Peace and Memory

In one scene from the movie “The Boondock Saints II: All Saints Day”, the voiceover says, “Peace is the enemy of memory.” What a startling fact!

It is so easy to forget some troubling incidents or some important reminders, if we only remain in peace for quite some time. I think it works both ways: it’s good as well as bad. If we take the example of Kashmir, the revolting people are like that because they haven’t really seen peace. And that has been the strategy of the neighboring enemy state Pakistan: if there is a period of peace in Kashmir, Kashmiris would forget to “revolt” against Indian state. On the other hand, peace is also what has made Indians numb towards many of the national goals for which our freedom fighters worked. We go on with our lives no matter one of our own people lives or dies on the footpath: our individual contribution towards poverty eradication is very low. We keep being proud of our children who go to elite schools and then settle abroad; while many like us can’t afford to feed their children properly. At one time before independence, our nation was one, behind Mahatma, in spreading the light of education.

Peace has indeed eliminated our collective memory of our national priorities. Today, we live life in a modern India, completely oblivious of many like us who have seen no light of modernity.

- Rahul