Discovering India

While Mr. Rahul Gandhi shares his name with Gautam Buddha's son, here ends all the similarities. For some, being born in the most illustrious family of this country, he is a lucky man. In actual, his life, never his own - belonging to nation, is full of challenges, the biggest of-course is of setting an example. Aware of this fact, he starts Discovring India. Discovering India, whose grounds has been made fertile by his family's sweat & blood.

Just a couple of days before, when his arrival in my tiny state of Chhattisgarh is all set, I am sleepless, for I know that there is a little chance that he will ever see what he must. The tribal region that he is going to visit will be flooded with banners & posters of his own & the real India that he is discovering will be hidden behind them. Yet his itinerary still unknown shows his own desire to unveil the real faces of people who comprise India. He is aware of this fact.

The tribal region that he will visit is one of the most beautiful places in India, yet the survival of natives there is no less than a miracle. For more than two thousand years they have lived in an environment of untouchability, being deprived of even necessary human requirements. They are shudras according to laws of Manu. & today when India glides high into twenty first century they find themselves struck between naxalites & salwa judum (govt. sponsored anti-naxalite campaign). Either side is determined to spill their blood in revenge. For two thousand years they were not allowed into society & now they are not allowed in civilized world.
While Rahul ji will move through them, there will be hope in their eyes. Hope that they always had from his family. Yet with mouth they will not speak but will speak through their eyes. A conversation between them & a man who comes from a family whose members have paid the price with their life for this country. I am hopeful as they are, for I know that all our kismet are linked with him.

In particularly moving passages of Nehru ji's will in which he asks for his ashes to be thrown away from the sky so that his soul remains in the soil of this nation, I found his love for not only this nation but for whole humanity. Years & years after, while his great grandson discovers India, I, for an unknowable reason find satisfaction.
His legacy is safe.

p s :-
Following the anonymous commenter, while hunting for the noesis of relative terminology of shudras, I found that tribals are basically not shudras. But I must make clear that hindu mythology is absolutely silent about the classification of tribals, though they have been very abstractly put in the second varna - kshatriya, they are treated no less then a shudra.
On the whole, I correct myself with thanks to the anonymous commenter.