THE HOUR BEFORE THAT RADIANT DAWN DAWN? By P.N.BENJAMIN
Coordinator, BIRDMany in this country, millions upon millions, would certainly
like to ring out the old and ring in the new with new hopes and expectations.
Indians wish that the he spectre of violence and terrorist attacks and
killings, natural calamities, impoverishment, unemployment, fratricidal
clashes, caste and communal violence must disappear and should not keep company
with us in our journey ahead. True, to begin the New Year with forebodings may
sound like a pessimist’s pastime. But we must face it with buoyant
self-confidence. And the stout-hearts among us should not lose hope. There is
distress all over the country. The reality, grim and grinding, beckons the
nation to a desperate prospect. Deep-rooted fatalism, dumb acceptance of
misery, a raging sea of poverty, and a few islands of vulgar luxury, inhabited
by a few who behave as if nothing has happened. It is too deep for tears. And
this should disturb every sensitive Indian. The cancers that have grown in the
vitals of India are so horrendous that whole limbs may decay and die before
some sort of curative effort succeeds in the rest of the system. Corruption has
become so entrenched that all of us justify it as a fact of global life. It is
a situation where "the best lack all conviction/ And the worst are full of
passionate intensity/The things fall apart/The centre cannot hold/Mere anarchy
loosed upon the world". It is the winter of our discontent. Caught in the
immediacy of the present we may be agonizing over these maladies. But, there is
still hope. "There is an ebb and tide in the affairs of man. Things will
change". This may be the darkest hour before the radiant dawn. God has not gone
bankrupt. He can make the blind see, the deaf hear and the lame cross the
mountain. If past is any pointer to the future, there is indeed hope. There is
resilience in our people, which no combination of adversities can kill. Our
ideals and principles might appear to be in eclipse. But, eclipses are
short-lived. In an atmosphere surcharged with cynicism on the one hand and
despair on the other, we would do well to remind ourselves that our present
predicament is not unique. There was a time when many Indians sold their souls
to foreign overlords and many among us despaired of ever liberating the country
from the grip of foreign rule and from the corruption it bred. Yet, our leaders
were able to dispel the gloom when it was at its darkest and to show the way
not only to freedom from foreign rule, but also from the vices that polluted
public life. Yes, India in the past has seen many a crisis. But, the country
lives on. The present ordeal too will pass and the country will again resume
the path of progress. If one has eyes to see and ears to hear, this country is
moving. It is bestirred by new urges. There is intense heart-searching, groping
in the dark – not out of despair, but in the earnest hope of finding a way out.
The old value system has collapsed, but already an intense search has begun for
new values for the establishment of a new morality in public life. Go out
anywhere, amidst the din and bustle of the factory or vast expanses of the
fields, in the beehive of busy offices or in the boisterous, crowded campuses –
among men, women, the young and the old – you will hear a thousand and one
questions why things have gone wrong and what’s the way out of it. Dedicated
men and women, sacrificing comfort and many allurements of the consumerist
society are building a new India in the remote villages and hilly regions of
this vast land of ours. There abound in this country today men and women of
finest moral qualities, experts in their respective fields seeking to advance
the frontiers of knowledge and to serve the community by disseminating it to
the public. They are playing their role in the building of this great country
and are sharers, in common with others, in the triumphs and setbacks that come
their way. The present with all its unhappiness and misery will pass. It is the
future that counts and it is that future that beckons us. How will you answer
that call? The saga of such endeavours is hardly publicised by the media
addicted to the burlesque of present-day politics and the accompaniments of
permissive morality, addiction to vicarious violence, and erotic and narcotic
fantasies. In the prevailing darkness they move about like figures in
silhouettes; soon the sun shall arrive and identify them, and among them shall
be seen new leaders with a new message of enriched patriotism and a new resolve
to make this land of ours a better place to live in. They give us reasons for
hope. Hope, where there is despair. Light, where there is darkness. Joy, where
there is sadness. Beyond the winter of our discontent and despondence, there
must be the Spring of Hope! Yes, the New Year is upon us. Is it going to be
different from the old? Come, let us make it the hour before that radiant dawn.
