An Indian Pluralist’s Republic Day Message To Indian Americans

 I am proud of the pluralistic ethos of my motherland, India and my homeland,
America. It is a pleasure to call both the nations, “God’s own countries.” Let me explain why, and make a few suggestions that you can act upon as an individual to sustain the pluralistic ethos of India. Let’s do our bit in restoring dharma, the righteous living.

Our nations, Democratic Republic of India and the United States of America are microcosmic representations of the universe we inhabit. We are blessed geographically with a range of topography from deserts to fertile lands, from mountains to the shining sea and the flat lands to valleys. Seasons wise, we enjoy all the four full seasons – winter, spring, summer and the fall. Indeed, we are blessed to be represented by every race, ethnicity and religion.

PLURALISTIC ETHOS

My interest as a social scientist is in sustaining the pluralistic ethos of India and America, which are threatened by a few short-sighted, but powerful rabble rousers among us.

Pluralistic ethos simply means, living our life and letting others live theirs. It is accepting the God given uniqueness to each one of us. No matter what language we speak, how we look, what we eat, drink, wear, or how we worship the creator, we will accept each other’s uniqueness as legitimate, and then respect the otherness of others. You are who you are, and I am who I am.

Hinduism talks about Vasudhaiva Kutumbukum, an idea that we are all part of one family despite our differences. Islam, Judaism and Christianity talk about having a common father and mother; Adam and Eve and we are an extended family. Sikhism blends us all under Wahe Guru and the Baha’i faith wraps all of us as many paths but one source, similarly Jainism, Buddhism, Tribalism and other traditions have richly contributed to the idea of cohesive societies.

Cohesive Societies are communities where people mind their own business, live their own lives and let others live theirs, but yet, work together as one composite unit.

Every Indian and American has a need to feel that he or she is a part of the society, rejection will certainly create problems.As an example of cohesiveness, look at our own bodies, we are made up of several items like heart, brain, kidneys, lungs, liver, anus, mouth, nose, ears etc. No part can claim that his role is the most important one. Indeed, there was a battle once when the organs were arguing about their role in normal functioning of human body. The Anus claimed that he was the most important organ in the body, the other organs laughed and ridiculed him, and to show them, he decided to assert his claim and shuts down for two days causing unbelievable misery and havoc! Frustrated with the pain, the other organs acknowledged his importance, and rightfully called him an ass hole but begged him to start functioning, so others can function normally. A cohesive society is when all of us function together for common good.

Prime Minister Modi had surprised the nation with his inclusionary statement made on November 1, 2014. As a Pluralist, I whole heartedly welcomed that statement and congratulated him for taking that step. He said, “The BJP should be like a bouquet so that every Indian felt there was a flower in it that he or she could identify with. “And, “A poor and illiterate person living in a slum should think, ‘Yes, there is a flower for me in this bouquet’.

At this precise juncture in our history, the Dalits do not feel like a flower in the bouquet. I do invoke the Prime Minister to act on his talk, and create an environment of inclusion. Unless he gets his party men to believe in what he has said, his leadership will remain a mere talk. A few rogue elements from his party are hell bent on throwing his bouquet into gutter; and his legacy is on the line.

Modi can finish his term as another promiser and talker, or become the doer. The choice is clearly his, and he alone is the driver of his legacy. All he has to do is give a 3-minute speech on each major incident like Rape, farmers Suicide, Dalit Suicide, homicide of writers, and witch-hunting for beef and murder of Akhlaq, to assure the people that he does believe in the principle of Vasudhaiva Kutumbukum, and that he will not tolerate any Indian making the life of another Indian miserable. That is all it takes for Ram’s sake. We are losing the ideal of live and let live, and PM Modi can restore it far more effectively than any one in India at this time.

