A Nation... is a group of persons united by a common error about their ancestry and a common dislike of their neighbors. Karl Deutsch.
Cricket sells. Cricket inspires. Cricket corrupts. Cricket
reminds colonial past of India. Combine cricket with films, TV and politics you have intoxicating electronic soma ras. There are plenty of ghazals that glorify aankho se peea jo uska khumar kya kahoon. Only
occasionally is this khumar of millions of Indians jolted by ‘surgical strikes’ like notebandi. Depending on your disposition on the day any of these
statements may resonate with you. Cricket is played within a boundary. A
player’s action outside boundary is null action. A ball hit by Virat Kohli
crosses boundary. A Four invites cheers from Indian fans, sighs from the
fielding team fans and little sweeping palm from an umpire. Date also is a
boundary on field of time. Mid-night of 31 December is a boundary between one
year and the following. Drawn on maps boundaries create nations, provinces,
towns and villages. Earth so divided falls prey to manipulative human mind who
divides people living beyond and within boundaries. The imagined communities become nations. True or false, the identity
sticks. By adoption, by birth or by imposition.
Tax is also a boundary. After paying tax on income money
becomes white. Tax not paid money becomes black. Like a newly born baby, a newly printed currency note is neither legitimate nor illegitimate. Both are free from bondage of boundaries. Depending on tax compliance by its possessor
a currency note gains legitimacy. Depending on parents' fidelity wows baby gains legitimacy. Uncertainty over, boundaries established. It is simple and clear like day light. Or is it? Dawn and dusk are boundaries between day and night. Waking from long slumber with hangover of soma, you see outside is neither dark nor bright. Is it dawn before bright-white day or is it is dusk before dark-black night? Politicians and spin doctors love grey. Between black and white is grey. With little mixing white becomes grey or with little mix black becomes grey. Between fact and fiction is opinion. Opinion is expedient because it is bendable. Bend it towards fact or fiction as demanded by goals. Political goals depend on another boundary. In democracy that boundary is drawn by voters. In opposition most political parties see things in black or white. In power most political parties see things in grey.
Boundaries are raised in almost every walk of life. Social, economic, religious, national, linguistic, castes, occupational,
biological and political all fields have boundaries making each walk vulnerable minefield of hatred and divide. Willingly with pride or
grudgingly or mistakenly we trip on traps of identity. We embrace part of our being to lose wholeness of being. Hug a tree and burn forest. Hide under half coconut shell and lose cover of infinite sky.
Imagined Communities (1983) is a great book by Benedict Anderson (1936-2015). Karl Deutsch's (1912-1992) quote is from his book Nationality and its alternatives (1969).
