Left Or Right?

By

Ananya S Guha

I never know the right from the left. But in political discourses you have to know this distinction, because the two across endless roads of debate will never meet.

This is so because they have different positions, structures and previously laid out plans. So everything has to be finely worked out into these premeditated labyrinths. So there is no middle. How can there be when the right or the left have walls in between? Who will demolish the walls? The walls are a danger zone of unrest. So keep away from it/them.

The monolithic structure which the right builds, is offset by manifold structures of the left. There can’t be one but many. Many societies, cultures, peoples, races and languages. The one and the many cannot co exist, they can beat drums, the one does not include the many, the many does not include the one. Both are pervasive but exclusive. If their paths do meet, it is for exclusive indulging of brick bats.

So we have two positions which ripple of stand points which not only do not conform, nor reform, but engage in rapid fire self indulgence in one’s thoughts only. The middle is non existent. That is why Buddhism and Jainism petered out.

Look at debates then. One creates a monolithic structure for India: Hindu, Hindi and the rest. The other says, no but All. The all is the basis for life, history, religion and cause effect. The cause and effect are in wedlock, closely woven into inter structures, not absolutism. Where is the middle, simply a pathway, that does not look at either, left nor the right. What is nationalism? A monolith for one, a super structure for another.

So, where do we go from left to right? To independent territories of thought? To the outer space where world, colour and race does not exist? To an indefatigable Utopia? What is the world, me, you, race, colour, religion, race, ethnicity, culture? What is culture? Any definitions, norms, standard fixations? Define it. History, geography, anthropology, religion, sociology? So from a highly centralised right I move to the left, but find myself veering also in little puddles of doubt and isolation. If I try to hold to the huge monolith, my hand slips and I fall.

So in education. Educate the right way. No, the left. Culture is right, no wrong, sorry left. History is right, no left. Ancient is modern, right. No ancient is ancient, left. My religion is the country’s religion, right? No, wrong. Country has no religion, or many religions, historically founded, argued in historical strands of cause and effect. Debunk western ideologies. No, harmonise, extract, combine, harmonise, everything is decentralised. There are subs: subaltern, sub nationalism, sub languages. So study across all barriers, more will come in the way. There are challenges, you can call them what you will. Maoism, Terrorism, Extremism. See the One has led to the Many. That is the spiritual message of the country: One to the Many. The One, the only One in this divine Many, Many.

Ananya S Guha

Ananya S Guha was born and brought up in Shillong, North East India. He has seven collections of poetry and his poems have been published worldwide. They have also been featured in several anthologies. He is also a columnist, critic and editor. He now is a Regional Director at the Indira Gandhi National Open University and holds a doctoral degree on the novels of William Golding.