Hatred: The Cause For The Long Standing Battles

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. said "Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that. Hate multiplies hate, violence multiplies violence, and toughness multiplies toughness in a descending spiral of destruction ... The chain reaction of evil - hate begetting hate, wars producing more wars - must be broken, or we shall be plunged into the dark abyss of annihilation. (1963)"

Anywhere in the world wherever people are at war, their trouble seems to be never ending. The Arabs and Israel war of 1948 displaced nearly 760,000 people who became refugees in their neighboring countries with minimum basic needs and unhealthy sanitation and poor facilities according to UN Relief& Work Agency (UNRWA). Their children could not come out of the trauma of what was caused to their parents. Just like the holocaust (6 million Jews were killed:Official source) survivors, they became passionate haters of the other side. Persecution is something that nobody accepts with grace. During their displacement, Israeli leaders accused Arab leaders of urging their people to flee homes. While Historians have found evidences against Israeli forces using terror on the Palestinian people as they "fled their home out of fear of life or property". Any country that is using terror on its neighbor to leave their land and forcefully acquire those lands by building illegal settlements, cannot stand on its own for long. Such a gesture had been fiercely criticized by a few American leaders while been supported by the others. Further they acquired military defense from United States while keeping their hatred alive against Arabs. 

Our nationalist leader thinks wearing skull cap is minority appeasement while wearing Jewish cap is friendliness. Is India going to get their life hacking skills from Israel by keeping friendly relation with them and buying defense equipments from America? Are we going to use those modern machinaries against those people whom we think as our imminent security threat? What else are we going to do with our neighbors with whom we have developed a sour connection? We had battles with both Pakistan and China in the past. Though we claim that our military is not the one of 1962, the ground reality is far more worse. China has built roads through Karakoram Mountains and across the Himalayas in the central as well as the east. They have made friendly relation with both Pakistan and Nepal to reach our border. Since Nepal is economically poor, they have accepted China's invitation to build roads to make their higher reaches accessible. Similarly, Pakistan that is chiefly run by its military and are both nurturer and victim of terrorism, signed bonds with China for China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) and One Belt One Road (OBOR) for making business transactions easier. India did not participate in OBOR as we think shaking hands with Pakistani and Chinese chiefs at the same platform is anti-national.

While we reach Doklam Plateau to give security to our friend Bhutan, we aggravate enmity with China whom we condemn being friendly with Pakistan. While we show joint military exercise with United States and Japan, we keep spewing poison against Pakistan-Russia or China-Pakistan relations. Our nationalist leaders think by infuriating speeches on cow-protection or by mob lynching beef-eaters, we will create a sovereign country for us. When a pilgrims' bus is attacked by terrorist groups, we condemn all Kashmiris calling them terrorists. But when another bus falls into a gorge leading to loss of lives, we never turn grateful to those Kashmiris who saved the injured people by donating their blood. A terrorist is never born from a mother's womb but it all depends on how we treat them. Once a child watches his/her parents being tortured or mauled by mob and they never get justice from the administration, a hatred filled heart is born. That little heart grows up with more such incidences happening before his/her eyes and finally get overwhelmed by the ocean of poison we create and throw towards them time to time, by people like us, by people in administration and power. Every time we are creating more antagonism. 

The reality is every life counts. When a white life is important, a black life too is important. Casteism and religious discrimination has never earn any accolade to any civil society to our knowledge. While United States showed warmth towards the Israelis, their leaders were more interested in picking American Jews' vote. The British government had set us innumerable examples of how they used us against each other to rule for 200 years but did they survive? It's very unlikely that the people in power will get away in future after repeating those strategies. Once annihilation sets in our society, it would be wrong to say that this is the way towards more progress. Our civilization is more than 5000 years old. We have always lived with different kinds of race, religion, caste and economic strata. It would not be wise to say that we had never had a fall but each time when all of us joined hands, it worked. Our corporate world shows evidences of fighting against each other to reach superiority. Is that enough? Is n't there any other means to create more space among people living in a society? Why do we always calculate our gains and n't others' losses? Why should we accept orders about what to eat or whom to worship?

