Who is minority ?

Election fever is everywhere in India and all the parties are throwing up promises like anything. This is is typical scenario in India and this has been happening for last 50 years. So now we are used to it. The main difference this time is a clear dichotomy of the choice voters have. Either you go for Congress led alliance or B.J.P. led one. And one of the main issues that differentiates these two camps is the policy over minorities. Unfortunately the issue comes many a times only for election and is discussed only from a political viewpoint. Never has it been discussed apolitically in the light of Indian ethos.

The word minority means a section of society which has a somewhat different identity than the major section. Typically this word is used in case of two different groups having been come together for some mutual benefit on the basis of some mutual understanding, this nexus may be political or apolitical in nature. The two groups may have different aspirations on the issues other than the binding issue (The issue on the basis of which they have come together). These different aspirations lead to differences and eventually division in most of the cases.

In case of India, the word 'minority' is typically used in terms of religious minority. In particular, Christians and Muslims are typically addressed by this term. It is interesting to note here that in India also live people of Parsi religion and a few Jews. Also there are people of innumerable religions which come under the umbrella of Hinduism, but are different than the mainstream. Hardly any of these groups are referred as minorities in common terminology.

The question I wish to ask is, why these two communities think that they are minority. As the minority is supposed to have issue that differentiates them from majority and which is indispenseble or can not be compromised. But in India, it has been observed through history that different religions are not really treated differently in any social affair. We can look for Maurya period when Buddhism was on high. India as been the land of great philosophical and spiritual debates. But never have been the wars fought on this issue. Indian people are truly tolerant in this issue.

Secondly we always keep saying that India is a nation with "unity in diversity". Unfortunately we just remember the diversity and forget to recognize the underlying thread of unity. We may have different faiths, different languages, food or costumes. But essentially we are one people. We all are the children of this great nation, standing tall as the guiding pole for many aspects of social life, through a long history. And we need to be proud of our great heritage which forms this interlink between apparently different parts of this society.

Hence the correct policy towards minorities, if any, should be in a direction to integrate them in the mainstream society, without forcing them to give up their individuality. This really can not be achieved by appeasement policy of political parties. This rather increases the drift by creating insecurity amongst majority section of society, and therefore hostility. Through education, it should be imbibed that we are one society, brothers and sisters of each other, not some different groups just come together for some mundane benefits.

And if still there is no way of intermingling different sections, then the conflict is unavoidable. And majority section cannot only be held responsible for this conflict. In fact rather minorities are more responsible in most of the cases, as they behave rather intolerantly in these situation.

Thus I would say, the key of eliminating the minority issue is in the hands of minority. They must try to be in unison with the majority section. Although its the responsibility of entire society, it is more on the shoulders of minority section. In my dream, I see India with no minority and Indians as hundred percent majority.