As Indian Americans, most of us have cherished the values of America and have become Americanized. Being American is respecting and believing in the rights of others, and being American is to value others life liberty and pursuit of their happiness; being American is letting each faith member practice his or her faith, and build his or her place of worship; and being American is NOT drawing sadistic pleasure by denying others rights. Unfortunately, we have a few in both nations who have not imbued the great values of these nations, and it is our duty, and responsibility of each one of us to the be pracharaks of American values.

The idea of Liberty is I don’t agree with you, but I’ll fight for your rights. Yes, if we the Indian Americans can truly call ourselves Americans, we have to speak up.

Suggested actions for the organizations and individuals

We have to have the following actions in building a cohesive India, where no Indian has to live in apprehension or fear of the other, and feel included in every sphere of life.

1. Today, on this Republic Day, let India’s flag be hoisted together with fellow Indians who are Adivasis, Atheists, Bahá’ís, Bos, Buddhists, Christians, Dalits, Hindus, Jains, Jewish, Muslim, Sikhs, Tribal, Zoroastrians and every Indian representation. Let no Indian representation be left out. Reach out and bring them together at the Red Fort, and let them all proudly hoist our Tiranga, then go ahead and give them a hug, it will speak million words of our good intentions. It will generate the spirit of sab ka saath on a social basis.

2. The Indian American Organizations can do the same, invite Indians of all hues to come together, and celebrate the Republic Day in the spirit of India. If your heart is dirty and a sewer runs through it, the people can see through you, and not come, clean it up, they will come. I will be happy to make the calls to those who are unwilling for the sake of India.

3. Acknowledge that we see God as one, none and many; and in every form; male, female, genderless and non-existent, being and non-being, nameless and with innumerable names, and as Indians, we should not be biased towards any one.

4. Today, proclaim that India is God’s own country, and is represented by every race, nationality, ethnicity, language, culture and religion. Announce that we are Adivasis, Native Americans, Atheists, Baha’is, Bos, Buddhists, Christians, Dalits, Hindus, and Jains, Jewish, Muslim, Pagans, Shinto, Sikhs, , Wicca, Zoroastrians and every possible grouping out there on God’s earth. We are Brown, Black, White, and Yellow and come in all the colors nature has produced us.

5. Aspire for an India that the world can emulate; and not the other way around. India is a pluralistic democracy where everyone can eat, drink, wear or believe whatever he or she wants to in his or her pursuit of happiness.

6. Announce that from this day forward, every Indian will have equal access to education, employment, housing, business loans, and entrepreneurial opportunities and if anyone is denied that opportunity, you will step up and stand up against the violators.

7. Every Indian wants justice and demands a fair treatment of every one of the 1.31 billion Indians; rich or poor, connected or not, we must come to grips with the social and community life to create an exemplary India that will become a model nation in the world. Create an Equal Opportunity Commission based on US Model. Ask not what others will do, ask yourselves, are you capable of being a good Samaritan?

PLEDGE TO ONE INDIA

You can institute a pledge that every public office holder from the Peon to the President of India and everyone in between must take and live by it. Violation should disqualify him or her from holding the public office. Let it be monitored publicly.

As Indians we can that pledge to both India and America on the Republic Day:

1. I pledge allegiance to India, one nation that stands for liberty and justice for all.
2. I pledge that I honor and treat every Indian with “full” dignity.
3. I pledge that all individuals would be treated on par.
4. I pledge that I will treat all religions with equal respect, equal access and equal treatment.
5. I pledge that I will oppose any act that treats any Indian less than me.
6. I Pledge that I will work for an India, where every individual can live with security and aspire for prosperity.
7. I pledge that I will protect, preserve and value every inch of India and every human soul in India

This would be the first step towards ensuring a just, peaceful and prosperous India that can sustain its progress and peace. If you can do it, then you can expect others to do it.
I love my India.

Jai Hind.

Mike Ghouse

Sikhs Genocides observance in Dallas

Last week, I  posted an upcoming event "Remembrance and Reflection: 1984 Sikh Genocide (posted below)" at Dallas Indians, a 1800 member group in the Dallas area for all Indians. I am glad a few friends called in and sought clarifications. It is always good to inquire and find out before building up emotions against it. The event is on Saturday, November 3rd at Noon.  

