One India Spirit

‘Bharat Mata Ki Jai’, which means Victory to Motherland India. Every corner of Arunachal Pradesh was echoing with these slogans for 11^th and 12^th of January, 2012. Small children and young men, local intellectuals and a few Government people were seen in the mornings following the local VKV band through the main street. Most of Arunachal Pradesh is isolated and not so much touched with modern development, but you will often meet a local person, highly motivated to serve the grassroots and more enlightened with their thinking, more than many other parts of India.

This is mainly because of the presence of VKV, Vivekananda Kendriya Vidyalaya in every corner of Arunachal Pradesh. Most of the time we portray Swami Vivekanda as a Spiritual Leader, but we often overlook that he was probably the only Indian who not only practiced and preached the ‘Spirit of India’, but convinced the world about ‘the global need for Indianization’. Understanding the global trend and the invasion on India, he had set several guidelines for the Indian Youth, which is beyond any religion or community. With the Chinese claim on Arunachal Pradesh and at the same time several countries recognizing the same as dispute between China and India, it is the foundation of India being laid by the Vivekanda Kendriya Vidyalayas in this most remote part of the country.

It is time that the rest of the country needs this spirit. When most of this country is bitten by consumerism, deafness and division, we need to turn around and say that we believe in one India, one spirit. If many of us will be able to rewind and see Lord Macaulay’s address in the British Parliament on 02.02.1835, we will realize that how difficult it was to westernize the deep rooted Indian spirit, they could only do the same through a completely new education system. It was for the first time that someone invaded India and did not Indianize themselves, but wanted their system to be implemented to serve their country, Great Britain. With Independent India, how much have we changed the system at the micro levels, the education system, the natural resource management system etc, have we really been able to Indianize them, are they really focussed at the main Indian population.

After 150 years of Swami Vivekananda, we enjoy a day off on his Birth Anniversary or at the most pay respect to him at one of the nearby Ramakrishna Missions or Vivekananda Ashrams, but none of us have followed his path to contributing to ‘One India’.