Mark Ulyseas – Finding India

Profile Mark Ulyseas Live Encounters January 2018

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Finding India – Mark Ulyseas

Ulyseas has served time in advertising as copywriter and creative director selling people things they didn’t need, a ghost writer for some years, columnist of a newspaper, a freelance journalist and photographer. In 2009 he created Live Encounters Magazine, in Bali, Indonesia. It is a not for profit (adfree) free online magazine featuring leading academics, writers, poets, activists of all hues etc. from around the world. March 2016 saw the launch of its sister publication Live Encounters Poetry, which was relaunched as Live Encounters Poetry & Writing in March 2017. He has edited, designed and produced all of Live Encounters’ 114 publications till date. Mark’s philosophy is that knowledge must be free and shared freely (without charge) to empower all towards enlightenment. He is the author of three books: RAINY – My friend & Philosopher, Seductive Avatars of Maya – Anthology of Dystopian Lives and In Gethsemane: Transcripts of a Journeywww.amazon.com


Food at an ashram photograph by Mark Ulyseas
Free food at an ashram photograph by Mark Ulyseas

What is India?

Is it a make shift arrangement cobbled together by politicians blind-sided by a reality that defies logic?

History of India written by colonials will tell you one story.

History of India written by Indians will tell you many stories.

And so on.

Whom are we to believe as each story is written to serve the purpose of the writers, both historical, political and religious?

In the dawn of yet another year certain people in this great land are to trying to reinvent the purpose of its (India) very existence and the many faiths by which its people live by, by enforcing a warped idea that one faith fits all.[1]

The colour saffron, which is a symbol of sacrifice… renunciation of the material world, is being transformed into one of mass identity covering all, even those that do not conform to its new implied and crudely imposed meaning.[2]

The many layers of society, formed like sedimentary rock over the ages, are cracking, crumbling into dust and this dust is being transformed into an image that does not represent the ancient vibrant ethos of the land.

Is India losing its ancient identity[3] and morphing into a hybrid that is fast and furious, where prophets are now profits, where the WORD has become synonymous with untruth, and where the elite rule by birth right?[4]

The burgeoning masses of the great unwashed watch expectantly at the glam and glitter whilst waiting for a handout as they rest on their haunches relieving themselves in full view of passers-by.[5]

Why is it that sanity of equality continues to evade even those that pretend to speak for the country?[6]

Tribals[7] and other rural folk continue to live on the periphery of society as they witness their homelands encroached upon by others. Many find them (tribals) a nuisance and have suggested ways and means of corralling them, educating them to ‘fit in’ to a modern society[8].

As for the untouchables,[9] millions continue to be untouchable. But jobs are reserved for them.[10]

Is this why the red corridor remains and continues to bleed?[11]

The false notion of a national identity appears to be manufactured in order to deliberately create a mind-set of us and them, with the implied rider ‘if you are not with us, you are against the nation’.[12]

What is the national identity? And is there one?

Is it the symbol of a faith?

Is it a language?

Is it a form of attire?

Or, is it a spiritual sense of oneness, of belonging to a land embedded with the wisdom of the ancients where Man, Woman[13] and Nature have equal rights?

And is the wisdom of the ancients being deliberately misinterpreted to mean gender bias and the rights of Man over Nature?[14]

Multiplicities abound in an India that is being forced to exist in a singularity – under one label.

Why is this so?

In recent times much has been written about the ruminating bovine, its rights and its privileges. Many have been cut down mercilessly for causing grief to this bovine. It matters little if the perpetrators have been prosecuted or not, what matters is that the perceived sanctity of the bovine is protected.[15]

After 70 years existing as India is this what it comes to… whilst hundreds of millions continue to live below the poverty line[16]… and people continue to donate billions of dollars’ worth of currency and precious metals/ornaments to tax free religious places, which are often controlled by government?[17]

Where has the wisdom gone – The wisdom of the ancients that spoke of an undivided oneness of belonging, of acknowledgement of Truth as a way of living?[18]

Perhaps India was never one country?[19]

But it is a multi-faceted civilisation.[20]

And for a civilisation to exist and prosper it must permit the plurality in its society to inhale and exhale the fresh air of freedom of thought and to an extent, action. To stifle the breath of plurality is to slowly extinguish the wisdom of the ancients that resides in this plurality.[21] And if this happens then this civilisation will begin to transform into something ominous.[22]

Has this begun?[23][24][25][26]

Or has this civilisation, India, not digressed so far…and there is hope?[27] [28]

Perhaps only time will tell.

Om Shanti Shanti Shanti Om

[1] http://www.huffingtonpost.in/news/saffronisation-of-education/

[2] https://www.counterpunch.org/2015/11/02/saffronisation-of-india/

[3] http://veda.wikidot.com/sanatana-dharma

[4] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caste_system_in_India

[5] https://thediplomat.com/2017/02/how-to-fix-indias-wealth-gap/

[6] http://www.rediff.com/news/column/the-shocking-way-we-treat-servants/20151019.htm

[7] http://iosrjournals.org/iosr-jhss/papers/Vol19-issue4/Version-2/F019424346.pdf

[8] http://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/Mangalore/media-neglecting-issues-of-rural-india-sainath/article19530616.ece

[9] https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2016/08/13/489883492/the-caste-formerly-known-as-untouchables-demands-a-new-role-in-india

[10] https://thewire.in/127629/caste-based-reservations-india-way-forward/

[11] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_corridor

[12] https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2017/02/28/how-one-indian-student-tried-to-challenge-right-wing-nationalist-groups-on-campus/?utm_term=.fc2fea5e727f

[13] http://theconversation.com/achieving-gender-equality-in-india-what-works-and-what-doesnt-67189

[14] http://www.all-about-india.com/Environmental-issues-in-India.html

[15] https://www.reuters.com/article/us-backstory-cows/cash-cows-and-rising-nationalism-in-modis-india-idUSKBN1DF2EJ

[16] http://www.businesstoday.in/current/economy-politics/india-has-highest-number-of-people-living-below-poverty-line-world-bank/story/238085.html

[17] https://www.change.org/p/temple-money-for-temples-only/u/16424453

[18] http://veda.wikidot.com/sanatana-dharma

[19] http://www.huffingtonpost.in/sriram-karri/why-india-is-not-a-nation-of-many-states-but-a-state-of-many-nations_a_23208545/

[20] http://www.thehindu.com/books/a-critical-analysis-of-indian-civilisation/article2692010.ece

[21] http://pib.nic.in/newsite/PrintRelease.aspx?relid=169682 – Why Pluralism and Secularism are essential for our Democracy: Vice President of India

[22] https://www.hrw.org/report/2016/05/24/stifling-dissent/criminalization-peaceful-expression-india

[23] https://www.reuters.com/article/us-india-languages/more-than-half-of-indias-languages-may-die-out-in-50-years-survey-idUSKBN1AJ1CA

[24] https://qz.com/959802/india-is-the-fourth-worst-country-in-the-world-for-religious-violence/

[25] https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/jan/11/christians-in-india-increasingly-under-attack-study-shows

[26] http://indianexpress.com/article/opinion/columns/the-big-lies-indian-government-rss-bjp-pm-narendra-modi-mahatma-gandhi-indian-history-4822972/

[27] https://theconversation.com/thriving-villages-are-key-to-indias-success-5023

[28] http://www.hindustantimes.com/india-news/in-2-years-bjp-govt-electrified-13523-villages-only-8-were-completely-electrified/story-FWzAtRcHnCbEwF1DcV3pmM.html

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