A respect is always earned, it cannot be demanded, specially by coercion and what is being earned by producing fear is not a long lasting one. A country is being depicted by the living conditions of its people which in turn is the sign of overall growth. If a country is running fast with its people being deprived of happiness, what kind of development it would be? At a certain point, the bridge between the administration and its people would break if it is exercised with too much pressure. China is an example of people being too much under constant compulsion of being the number one economically developed country. But the indigenous people of its remote mountainous areas have a poor life no body talks or cares about. Those living in big cities share equal amount of humiliation regarding their personal and professional life. Do we think our 130 Crore population can truly bear that burden? Is there any other way to show our forbearance than making laws on food and drink? There are a few permanent solution to the problems faced by us, Indians. We need to look for lessons from those who have people of varying ethnicity but they are developed, having full control on their society and they share equal space between each other. Oh, don't let your eye balls rolling back and forth. It's n't very far away place. But you know what? It's n't just one person's job to ensure safety to all of us. I mean, we are all here to protect each other. Because no body gets out of here alive.    

Conflicts And Errors

I am reading a book on conflict and war. It is about Arab and Israel. It is about their day to day hatred and propaganda against each other since their independence. The author Ian J Bickerton has given an intense description about how it all started and how did they manage for still going on. Who came for peace negotiation and who are fueling the fire. Since holocaust Jews have been the worst victim of inhumane torture and persecution, I have a feeling of compassion and generosity towards them. It is truly tough for them to make a land of their own and saving themselves from their enemies. In such a situation, everyone should have their own priority as a basic human need. Similarly, their close neighbour palestinians are also suffering, somewhat due to similar reasons and that's too by their neighbour. I hope I have not offended any one by saying those words but it is true that both the Jews and the Arabs are victims of a common poison and both are suffering due to their stubborn attitude towards each other.

When I travel in Himalayas I meet some of them on our way. Due to non availability of transport at higher reaches, sometimes, we have helped them providing a lift. During our brief introductions, we came to know that they came from Israel, some of them as young as 23. Some of them are in short term contractual employment in our country from where they collected their salary and rushed towards the mountains for a break. Some people came down straight from Israel via national capital, took public transport to mountains. All of them are very nice and gentle as we drove them off to remote localities. With our Indian visitors, we can rarely take such risks. Reaching to a destination and seeing them off, we moved to another location but those conversations gave us some light about their life and the trouble they face during their unsettling life experiments.

Everything I heard perplexed me about Israel. But what I read in this book perplexed me even more. I think the author has nicely chosen the name for his book- The Arab-Israeli Conflict, A Guide For The Perplexed.
In his book he narrates how Israelis and Arabs see each other. They are both hostile and not understanding towards each other. The book reads both of them deny each other's existence which has been a very long perilous journeys for both, specially when they are neighbouring states. In fact, though there is enmity between India and Pakistan, still a few people try to reach other by countering negative remarks at the political level. But for Israel and Palestinians, their current situation started after 2nd World War and still at an escalating range. And thinking about the benefactor of this conflict, that is another history, I guess everyone is aware of who is benefitting from such war. Frankly speaking their leader talks for peace negotiation on one hand and supply war machinaries on another and this is never going to end.

The Arabs say that Israel has cut off their amenities from place to place, they conduct war crime which is known in fact true and they are very loyal to the United States. The previous president Obama had talked about two states solution, one Israel for Israelis and one Palestine for the Arabs. But the current president Trump has called himself a great negotiator and then said he is okay with whatever solution keeps Israel happy which means he would supply gun powder and see how they are being used. It is truly ridiculous to see that such superficial super powers are so low in energy regarding minimising this conflict. Israel's defence strategy is too good and that is beneficial for a country whose people have survived genocide but does that anyway mean that they can bomb down civilians who are not directly linked to any controversy? It is killing innocent people including women and children just to scare them off or to show off their power. A conflict may give rise to as many errors as these but what I did not understand is, when is this occupation of lands stop in between peace talks? Because it is an intimidation and major blockade for any peace process. It is quite evident from both sides that neither Israel nor Palestine would surrender to each others' attitudes. What is the consequences of such long standing battle? Some authors say that Israel is going to be tried for war crime in International Court of Justice but who will submit and follow up the PIL? Their closest ally Trump has given them so much importance, it is needless to say that the Arab nation won't get a fair trial. All these conflicts are due to one or two reasons and in this case, Israeli ego and arrogance plays the superiority card. Some wars are caused due to greed and desire to acquire more. Looking at the zone of conflicts, we can easily understand that those countries that are rich in natural resources, are one of the biggest sufferers. Both United States and China are playing same tactics.

