Whose Mumbai Is It ?? && Lessons From British 'Raj'

Below line from a ‘Times of India’ article made me write this post:

“Loud discussions have given way to whispers… that’s what’s really scary”, is how a north Indian techie who spent the better part of his life in Mumbai described the new mood in the city.

Now the feeling of ‘outsider’ and ‘native’ is being felt by IT engineers and other white-collar people also. Till a few days back may be most people were thinking that this is a ‘tamasha’ being created by MNS for political mileage and the people involved in the violence are illiterate and unemployed youth. But now even literates are also thinking like this. ‘Local trains’, the very fabric or lifeline of Mumbai are being used to further this division.

Isn’t there something wrong? This confirms my belief that we really learnt one thing very well from the British – ‘Divide and Rule’. Isn’t this what Raj’s MNS is trying to achieve? 400 years back as a race or as a civilization we fell in that trap to British and still we didn’t learn anything. 400 years and still there is no ‘change’. Isn’t it so easy to create ‘hatred’ among people here in India? Is it so easy to make people fight with each other and use it for your benefit? Are we inclined to hate and fight with each other for any slightest reason? Reminds me of Sue’s dialogue in the film ‘Rang De Basanti’ – “I was so stupid to pack my bags and come to a place where people are looking for excuses to kill each other”. Religion, north-east-west-south divide, state, regions within state, caste, sub-caste --- what not, we have so many ‘diverse’ reasons to hate each other. ‘Unity in Diversity’ – the unity we are talking is this much fragile! Is Winston Churchill correct in saying –"India is no more a political personality than Europe. India is a geographical term. It is no more a united nation than the Equator”?

Lots and lots of haunting questions.....