Then I read a beautiful personal story by Kirpal Singh from Melbourne, who shared the story of stereotyping Muslims in Nigeria and alluded to bringing a closure to the Sikh Massacre in India.  

The humorous part of the story was, one of the callers was cursing Muslims that they do not understand free speech, and yet, he asked me not post events like this, he believed it was divisive.  Indeed on the surface it does sound like it, but when you read the entire note, you will find otherwise.

You might get away refusing to oblige your spouse or a child's request... or even compel them to obey you...but it builds resentment if not dealt with squarely, it puts a damper on the enthusiasm of the relationship and no one lives in peace. If there is a murder, child abuse or sexual abuse in the community, we cannot sit quite, we have to find a resolution so the victims can leave in peace, and justice is meted out to the abuser.

Taking the example to India - The Kashmiri Pandits, Dalits, Muslims, Christians and Sikhs have been treated unfairly and unjustly on occasions, especially when it comes to killing a large number of people. The wounds remain unhealed for the communities and every one lives with un-ease, discomfort and apprehension. Silence or Money compensation is not the way to repair the damage, but an acknowledgement is the way to go. An apology will heal the wounds for the entire society. We need to seek Mukti from the gnawing conscience, and no ones Karma will go unbalanced.

When Queen Elizabeth visited India a few years back, she apologized for the Jalianwala Bagh Massacre, that was the right thing to do and we welcomed it. There have been many more good examples of healing like that.

About six years ago a film was made by Memnosyne Foundation, "One source many paths" where I represented the Muslim community and 47 other people represented other faith traditions. Uma Mysoreaker, president of the Hindu Temple in New York represented the Hindu Community. The Hindus and the Native Americans shared their pain about the forced conversions by Muslims and Christians alike, while Muslims also have been a target of prejudice after 9/11. I apologized for the wrong doings done by Muslims kings like Aurangzeb and Ghaznavi and individuals like Bin Laden. 

The healing was done when a Native American offered a Bandana to be received as a closure, a Christian minister gracefully accepted it, .. every one remained silent and absorbed the moments, some of us cried, including me, it was indeed a relief. It is also an acknowledgement that we the people (living now) have nothing to do with what was done, and yet, we owed an apology as the wrong doing was committed in the name of the religion or the land we shared.

The Chapters on Pandits, Dalits, Muslims, Christians and Sikhs can be brought to closure by acknowledgment of the wrong doing, its not going to go away by hiding from it. Humility builds bridges, that is what every religion teaches; to be humble. It is wrong, and dead wrong to believe that we are all against each other, we are not, some of us are, but we need to work cohesively to make India a greater nation by being on a higher moral ground of shedding the arrogance or pretending that, we do not have a problem.

The Sikh Massacre is obviously not brought to the closure,  mass graves have been discovered and the identified remains have been given back to their families, but there are hundreds of kids, women and men missing from that period. An accounting needs to be done to bring a relief to families as to what happened to their loved ones. We are all in this together without blaming the past and to find solutions.

The bad guys are not Muslims, Sikhs, Christians or Hindus, the bad guys are those who went on a rampage and hurt fellow Indians be it in Delhi, Gujarat, Bihar or Orissa. No one should go Scot free,  an apology from them individual wrong doers, forgiveness from the victims or lawful action is in order to restart 

 

STEREO TYPING

This is the most common form of ignorance that surfaces every minute of the day in our lives. Our freedom to think is lost when we stereotype people and fall in the ditch when we justify it. If we want others to treat as fairly, we have to do it too.

If I murder someone, it is my heine that needs to be hauled off to the jail and mete out the deserved punishment under the law and serve justice. Stereo typing in this instance would be to blame my race, parents, siblings, spouse, nationality or religion, it is not wise, is it?? Yet we do it and let others do it without even imploring them to think. What has India or Islam got to do with my criminal act?

