Last month there was a sudden stir of pride among many Indians who watched the video of Sashi Tharoor in the hallowed debating hall of University of Oxford. Mr. Tharur in his own style addressed the Britishers as robbers and they were up to no good when they were here. Even our respected Prime minister showered compliments on that speech which was delivered.
Mr Tharoor has admirable debating skills and his mastery over the language(which British left with us) is an innate gift. Despite all this debate on were the British as black as he made it look, Historians are more interested in what Indians were doing to each other before they were here. Upper caste oppressed the lower case, Law and order was bad. Moreover, historians argue that though thousands of Indians died building the railways of the Raj, but countless more died building the Taj Mahal and other useless baubles for their earlier rulers.
The world is divided by man fault lines in history and so is India. So,who we are and what we want to be are more important questions for us to engage ourselves with than what British have done to us in the past.
Mr Tharoor has admirable debating skills and his mastery over the language(which British left with us) is an innate gift. Despite all this debate on were the British as black as he made it look, Historians are more interested in what Indians were doing to each other before they were here. Upper caste oppressed the lower case, Law and order was bad. Moreover, historians argue that though thousands of Indians died building the railways of the Raj, but countless more died building the Taj Mahal and other useless baubles for their earlier rulers.
What do tribal communities in India feel ? What are the feelings of North eastern states regarding our nation ? And What about women ? These vital matters are more important than "us versus you" debate at Oxford.
We as Indians have this peculiar habit of winning an argument by demolishing others. Indians are known to be argumentative. Debates are conducted like wars. Listening to a great debater we think "He demolished opponents position" or "He shot down opponent's arguments ". We criticize and that's all we do in debates. That is what we have been taught. A major problem with this approach of enquiring into issues is that when one side looses, it feels insulted and it becomes very difficult to arrive at consensus between two advisories thereafter. After a debate one dispute ends but another will surely start because of no harmony restored.
We as a nation have reached a point where we need other forms of dialogue in which objective is not to win by demolishing other's argument , but to understand each other and share our aspirations.A dialogue is fundamentally different from debate. At its core, it is about listening. It builds trust and and enables people to share their opinion without an stereotyping.
We need courage to change what we are. The sooner we begin to change what we think, the sooner we will create a country which is good for all its citizens. A better India will be created if people learn the skills of listening and find shared insights and solutions.
Let us learn to engage in dialogues to learn rather than debates to win. Let us listen deeply to our own aspirations, and build a nation that is good for everybody's children.
We as a nation have reached a point where we need other forms of dialogue in which objective is not to win by demolishing other's argument , but to understand each other and share our aspirations.A dialogue is fundamentally different from debate. At its core, it is about listening. It builds trust and and enables people to share their opinion without an stereotyping.
We need courage to change what we are. The sooner we begin to change what we think, the sooner we will create a country which is good for all its citizens. A better India will be created if people learn the skills of listening and find shared insights and solutions.
Let us learn to engage in dialogues to learn rather than debates to win. Let us listen deeply to our own aspirations, and build a nation that is good for everybody's children.
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