Made in India, living in India : Mixture of opposites
- The Sangai Express Editorial :: Ocotber 04, 2014 -

Perhaps it happens only in India. Pictures of Gods and Goddesses painted on compound walls, not for any devotional purposes but to discourage others from relieving or spitting on the said walls.

Mixture of opposites.

A clear reflection of a place inhabited by people who are spiritual and religious but at the same time who have no qualms of littering and making public places messy and dirty.

The dirt, filth and mess that one sees around the cities and villages in India is a clear indication of how deeply disconnected is the notion of being religious and spiritual and the idea of how shabbily one lives.

At best the idea of cleanliness and tidiness has not moved beyond the spaces that one identifies as one’s own personal place.

No wonder then that open toilet is something that continues to be associated with the country.

Given such a situation, it should not come as a surprise that today a number of people have come under the impression that any open space or the road sides are their personal fiefdoms where the kitchen wastes and all sorts of rubbish can be dumped.

Spitting on anything that comes under the nomenclature ‘public’ is common.

Anything that is public can be dirtied, messed around and polluted with dirt and filth and nothing illustrates this better than the public toilets that one sees all over the place.

It is not only the cities but also the country side where any open space is taken as the ideal ground to defecate, completing the idea of India as a Nation.

The lack of civic sense is palpable and such a sense can only develop when the people are overly selfish with not even an ounce of civic sense. No wonder that this is India in the 21st century and nothing has been exaggerated here.

The rivers and streams are polluted and in some cases have been turned into drains. Roadsides have been turned into dumping grounds.

This is the reality, a stark reality that is happening in a country where there is no such thing as commensality between the high caste man and the low caste man.

Where the idea of the ‘pure’ and ‘impure’ runs deep and has received a certain degree of social legitimacy.

It is against this that Prime Minister Narendra Modi personally wielded a broom and signalled the message of the need to keep the country neat and clean on October 2.

An idea whose time should have come a long time back. In wielding that broom and sweeping away the dirt and filth, the Prime Minister was sending out the message that it is the bounden duty of every Indians to keep the place spic and span.

That Modi chose to kick start the campaign on Gandhi Jayanti is significant too for here is a man who not only championed non-violence but also self service and hygiene.

In one sweeping gesture, the Prime Minister did send out the message that it is not beneath the dignity of anyone to pick up the broom and clean the place.

A lofty lesson for all to learn. The campaign to keep India clean has started and will go on for at least five years.

However it would do good for all to digest the point that keeping one’s environs clean and hygienic cannot be put into a time frame.

It should be the endeavour of all to maintain cleanliness and hygiene and the time is more than ripe to teach all that dirtying public places is anathema to the idea of maintaining cleanliness.