Shame on you and I to allow the mind to believe that the murder by a black man allows us to gossip that blacks are criminals, and start justifying some creepy facts to suit our beliefs. Oh well, the educated ones are not… that is even wronger than the first statement…Are all white people ruthless and war mongers? Are Muslims terrorists? Jews will get you one way or the other?

Catch yourselves in your stereotyping, where you make judgments about a people

We reflect on Holocaust and genocides every year, and one of the element is stereotyping. Details about the VII Annual Reflections on Holocaust and Genocides at www.HolocaustandGenocides.com

Kirpal Singh's story is at url-  http://wisdomofreligion.blogspot.com/2012/10/sikhs-genocides-observation-in-dallas.html

Event information from the Sikh Gurdwara is as follows:

Remembrance and Reflection: 1984 Sikh Genocide

Dear Friends and Neighbors,

The DFW Sikh American Community extends its invitation to you for our event "Remembrance and Reflection: 1984 Sikh Genocide". We aspire to share the tragedy which unfolded and provide recognition to an event which has withered away in the annals of history. We seek to provide conversation and engage with our audience to ensure dark moments such as these never occur again and that justice prevails. As the great Martin Luther King stated, "Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere."

We urge and request everyone to attend

When: Saturday, November 3, 2012 from 12 PM – 1 PM
Where: Gurdwara Sikh Sangat 1400 West Euless Blvd. Euless, TX 76040

All our educators, our law enforcement officials, our elected officials, people of faith and in short all our fellow Americans are humbly requested to take advantage of this opportunity. We will highlight and recognize the fundamental principles of this great nation which was on prominent display during and in the aftermath of the Wisconsin massacre of how a nation is to respond and respect its citizens. This fundamental principle must be brought to the forefront for all to appreciate and fathom.

Sikh Americans have been an integral and constructive part of the DFW community for over 50 years and we invite you to share in our experiences and a history which permeates within all of us.

The institution of langar (community kitchen) will be in full effect in which everyone is requested to partake and have a delicious vegetarian meal. So please come by and ask your questions, eat and drink some food, or just engage with your neighbors.

For any questions or comments please contact: 

1. Gurvinder Singh  469.222.6288 gurvinder.singh@unitedsikhs.org 

2. Manmohan Singh 469.733.5190 m.singh.180@gmail.com 

3. Manpreet Singh  972-415-7897 kingmani15@yahoo.com 

4. Pritpal Singh  214-505-6375 pritpaltx@yahoo.com 

We will be honored and look forward to your presence. 

  

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Mike is a speaker, thinker and a writer on pluralism, interfaith, politics, foreign policy, Islam, India, Israel, peace and justice. He is committed to building a cohesive America and offers pluralistic solutions on issues of the day. He is a frequent guest on Sean Hannity show on Fox TV, commentator on national radio network, writes weekly at Dallas Morning News and bi monthly at Huffington post and several periodicals. His daily blog is www.TheGhousediary.com

Dilip Kumar in Guinness world records

India has three legendary actors - Dilip Kumar, Dev Anand and Raj Kapoor, all were born in the early 20's and each one has set the standards for the cinematic acting, they were pioneers. Dilip Kumar is one of the most emulated actors in India, he is an institution. Dev Anand just passed in December 2011 and I wrote a tribute about him and Raj Kapoor passed some ten years ago. 

I have had the honor of spending a lot of time with Dilip Kumar when he was in Dallas. Taj Bhai and I went to pick them up from the Airport and due to the traffic, the four of us were on the road for about three hours and then I was assigned the task of coordinating media interviews for him. The experience was a delight, what a great and humble man he was. I will write about him when I get a chance. We talked about the Ganesh Miracle, which was the biggest news in India at that time, and talked about Prophet Abraham. The way he spoke will remain etched in my memory for ever and I have to write those dialogues some time, they are worth reading. Dilip is a great human being... here are two quick stories.

