Just as a teenager would take to adulthood, India entered the threshold of maturity. The growth through the Vedic era brought not only the foundation of Hinduism to her soul but also the plethora of various cultures. Languages and dialects came into existence and spread across the cultural heartland. The spread of the cultures among the population sowed the seeds of fraternity, diversity and serenity albeit with a sense of merriment in the soul of the social India. India had matured into a beautiful woman whose voluptuousness was defined by her social, cultural and erudite inhabitants. If Northern India flourished under the Guptas, then Southern India prospered under the Chalukyas and the Cholas.
The folklores of a beautiful India had successfully seduced the Mughals and in no time the Mughal Empire had ravaged the Indian soul and put an end to the Golden Age of India. A woman was ravaged; and this left a huge devastating experience on her. The invasion by the Mughals was only the beginning of the many more devastations that she would have to bear in the future. However the Mughals knew how to protect the beauty of their mistress and they treated her well. The Mughals brought along with them the enormous influences of the Persian culture in the form of striking literary, artistic and architectural results. India instead of transforming into a rigid and a hurt woman grew as a liberal, open and a resilient person. The Classic Period of the Mughals saw the growing intimacy between the resident Indian soul and the attractive yet ambitious strategies of the Persian rulers. Her values had transmogrified into a mishmash of Hindu, Muslim, Sikh and Buddhist values but she was happy as the Mughals promised her a brilliant future.
The established British East India Company could not tolerate this growing intimacy and jealously crept in. The thoughts of jealousy soon translated into vicious actions and these cruel doings saw the British violate the sacred Indi
(End of this essay)
This essay was born on 26-Jan-2010…it was supposed to be some sort of an ode to the country on the occasion of the 60th Republic Day…a song of history, praise and displeasure…what if India took up the form of a woman...what would her feelings towards her off springs be…her equations with all the different men (read: empires/dynasties) that wanted to win her over be…however it had to be culminated inappropriately as the thought process put in place got polluted. The concept of projecting India, my Motherland, as a woman through different eras of her life got perverted. Descriptions about her innocence, gloriousness, attraction, strength, lessons and progeny had to be put to an end. The Mother soon became just another woman that I started to imagine and began to relate her in a way I shouldn’t have. This, I believe, is quintessentially the curse of a hyperactive imagination…and am overpowered to end my thought process on this subject for now!
Afterthought:
As diversity becomes the norm and everyone willing to butcher their Mother, it is ironical that apathy is the only emotion that arises in our hearts. This woman who once had the power to give away greatness has been reduced to a starving destitute…yet everyone wants to bite into the minimal amount of meat of prominence…if we do not feed her with our love…the future generations will have nothing left for inheritance….
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3 comments:
I loved the flow of your essay, especially the manner in which it is written. The whole perspective of seeing the history of India as the happenings in a woman's life is extremely novel and makes the essay a very interesting read.
I'd just like to put in one thing though... India was not even INDIA before the british came in and left. Before that we were small countries who had their own identity and were not unified as a single entity, if i were to draw a parallel Id say India before the british was what USSR is today....but a very interesting piece nontheless, write more:):):)
I loved the flow of your essay, especially the manner in which it is written. The whole perspective of seeing the history of India as the happenings in a woman's life is extremely novel and makes the essay a very interesting read.
I'd just like to put in one thing though... India was not even INDIA before the british came in and left. Before that we were small countries who had their own identity and were not unified as a single entity, if i were to draw a parallel Id say India before the british was what USSR is today....but a very interesting piece nontheless, write more:):):)
Thanks Mayuri...yeah..i agree India was a land of small nations/kingdoms..i just wish i would have completed the essay with a pure mind..but i guess that was not meant to be!
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