A Burning World

When we say discriminating things, however small their magnitude may be, we sow the seeds of strife; seeds which hatred nurtures into saplings of conflict, trees of turmoil, and little specious flowers of death.

All of us hate conflict, and the strife prevalent between our countries and religions fills our hearts with remorse. All of us, at some point of time, some more often than others, have found ourselves wishing for the brutality of this aggression and bloodshed to be over; but to no avail.  Even as we wish and pray, a soldier dies somewhere in Iran, a bomb explodes in Pakistan, an Indian Muslim is baselessly interrogated in America, and a whole family is shot to death in Jerusalem. Reason and origins? Undocumented; stupidity, aggression, anger, violence: basic traits of human nature.

The world is a delicate place and its people are sensitive. Sensitive and it may seem, increasing intolerant. Any little thing anybody says or does has a net effect. Everything and anything affects eternity. Seems improbable, right? How could your random cursing of the Pakistani cricket team have anything to do with terrorism? Think of it this way. It’s not just one random utterance. It’s thousands and lacs and crores of such prejudiced rantings, narrow-minded facebook statuses, careless tweets, and bigoted memes and caricatures put together, that feed a mind sweltering in the fire of angst and pain, somewhere, someplace, and force it to take an extreme step.

Strife, dissension, and rivalry are everywhere. For instance, there are Pakistani hate pages and groups about India and likewise Indian hate groups about Pakistan. Dare I say, somebody may even accuse me of being discriminating because I mentioned Pakistani hate pages and groups before their Indian counterparts. When something as small and insignificant like this can arouse tension and discord, think what statements that publicly deride sensibilities could lead to. The world is full of feeble-minded people who are like sheep following a herder; people who celebrate and rejoice when a rival nation loses a sports match their country wasn’t even part of. Yes, the world is full of such people, but it is not entirely composed of them. There are people in Pakistan who hate India, which is surprising if they’ve never been to India, but there are also people who would shelter an Indian in times of need. The same applies for India.  Fair and good people may be a minority, but fair and good hearts still form a majority. Thank God for that.

Speaking as an Indian, I just do not understand where the conflict between India and Pakistan stems from. Some people will just deride Pakistan every opportunity they get and call every Pakistani a terrorist. The logic behind this eludes me. Surely, the two nations have seen bad times. But that is a thing of the past. Maybe still their government is criminal and non-cooperating with respect to India, but is the Indian government filled with angels and noble people? The Kashmir issue? Sure, it’s complicated. But we must realize not the whole of Pakistan is behind that, just like the whole of India is not behind the rapes, murders, political scams one sees in India on a day to day basis. It is just a few select people who misuse mob mentality for personal gain.

Most people know this deep down, yet they’ll willingly curse the other nation any time. People’ll say that India is a democracy and every citizen has the right to voice what they think. I say, bullshit. Democracy isn’t about every person having a voice; it’s about every voice having an ear. It’s about every voice being given an opportunity to be heard. So the people who dance to the beat of the ‘India-is-a-Democracy-and-I’ll-say-whatever-I-want-to’ drum, are just actually seeking a constitutional way of being racist, discriminating, whatever.

This is what it comes out to: if we want peace, we must first quieten our minds. Peace will never come, not in a hundred years, not in a hundred millennia, if we keep the fire of prejudice and favouritism burning in our hearts. I don’t ask that we ignore the acts of terrorism that people engage in. I just ask that we don’t form opinions and put the blame on entire nations or specific religions. I know people will disagree with me and maybe brand me a fanatic. But this is what I believe in. I write this in the hope that my words may someday change mindsets. Even if they change one, I’ll be satisfied that my efforts were not in vain. I urge that the next time you are about to mock a country, culture, or religion, be it Pakistan, Sikhism, Islam, Hinduism, darker-complexioned people, and whatnot, take a double take and think again. For every word uttered in scorn acts as fuel to the blazing fire of world dispute, while every statement uttered in Love acts as a gentle drop of rain.