Oh My God!!!

‘Oh My God!!!’ A simple, pretty straight forward exclamation. What could possibly go wrong with it? Nothing, you would think. But I, for one, beg to differ. ‘My God’ is what troubles me. The segregation of God into ‘Mine’ and ‘Yours’ puts me in a dilemma. The ignorance of Man worries me. ‘Oh My God!’, prima facie, is only a casual expression that has gained significant popularity overtime. Courtesy, our tendency to ape anything that sounds or looks stylish. But the prevalence and popularity of the expression highlights some of the basic faults in the human nature, which we fail to realize about ourselves. Underneath the many layers that we have within us, there is a basic propensity to differentiate and to discriminate since time immemorial. Whether it be on the basis of religion, caste, social status, economic or cultural disparity, etc. And we have chosen to follow the trend.

Our history is filled with such examples. The Brahmins and the Kshatriyas discriminated against people of the lower castes, did not allow them to worship in temples and were prohibited from any religious ceremony. They were untouchables and if they ever crossed the path of a Brahmin, the Brahmin had to take a bath to purify himself. The Reservation that we face today in education and in jobs is a result of our own past misdeeds. But the question to be asked here is not why there was such a discrimination at all, but why there was any division of people into castes that promoted such discrimination? The Zamindars discriminated against the peasants and deprived them of their rights, forced the practice of bonded labor upon them. The Sati System, later abolished, is an apt example of discrimination against our women bringing to fore the superiority of men over women. If her husband died, she too had no right to live. The Mughals invaded and plundered our country and our women. They destroyed our temples and monuments, which was a discrimination in itself. Today, the Muslims are discriminated against. The British and many European countries, that considered themselves superior, discriminated in the face of colonialism. They considered it a birth right to forcefully enter a country and deprive it of its riches and prosperity. Oppression, misdemeanors, wealth capture, exploitation of people and resources, they did it all. The existence of slavery has been there for as long as humans have existed on this planet. To have a slave was considered something very prestigious in the ‘so called’ civilized societies and cultures. Adolf Hitler, who considered himself and his race of being pure blood, mass murdered Jews.

In the modern day, the scenario hasn’t changed a bit. Only the packaging appears different, but deep inside it is still the same. In 2002, two bogies of a train full of kar-sevaks were burnt by some Muslims which in turn triggered the Godhra riots. Innumerable Muslims killed, their women raped and killed, innocent people killed, places of worship damaged and razed. The 1984 Anti-Sikh riots broke out because the then Prime Minister of India was assassinated by her Sikh bodyguards. In both the cases, two of the biggest national level political parties were involved clearly indulging in politics of caste, feeding on a basic differentiating line between the citizens. Precisely, using the discrimination that existed, to their advantages. The killings of these innocent people can never be justified. Thousands of people fled their homes, their ancestral homes and could never return. Their businesses bore the brunt of communal violence. Irreparable damages were caused.

Can such a humanity be trusted that would hurt its brethren? I, as a human being, feel ashamed of my race. I feel ashamed when people justify violence, they justify discrimination, when they propagate their twisted principles in the name of God. This basic tendency to differentiate and discriminate divides humans among religions and an omnipresent God into various Gods. It is because we discriminate that we worship different Gods. We, as a whole, have deviated from our inner self. A change has to begin from within. A change of this magnitude cannot be effected until the solution is sought anywhere except for within us. We must remind ourselves that we are God’s most superior representatives. We have to celebrate the uniqueness that we all share: A Soul.