Social changes- Part 1

Since a long time I have not written much about my plans and the struggle I am facing to establish a fresh non-political and non-religious organization for Himachal.

Why after all sitting here in US I have this urge to work with like-minded people so as to establish this association? After all why the heck do I care about all this? Why do I care to work so much to bring together all and that too from that ethnic background, majority of them like Rajputs, who never come to one single platform. To answer this simple yet complicated question of ethnicity I’d like the reader to read about Himachal history, about which we have listed many books and would be carrying many reviews and features in future. It’s very important to talk about ethnic tribes or so called small princely states we had before Independent India.

India is changing and making a lot of progress and so is Himachal changing. A lot of industry is coming up in HP and Hydropower generation capabilities of the state are tapped without any checks and balances and above that as in case of Gas royalties in Arabian countries or in Alaska here in US, locals in HP are not even getting jobs!

But first let’s talk about ethnicity! Himachal had small princely states pre-Independence era! I come from Kangra district, ruled by Katoch clan! Same way Mandi district by Sen clan and so every other small area/district by some other Rajput clan. Then in Rajput clan there are different branches and regionally there are many problems to come together to a single platform to these different branches. As in other region in rest of the world, and I think this is just absurd!

Times are changing and world is moving to a new direction and same way of course becoming more dangerous! Why should I scare people, after all? I ask, why not? Lets assess the new problems we are facing in this new world. Terrorism is major threat; global warming and new troublesome climatic changes are affecting daily lives and daily we hear all other issues cropping up as social problems. My point is when time changes people need to change and they need to change fast. Some time the change is forced upon us by nature and then we move pretty fast but then as is the saying, wise people look for signs, but then people don’t change even when there are signs, I mean may be few but those few are finding it hard to change rest. World has evolved a lot, new ways of doing business, new rules in wars or as you can say new rules in daily life.

Lets start with a small example: there is corruption in almost every walk of life in Indian government machinery, but then how a single person can fight it? I don’t think its possible, you may win your battle with various compromises after years of judicial battle but then what’s the use, by that time people must have forgotten it! My point is right from below to the top corruption has become a fashion now, its like a rule, one needs to bribe no matter what! So how do we make few people change this habit? After all those who are accepting bribes are also parts of the society! They are one of us and sadly in very large numbers. There is no shame left in this trend, its like a race, so as to build your home better than your neighbor, but then people do forget if the person right next door is not vigilant, its almost impossible to save your home in bad times, I think people are even forgetting bad times, there is this long greedy race to make most of it! Any race ends, but with various examples now, we never see the end of this race.

So how do fight this evil? Indian society as such is very strong, we are just 60 years old and we defeated World’s greatest power and took back our country. So I don’t see any reason we cant get rid of evils in our society. It’s just that people need a push, they need a final blow. Jalianwala massacre was the final push for India to gain its Independence, but then here comes the question of being wise or not? Well India was a slave country for British, why do we forget it? We were always under siege, but there were movements to get rid of British raj but then final blow came in the form of this huge massacre! Why were we waiting for it to happen, why were we not able to save those hundreds of people?
When I read fellow bloggers and the new mentality young India is developing, it reminds me of same period! Same way every one is fed up with corrupt politicians, with system and with all the social evils, but then they are unable to get rid of it, may be a final blow might help! I don’t know! Last time I read Sai’s article on Rediff about Mumbai blasts, I saw his frustration and his strong words, and was surprised to see almost all comments, they all were for his views. But then we forgot that episode very fast.

Lately I was reading about Vijay Kumar, HP’s shooting star in commonwealth games, HP govt. promised him Rs. 5 Lakhs, he has not received that till last week, as of now I don’t know! Well here HP ministers talk about putting HP on 2010 commonwealth games map and here they are unable to reward their own talent. The guy comes from a very small village and is grown with very few needs! Where the heck are our planners in Himachal for games? Go get Samaresh Jung and Vijay Kumar and make them HP mascots for commonwealth games and see how it put Himachal on all of Commonwealth countries. It was so refreshing to see all Indian players donning Himachali caps in winter Olympics! And with opening up of world class Ski resorts in the state there are going to be ample resources for new talent, but then how do we start carving them?

I think you are lost what exactly I am trying to do here, why I am writing all these long posts and who the heck in this world has time to read this much, but then I do care that people read about it but at the same time it develops my own thinking and matures me as a thinker! And in the process brings few good like minded people, without their support this change is not possible so I would keep bringing the issues, which I think are stopping us from success as a society and would need support from all to mature and plan for better future of the social changes we are envisioning. Keep reading what all issues we have and help them to identify plus instead of putting views lets start putting rigid on ground teams to change everything!

Avnish Katoch

An IT professional for 17 years, based in the US since the last 12 years. Founded NGO My Himachal and then Himachal Media Pvt. Ltd.. A Himachali forever. Always trying to bring together people whose hearts beat for the state.