Whenever there is any religious fight, both parties get affected just like the Jews and Arabs, the Shias and Sunnis, Hindus and Muslims in our case. The political heads of countries seem to be non-participant into such controversy but even then they are questioned why such serious troubles arising in their country and what are they doing to stop them. Trust me, none of them admit their lack of intention over preventing those people who instigate violence nor their inability to stop them. They keep pretending infront of the volatile masses about their impotency which is essentially a lack of will rather than ability. Actually these are the people we elect to represent our respective countries who after acquiring power think that they can play with peoples' lives which is by far the most dangerous game. With ocassional goodwill gestures towards their public, they assume themselves their master and thereby assume demonic role in mass murders. Nonetheless, these are the people who spend millions of tax payers' money for their foreign trips, increase their own bank balance, even their distant relatives become richer with just one person of their family being in power. Such large scale loots are going on at state level and block or district level too. But where is the public who were promised so many things? No job, no health benefits, no educational scheme suitable for higher studies for lower or middle income groups? Perhaps this is why they are being used  in protecting public mandate by unfair means.

There is no governmental institution who is providing us free meal because every thing is damn expensive. When an industry is being set up or a large dam is being built, it is done by us, with public fund, with the money we keep deposited in banks and other financial institutions. But when those structures fail due to corruption or other factors like faulty environmental study, who loses? Us. It is always us. Hence, I have decided that when I am responsible for electing a leader, paying tax for his salary and bear the taxation for each commodity I buy from the market, I would rather go one step more and ask our leaders a few questions.

Further I would stand up for any region that is going through turmoil but I cannot do every thing alone. So I need people like me. All these neo short term fame hungry facebook writers or those using social media to spread hatred, those who are trying to pollute our environment, those who try to humiliate our sisters or kill our brothers, be it Hindu or Muslim, Buddhist or Christian, I do not care. Whoever will try to harm my homeland, I shall stand against them. Each time I read a good book or watch a good movie, I take important and valid lessons from them. Like in hindi movie "Lakshya" where soldiers wanted to send back Pak jawans' body in the same way they did to our Indian soldier, a senior officer says "if we do the same thing as our enemies did to us then where is the difference between those enemies and us". We are now on the same page as our enemies. On many ocassions in social media or online contents, I have read viciously poisonous remarks which can and do instigate some people to spit their own venom, I genuinely feel pity on those souls. Either they are hungry for short term popularity or they are just hopeless aimless bunch of hookers. I am sorry for using this term but they are those who take money from anyone and then do as they like.

Prime Minister Modi once said to a gathering, out of 125 crores, if one step is being taken by each person, we can move 125 crore steps at any time. During past few months, unfortuantely, nothing caught my eyes to boost that statement of his except creating unrest for the future. He goes abroad to get foreign help, trying to boost our agriculture, our defence and investments in our industries. But sadly, nothing can we conclude about his venture in the form of actions because every country is aware of the social condition of our country and therefore, are anxious about the future of their investments.

I would like to ask my fellow Indians about their future plans, specially those who are active social media users and who like to use or forward unverified messages to spray petrol, in place of water, to douse fire. I would like to ask them what kind of benefit do they get after participating in each incident? Are they just having fun or are they taking measures to decimate those differences between our enemies and us? What kind of protocol is to be followed to prove that I belong to a Hindu upper caste family and I love my country more than those who are creating trouble on daily basis? What is the guarantee that all such activities will stop once we fully become Golwalkar's Hindu rashtra and not Gandhi's land for all?

I have questions and many other would have and we would like to know who will take responsibility for answering us? Because unless we get all our answers, we won't stop asking them. One of my friend frequently says, if one takes money from some one, they must be answerable about its use. So I am doing my part. Are you interested to join my quest? I want to ask the government, in such a country, what is the future of our children? What are they doing to keep them safe? A few drops of tears won't quench my thirst any more. Because this time, I am really angry.