In a land of diversity, when a person of a majority community -- not necessarily in terms of religion -- is told that another's culture is very different from his and thus must be "protected" at all costs, the minorities are automatically regarded as "them." And when that "protection" impinges on the rights of the majority, the minorities come to be seen as the "enemy." This is simply human nature, not in any government's control. However, resentments simmer and, at a time of crisis, quickly turn into acts of violence. Which acts, of course, are controllable by the law of the land. But my question is: Why create a divisive ethos in the first place??
That "individual basis" is what true secularism is all about. Secularism exists when the State does not espouse a religion; lets its citizens follow their different faiths even while preventing any one from intruding on the others; and treats all religions equally -- regardless of the number of people following each religion. Meaning, whether the majority or the minority community, one rule applies to all. "Special-interest groups" does not make for national unity and never will -- only assimilation can.Unless we achieve this goal,it will be a wild goose chase to think of those lofty ideals like " One Global village" or " World without boundaries" KJD On Sat, Aug 14, 2010 at 10:39 AM, uttam borthakur <uttambortha...@yahoo.co.in> wrote: > Nationalism is a thing of the past. (Also because in the hands of > irresponsible people it quickly turns to fascism which cannot find support > from a follower of democratic behaviour) I support Dilip Da on this. He > believes in no national boundaries, that's what he declared, if I read him > right. > But, when the world economy is getting integrated, the issues and concerns > affecting mankind are becoming more and more global, the politics of war is > more or less evenly distributed across the globe, interracial marriages are > leading to evolution of more and more people who cannot be thrown into an > anachronistic type-cast-nation-type, English is establishing its hegemony all > over, the writing is surely on the wall that time for exit of dormouse NATION > concept and associated sentimentality have come, paving way for the global > man with flavors from his point of origin and passage. > Then, why these clamors for a separate country, separate state, separate > district, separate council are in fact not going down proportional to present > and clear movement towards integration? > Or, is the new promise of integration is innately an eye wash which is > antithesis to KJD's rightful dream of " even as single members of the unit > sustain cultural differences-- on an individual basis " Else how these two > opposites are manifesting with equal vigor, if we do not put on blinkers to > our day to day predicament world-wide. There's an all pervasive 'fear' and > 'distrust'; which should not have been discernible if the trend is > predominantly towards integration. > I shall be obliged if someone give some pointers on this. kamal > deka kjit.deka at gmail.com > Sat Aug 14 04:27:34 IST 2010Previous message: [Assam] The autonomy issueNext > message: [Assam] The autonomy issueMessages sorted by: [ date ] [ thread ] [ > subject ] [ author ]Hello Dhrubajyoti, > I do agree with you on this.I want to see an united Assam where > diversity should sparkle in unity. > > In my opinion,multiculturalism is the antithesis of nationalism; it > highlights the differences between peoples while ignoring the > similarities whereas nationalism, on the other hand, highlights the > similarities between peoples while obscuring the differences. It seeks > to "melt" everybody into one unit, which, as a whole, reveres the > state, even as single members of the unit sustain cultural differences > -- on an individual basis. > > K J Deka > > Uttam Kumar Borthakur > > _______________________________________________ > assam mailing list > assam@assamnet.org > http://assamnet.org/mailman/listinfo/assam_assamnet.org > _______________________________________________ assam mailing list assam@assamnet.org http://assamnet.org/mailman/listinfo/assam_assamnet.org