1. Raj Sharma came to see Dilip and said he was a student in acting, as usual he touched Dilip's feet and sat down on the floor, Dilip would not let him do that.. he said sit by me, you and I are equals, we are in the same profession... you can imagine all that you want from this.

2. Checked Dilip and Saira into Omni hotel which was not a five star hotel, Saira was not happy with the pillows and the room size... they are the mega stars of India and this is what they get? Dilip explained to Saira, let's stay here, the money saved by the organization goes to the education of children... I almost burst into tears with such a pure emotion...

I will write more about it, meanwhile, here is what the report reads:

Veteran star Dilip Kumar recently bagged a prestigious entry into the Guinness World Records. He earned the honor for being the only living Indian actor to have won the maximum number of awards.

 Dilip Kumar will soon grace a special show produced by Guinness, where he will be interviewed by Preity Zinta. Read more: http://?143masti.blogspot.com/2011/?03/?dilip-kumar-enters-guinness?-records.html#ixzz1MARAxpK?H

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Mike Ghouse is committed to building a cohesive America and offers pluralistic solutions on issues of the day. A writer, thinker and a speaker and is available to speak on pluralism, politics, islam, peace, cohesive societies and a variety of topics. Check out 4 websites and 27 Blogs indexed atwww.MikeGhouse.net. Current articles at www.TheGhousediary.com

The story of Desi Americans in Dallas/ Fort Worth

Here is little story about the Desi* people of  Dallas/ Forth Worth.

DesiPlaza in Dallas is doing a series of interviews of people around the Dallas Fort Worth Metroplex and I was pleased to be one of them, here it is in 2 segments, each one is about 9 minutes, if you have the time, please share your comments, the whole interview was done in one single shot and as a result I was striving to talk, I was thirsty.

I thank Dr. Krishna Puttaparthi for hosting this series at www.desiplaza.us. If you speak or understand Telugu, there are a few good interviews in Telugu as well.

I had done a whole series of interviews on my Radio show in 1996 where we had invited the earliest of Indians, Pakistanis and Caribbean Indians as well as Bangladeshis. I have been a part of the Nepalese and Sri Lankan communities as well.

It was followed by religions; Hindus (Pallana [1946], Dr. Prabhakar [1963], Mr. Sharma), Muslims (a couple came from Pakistan in 1952, Dr. Bukhari [1963] Dr. Khan [63], Dr. Afzal [65]), Christians, Sikhs (Late Ike Sekhon [1956]), Jews [1932] I have not seen him in five years), Zoroastrians and Jains (Dr. Kapadia[63], Dilip Travel King).

I am also blessed to be listed in Texas Indians History written by a researcher from UT Austin.  I have not listed all the names of the people who have been in Dallas/ Fort Worth as I am going blank and my apologies to them, and I have met them all. I am writing from my memories without going to my archives. Some day, I would like to write the history of Dallas... I do have over 5000 pictures of the Dallas community, if I croak; it will be in a box that ya'll can get from Yasmeen my wife or my kids Jeff and Mina.

Shabnam Modgil and I go back to 1993 or earlier, she is another person who can identify a lot of people in the community. Lately, my presence is diminishing as I am looking to serve every American in building a cohesive America.  You can see all of my work listed at my site.

Segement 1

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HCrNhDrFYL4&feature=related

Segment 2

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mLiQeOo9oEs&feature=related

Thank you.

Mike Ghouse

http://www.mikeghouse.net/

*Desi - prounounced as "They-See" meaning the people of Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and the Diaspora.

Please share your comments at : http://theghousediary.blogspot.com/2011/03/story-of-desi-americans-in-dallas-fort.html

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Mike Ghouse is a frequent guest at the TV, radio and print media offering pluralistic solutions to issues of the day. He is a thinker, writer, speaker, optimist and an activist of Pluralism, Interfaith, Co-existence, Peace, Islam and India. He His work is reflected at three websites and 22 Blogs at http://www.mikeghouse.net/