The State of Affairs

                                                                                The State of Affairs

Recently I was going through an article on “Census of India 2011” and I came across an information that was a pleasant shock to me. It said “In the last Census, over 6000 languages and dialects were recorded in India, PG Stalin,a grade-1 stastical investigator with the Census Department ,tells us with considerable excitement” and for a moment I questioned myself as to how many people would share the same excitement as the statistical investigator. This lead me to a more deeper question of “Indianness that we share” and the answer was not affirmative. I was predictably drawn to the Telangana issue,the  Bihari  Mumbaikar clash and then finally to the association system that is prevalent in our college.

State wise associations, as all my fellow mates shall concede, play a significant  role in the events going around in the college. They share influence in the daily lives of students, cultural activities and most shockingly technical events where regionalism has got nothing to do with knowledge and management abilities. I sometimes try to figure out how the association thing might have started and following points rush into my mind-

-Elections for the different posts?

-Feeling of insecurity in a new place?

-Requirement of enough people to pay enough money to go and enjoy in a     luxury hotel and restaurant.

There is not a single reason that can be pointed out. It can be a cumulative effect of these and many more reasons.

When the first yearites come they are forcefully or under the pretension that they shall be helped in many ways are made to join one of the associations based on their state affiliation only to limit them to a group of 30 students from their own state. The seniors say “we are giving you a group to enjoy and share problems with” but it seems they don’t realize that its good to allow a person to select 10 good apples from a group of 50 rather than randomly select 40 and give it to him and say ”njoy”.

The result is that we start seeing different states of people sitting together in separate groups in the mess, going out in separate groups, organizing events in separate groups. People tend to adjust themselves with this way of living and rest of the college life is spent among  a selected group of people of their own state. So finally a Bihari is limited to Bihar, Rajasthani to Rajasthan and a Tamilian to Tamilnadu and with this the whole point of studying in an institute of national importance is gone.

But all would agree  that even after all this we have students forming groups with other students sharing same notions, beliefs and thinking irrespective of the state they belong to-the trademark of an intellectual society.

Associations just divide the exuberant youngsters and are a barrier in promoting multiculturalism. They don’t help in bringing Indianness nor are they successful in creating  love for their own state because they enforce it. Do you think we need associations for people to realize and value the fact that  a few of their college mates belong to the same state. The idea of Bihar,Rajasthan, Andhra Pradesh or any state for that matter is not so parochial. Even if we don’t have these associations, students from  a particular state are bound to share a special relation which will be more meaningful when not enforced and helpful in the long run.

So associations in the most pragmatic way are a system that is redundant and must be done away with. They run because of a few selected  people who behave as either guardians of the state only to diddle away some money for their personal use ( Just like the politicians do)  or feel uncomfortable among students of other states because of inferiority complex issues.

 It is rather an irony that we have divided ourselves on the basis of different states when Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel himself devoted his life for the unification of different Indian states after India’s independence.

So guys and girls, break the shackles of these associations. Your statehood and the love for it is intact even if you are not a member of such associations. Just go and look out of your state. There is so much to experience and learn in these four years of stay at SVNIT. India and the world has so much to teach you!