Its most unfortunate that the Frenchman Francois Gautier has chosen to come up with this contentious exhibition and write-up at thsi juncture in time. While it may be true that French Catholics and Protestants massacred each other in the past, and that today that history is studied impassionately in their country, the context is very different in India. We still have more than 30% of our population illiterate. A vast majority of people are not currently in a position of intellectual maturity to objectively look at such devisive issues without emotions. The horrific history of mass bloodshed in the name of communal clashes is a loud testimony to this embarrasing reality. Yes, there would have been gory things that happened in the past, but then again, the past that we want to get so much agitated about, is merely what was once 'current event' that merely got relegated to the pages of history with new events that took its place. What I intend to convey is that our past was enacted out by the same 'breed' of people that occupy the subcontinent today- the people capable of such deplorable acts like Nithari, our sleazy politicians, corrupt babus etc. If people are capable of evil today, and evil is not the monopoly of any particular religion or community, then by normal logic, they would have been capable of the same yesterday too. Let us not be childish in having too much expectation of the people of the past. We are the generation of today, when India is poised on the verge of global greatness and prosperity. Forget the past, see how we can contribute to the preesnt, and build for the future. Squabbling about the past is too easy a preoccupation- the challenging thing is to be a contributor to India's growth today. Will we be upto it?
