With so much of violence around us it is all but hard to believe that there was a time when we were as students taught that our country was the melting pot of cultures. Even a country as progressive as America panicked and resorted to measures which least is called stringent. With high level of security, stricter visa regulations, it was all but a knee jerk reaction. When compared to what our country goes through everyday in Kashmir, we should have seen bloodbath everyday here. But what sets us apart from the so called progressive Superpower of the world. In spite of the history of foreign aggressions and cultural destruction, what keeps this country going? Why do we still have secularism as our mantra?
The answer is right in our conscience. The people of this country belonging to any religion are secular. They have lived for centuries respecting each others culture. For this, not Hinduism or any other sect can claim credit. It is the gift of the centuries old culture of this country. Man is a survivor and in order to survive he needs peace and a constructive atmosphere. Old civilizations may have collapsed or even given way to a new one, but they all had one thing in common, a determination to survive and thrive.

The atmosphere that we are witnessing around us is not a battle for survival or even a cultural fight back. It is an ugly head of self destruction. A fight for the symbols of culture does not in anyway enhance the image of a culture or a religion. It is a painful slaughter of innocent minds, with the ugly wounds leaving a bruised mark for ever.

To learn from our past do we need to read history? Then be it, has not tolerance and peace brought progress and violence brought destruction. It was true in history and will be true in this painful present too.

The pride of this country is wounded not in the eyes of some obscure western powers but in its own. A country which had the capability of surviving and fighting many a sept elevens has lost its moral authority. It is time a sane voice was heard calling for rationale and harmony.