The Magical Chest and The Doom of India!

This story is about a magical chest.

One of the most prosperous families from a very fertile state had this legend being passed from one generation to the other, that of a "Chest of gold buried under their mansion". No one in their family, through the generations, had ever tried to validate the authenticity of this story, but they surely did brag about it to one and all! It was a matter of prestige for them!

Once they had an infighting within the family. One brother called someone from the outside to assist him in winning the fight and that led him to win too, although the intruder smartly did things that eventually led him to be the lord of the mansion! The family in turn started serving the intruder in their own mansion. The intruder, with his ingenious ways, not only quadrupled the families income from their farms & plantations, but also occupied the farms & plantations of other families around them, excavated valuable artifacts, jewelry, ornaments from their lands and shipped it away to his home. Thankfully, few in the family revolted after a few years and successfully overthrew the intruder to establish their command back over the mansion. The Family had lost lot of money, Artifacts, Jewelry, Ornaments, but they now had many more farms & plantations. They had also learnt "How to serve" while serving the Intruder and that helped them generate a surplus income from "Services business". Enamoured by this little success, the family now started bragging about the legend of a "Magical Chest of gold that gave them invincibility".  

The Intruder on the other hand, empowered by the loot had invested in ingenious technology to build his own growth story. Few other families in the vicinity, had learnt the same lessons of "Services" from the Intruder and were soon catching up and beating the family in this very business. But despite it all the family continued to ignore the competition, the trends and instead kept bragging about the "Legend of the Magical chest which gave them invincibility".

Amidst all of this, many feets below the ground, the actual "magical chest of gold" lay closed, undiscovered and untouched. It indeed had hundreds and thousands of gold coins, and it was magical too. However, the magic did not give any invincibility to the family. Instead it resulted in the chest of gold losing few gold coins every day, unless it is discovered, opened and the coins are counted for. 

While you now try and relate this obvious allegory to the "Story of India" and figure out what this "Magical chest" and the "Magic" therein signifies, let me give you a few more questions to think of:

• For those of you who think that the idea of "India as a Nation State" existed much before the Britishers landed on the Indian shores, WHY Sardar Patel Ji had to get consent from 567+ Different Princely States to accept dominion of the newly found "Republic of India" despite a few "Hindu dominated States" being already unified under the "Republic of India" and the "Muslim dominated States" being already unified under the "Islamic Republic of Pakistan"

• For those of you who complain about the deliberate degradation of "Glorious past of The Indian Civilization' by Britishers, WHY did it take a British Archaeological Survey in 1922 to excavate and discover the "Indus Valley Civilization"? WHY did the Mauryas, Guptas, Mughals and Marathas, Or even the Indian Intellectual Elites trained in Modern Sciences (Including Archeology) did not give any due focus to the "Indus Valley Civilization"? 

• For those who complain that we lost out our place in the world in the 20th century because of the british imperialism, WHY did we not take part in the 15th century scientific explorations when the news of europeans having found a new continent (America) reached the Indian Rulers? 

• For those who align with their Hindu identity, HOW many of you have actually read the scriptures (At least the Mahabharata, Ramayana, GITA!)? HOW many of you have your exposure to Indian Religious scriptures limited to the Series broadcasted on TV?

• For those who align with the Non Hindu Religious (Muslims, Christians) identity, HOW Many of you view the nation from the lens of the conquerors who came to loot and rule the vast geography? And HOW Many of you view the nation for the Civilization (In the league of Ancient Sumerian, Assyrian, Greek, Egyptian, etc. - But Still very much alive) that it was and is.

• For those who still seek the presence of "Religion & Faith" in the narrative of Public discourse & Public Governance, WHY is it that the world is Slowly but Surely & Steadily moving from a point of time - Where SCIENTIFIC TRUTH merely reflected the Suras, the gospels & the Mantras of RELIGIOUS Scriptures - to now when the meaning of Suras, Gospels & Mantras is being altered to align with the SCIENTIFIC TRUTH Established by factual evidences! 

• Lastly, For all of us INDIANS, How long will we be aligning to the identities built for us through mere "Legends (The Chests of Gold)" of Religion, Past Glory, Or Glorified Future? 

They say a common enemy can unite two warring factions! Well, our civilization has been attacked multiple times and we always had some or other common enemy in the past. We never united and instead backstabbed each other for short term benefits resulting in the "Intruders" leading us. The fact that we never had one common identity also turned into our advantage because there was no specific thing lost with new "Intruders" getting assimilated into our culture! Instead, our diversity kept increasing and the identity more and more "confused". So much so that the "Last Intruder - The Imperial Britishers" utilized this very confused identity to make us fight between ourselves and eventually rule us for around 200 years (5000 British Officials, around 40-70,000 British Soldiers, and maybe another 100,000 British Civilians Ruled 300 million Indians for 200 years!). Did we learn our lessons?

In 2020, another Common Enemy came and hounded us, paralyzed us, and yet here we are - Fighting against each other, one party against the other, one religion against the other, one caste against the other, one belief against the other and bragging about our glorious past and the invincible Indian Civilization.    

Let there be no doubt, whatsoever that the DOOM OF "INDIA" as a "Civilization based identity" is coming! The "Magic" that removes the Gold Coins from the Chest is nothing but a combination of "Progression of Time" and "Evolution of Cultures". The world is incrementally and steadily moving towards a Culture which has scientific temperament at its foundation! We - As Indians - shall have no stake or claim in the Future of the World unless we commit to and dedicate ourselves to either of the following two options! 

• Forget the past laurels, forget the "Chest of Gold" and let it be buried undiscovered and focus on building the common identity, scientific temperament, competencies differentiated in the Global market and ensure that each of us demand Truth from our leaders, from those at the helm and that we will not be convinced by "Stories" about past Glories or "Glorious Future" without actioned evidences! OR 

• We dig the bloody "Chest of Gold" out and count the coins before the magic empties it fully. Let us provide evidences to the stories we have been telling ourselves about our language being the mother of all others, about our Vedic knowledge being the source of all others, about our philosophy & Way of life being better than all others and let us not brag until things are proven and proven right - for once and for all! 

#Ashuism

Ash Karandikar

karandikar.ashutosh@gmail.com