Why do we fight?

While I try to while away time sometimes I take a run down the memory lane to good old times... times long ago to label myself as innocent, which I presume I still am J J!! During the middle school, as is the case with everyone we have some people who are close to us and we tend to be pretty possessive over them. "He/ She is my friend!! My friend alone! You go pick someone else"...  "No you are NOT part of our gang, you can't play with us"...

Do you recollect such time when we had our own small gangs, if anyone wanted to be friends with those in YOUR gang, the rest would/ you would staunchly oppose? All this usually didn't carry an impact strong enough to ruin anyone... as you would label it now in simple terms as "being kiddish". Any difference between guys would be sorted through a tough measure of dialogue involving "Dude, you tell me, you are my friend or his?"....It was all peaceful, issues sorted through dialogue, rarely did fists fly. Try remembering such instances and a smile would definitely flash across your face on such memories. You were until then unspoilt by the evils/ paradigms of the society.

Now take a step forward... a few years ahead... You still have groups/ gangs of... Let’s say people (friends may be too generic). But, only this time around those groups are defined NOT by the simple facet of who is close to you, rather it’s the parameter that defines WHO, THAT person is. Yes, these groups are defined by the affiliations of race, colour, religion, caste, creed, region etc. Time has been swept off and you have grown having strong identity or affiliation to these attributes. You have unknowingly built strong bonds with these. You recognize yourselves with these and inherently built a strong loyalty/ passion. And, when these attributes are challenged your reactions are way different that when you were a kid. You will have physical violence and aggression answering the challenge, not dialogue instead.

This is what is the difference, as we grow we are supposed to be more mature, take a wider & sensible view of the situation. But, in actual as we grow our vision is narrowed as well as blurred by the bias towards the above mentioned virtues. When our bond with virtues becomes stronger beyond a point, we defend it more vociferously and in that moment when the emotions spill over, violence takes command.

This is where we are in the current world scenario. People identify and relate themselves with WHAT they believe defines them and that is NOT good.

Instead we should try painting all ourselves with the same brush of mankind (can't find the relevant quote by a famous person)... recognize the other individual as a human replete of all the tags of religion, region, race etc., believe that we just co-exist in this world with rather virtually bordered/ separated places... maybe this will allow us to desist from spewing venom a.k.a violence, brandishing a shield against all this rather than presenting it as the sword.

HOW THE GROUPS CAME INTO EXISTENCE?

The theory of evolution quoted by Charles Darwin- "Survival of the fittest", was meant to define the key element of adaptation necessary to the changes taking place around and molding of the characteristics of a species towards meeting basic purpose of surviving. The animal kingdom did evolve, but few species got dropped in between. The plant kingdom did evolve, but a few species got dropped. The homo sapiens did evolve, but species of animal/ plant kingdom got annihilated. You see, we were the smart asses!!

Once the neighbouring kingdoms had been vanquished/ rather taken care of, like a true emperor, Homo sapiens turned towards their own in search of that victor's morale booster.

Like any kingdom, family or group, each individual in that band was allocated a task- a responsibility to fulfill the needs of the group of individuals by efficiently accomplishing the assigned duty. Thus, one set of people were tasked with raising cattle, one set for farming, one set for hunting, one set for making the weaponry, one set to worship their deities etc. etc. and ONE, usually an elder to run the whole set up. You getting a picture? Not yet. Ok. As a generation took over, the individuals "transferred" that knowledge within their family, to their wards. Then it was their next generation that handled that "task"/ "duty". As the ages went by, newer groups were discovered... new people were tasked with handling those duties... and they in turn passed it on to their wards.

This process got carried on for generations and got repeated over and over again. The individuals became adept at these due to generations of data and that duty became their "Identity" instead. They individuals now got referred to as- Cattle Grazers, Farmers, Warriors (Kshatriyas), Iron Smith, Brahmins (priest), Traders, Scavengers..... Rulers (kings) etc. The divide among the individuals widened as economics got introduced in between. The people tasked with menial tasks earned little, thus widening the gap to the prosperous individuals of other tasks. These identities over the ages translated into what we called castes. This has been "MY" general understanding of whatever history of the civilizations I had managed to read about.

Come the Modern age, social stigma got attached to the individuals depending on the tasks they were handling. Along with the economic divide and the power clouted by the powerful sections of the society these groups (I wouldn't want to refer to them as castes) got castigated, they were denied many a basic rights. There were many reformists who fought for the up-liftment of these under privileged- some chose the discussion medium & other preferred violence.

Let’s jump to post independent days India. Right through our Civics subject, we were taught about how our Constitution was formulated and how one Mr.BabaSaheb Ambedkar with the foresight or goodwill, thought that for uniform development of various segments of the society fragmented based on the age old discrimination would be able to get together to build a formidable society & great India. The very basic principle behind this amendment was to ensure that everyone is tagged along as the country progressed further. These adjustment (if they can be referred so) were meant last for a defined period and post that period- C E A S E to exist. But post-independence the situations changed, the people's mindset changed...so did the thinking of the people in Power. With great power comes.... greater greed/ want!

Let me bring to you my perspective of how things changed for various groups involved, because of this small act…. To follow in next post. We will in the end get to how Homo Sapiens vanquished their own kingdom.