Inherit the wind: Right time for the youth of the nation to make their presence felt

Modern day Nazism- Raj Thackeray and his MNS party!

If someone has not seen the classic movie – ‘Inherit the wind’, by all means see it. It is a gem of a movie and portrays the classic standoff between right and wrong in an entirely soul stirring fashion. Not delving too deep into the details of the movie, it is a courtroom drama between the defenders of the Darwinian theory of natural evolution versus Biblical creation theory. At its core, it is the struggle between the right to think liberally and independently and the forced dogmatic belief by the self styled sentinels of the religion and faith.

Recent outbursts of Raj Thackrey against north Indians are a similar portrayal of mindless micro-jingoistic fanaticism. Only Mr. Raj Thackeray knows what political mileage he is going to get out of the ‘jai Marathi, condemn all else’ campaigning, but one thing is very clear here, the dogmatic and narrow view forced upon the multitudes by a singularly obsessed person. At time when the nation is looking forward to break its shackles of the rigid regionalism and trying to come out of the shadows of the linguistically divided factions to work towards an integrated and inclusive growth, someone from nowhere is trying to push us back to dark ages!

What is the reason that there is always someone like Raj Thackeray poisoning the minds of his clan/creed always pops up from nowhere and tries to detract the intellectual and material growth of the nation as whole. To me, the roots lie in the lack of awareness and an overall sense of oneness among the citizens of the country. While India does poses as a Union of the states, as opposed to the federal system of USA, there is always a sense of lacking on the behalf of the centre to curb these kinds of uprisings in a proactive fashion. Be it the Terrorism in Punjab, Naxalism in the affected parts of the country, Strife in NE India, and now the latest show of Nazism in Maharashtra by Raj Thackeray.

Only solution to the problem in the long term is the youth of the nation understanding and developing their own thought process. The only reason the extremists since times immemorial have been successful is due the backing of the young population of their times. Be it the Civil Disobedience of Martin Luther King or the now notorious Klu Klax Klan. If the youth of Indian develops its own perspective, it may stop getting so gullible and a pushover. Since the current youth population is more preoccupied with getting fair amount of success in these supercharged times, which is an excellent thing, it will help if they only stop letting their support for the wrong.

It is time we think logically, liberally and rationally. This will send a clear signal to these protégés of the Hitler and Milosevic of our age that we can’t be taken for a ride.

I recall the quote from the movie I described in the opening part of the article, which is also a Biblical quote: “He that troubleth his own house shall inherit the wind: and the fool shall be servant to the wise of heart!”