India: Past, Present and Future

Histroy is a subject which every child detest. Facts, facts and facts. As a child, even I did that. But reading it now with a new perspective, gave me a beautiful insight of the subject. History teaches you a beautiful lesson, the lesson of how to avoid the mistakes committed in past. It also gave birth of a Cynics in me. I started analysing history of India critically and came through a stark contrast on Indian society of Past and Present. It gave me a real insight on the Indian society in general and status of women, education, divide between reach and poor in particular, and the moribund state we are today in.

India is a country, which basically came into existence during the british expansion era. Had it not been the British, we could have been still a feudal society with lots of social evil prevailing. Many historians (I agree they are far more educated than me on the topic, but it's strictly my point of view) , dates back the history of India to "Indus Valley Civiliation". I agree, that Indus Valley was the first civilisation of it's kind, but it was a civilisation which flourished on Indian Subcontinent (Present India, Pakistan and part of Afganistan), and not exactly in India. But since it is attached to India, I will start my discussion from there, which basically comes under Ancient Indian History.

Indian history is subdivided into three eras, "Ancient", "Medieval", and "Modern".  All three eras contributed in shaping society of present. As for me, cotribution of Ancient India is far better than the contribution of Medieval or Modern India. If a person will scrutinize every aspect which contributes in development of society, he/she will find a considerable decline in every critical indicator like status for women, social evils, pride in nationhood and nation, science and technology, as the time progressed.

During Indus Valley and Vedic Era, Women hold center stage in every aspect of life. We have so many evidence of "Brahmavadinis", "acharya", who shaped the life of society. During medieval age, Islam had deep influence in India due to continuous attack of Arabs, Turks, and slowly society started to become closed one. Not only Islam, but Brahminism, upper caste and lower caste difference gave rise to stigma and plethora of problems for women. Slowly and gradually, condition of women dipped to it's lowest state and several evils started to raise there heads agains them. They were forced into sati, child marriage and widows got even severe treatment during those days.

Education suffered a lack in innovation during transition phase. There was no real progress in science and technology. Land of "Bhaskaracharya" and "Aryabattas" suffered a draught of scientific innovation during medieval and modern period. Though art and music flourished due to contact with other cultures, lack of industrial revolution resulted in the country being slave for 200 years. This point is evident from the fact that, we have evidence of many poets, artisans, singers from the medieval time period but not a single scientist.Infact when British came to India, they realised the backwardness of India in the field of industrialization and thus began their campaign for total control. 

Pride and glory in being Indian is a quality which we lacked from ancient times. Society was feudalistic during medieval times and Kings and Lords used to fight with each other very often. Rivalry between Cholas and Chalukyas, Pals and Pratihars, Jayachand and Prithviraj are a few examples for medieval period. Even during the attack of Mahmud Ghazni and Muhammand Ghauri, we failed to show unity agains the attackers. Rather people from that period, invited them to attack and destroy their enemy, without realising that the friends are foes wearing cloacks of friendship. In Later mughal period, we have example of Marathas, who rose to prominence but still could not create an empire in India. This was also attributed to the fact that, Marathas behaved more like a clan with sole purpose to loot rather than to create an empire. Their looting habit created several enemies which is evident from the fact that none came forward to help them during Third battle of Panipat against Ahmed Sah Abdali. Treachery was at pic during that era and every one was power hungry. Mir Qasim plotted against Siraj, Tipu was defeated because a minister of his turned traitor. We have so many examples.

As for rich - poor divide and condition of peasantry, all I can say is peasants gradually moved from being landlords to landless labourers during this transition. Ancient India witnessed a varied variety of crops being produced. Peasants were owner of land. The condition started deteroriating during Medieval age and British Raj did more harm than good for Agriculture by introducing Land reforms like Ryotwari, Mahalwari and Zamindari. They created a new class called land less labourers. Rich continue to become rich and poor. Well what can I say about them. Outsted from their own land, driven away, they continue to be oppresed.

Some may wonder why I am discussing these things here. As I said History teaches you to learn from mistakes you committed in past. But we, the unit called Indians never learn from our mistakes. We are still known as Bihari, bengali, marathi, tamil, telugu, northy, southy and god knows by how many names but Indians. We still produce some 10,000 research papers a year while China is way ahead us in terms of number. Condition of women is still not upto the mark in society. They are still subjected to discrimination. Some may argue here that the condition of women have improved and today they are doing good in every field. But a question. How many girls/women are actually self dependent? We have a handful and we boast about that. But at grass root level, the condition worsens. We have honour killing still prevailing, dowry, education of women, all shows a grim prospect. Country capital New Delhi has been termed as most unsafe city for women. Rich is getting rich day by day and poor is getting poorer day by day. Peasants are still the oppressed class and contribution of Agriculture in GDP is dwindling day by day. If we modify the definitionn of BPL (Below Poverty Line), 60% of population will come under BPL. All in all a grim prospect for future.

What we can do to change this prospect? Take responsibility and change yourself and some thing around you. Take a lesson from history. We are the most intellectual of all race and we need to take benefit out of the fact. We need to stop cribbing and start acting. We know where we are wrong. Forces trying to remove corruption, efforts in field of education and agriculture, are few which need impetus. Then only we can reach the zenith of glory which this landmass witnessed 15 century ago.

Sachin is best batsmen in world because he plays by his strength. Our strength lies in it's people. If we really want to be the super power, we need to be Indian.