The private video that went viral

It should not have gone viral; it’s done now ; some watched it and had a good laugh; some watched it and felt slighted and hurt; others watched and just ignored it; (many Mauritians of Indian origin also used to make fun of Indians especially on the phonetics of Indian English….Ask the many Mauritians who had studied in India - they just could not stop from making it a daily habit of criticising India and the “filthy” Indians …and mocking them in their harsh creole swear words…).

For some others it was an opportunity not to be missed to add fuel to it, linking it to some past events or misdoings …and the whole filth of distrust, suspicions, hatred, misconceptions, prejudices, negativities…were allowed to come to the surface again swallowing up, in a flash, the painstaking years it has taken us to build up the recognition and reverence of our diversity.

And for many this clamour for identity politics is just a pretence, pure hypocrisy for “metteurs choulas”-its progenitors are also such people who sit in the shade of the silos and enjoy themselves. It is just a ruse to drag simple people towards antagonism and distrust of others-PA NU BAN SA- and nothing more. And Mauritianess takes its toll and if they are allowed to have their way, it will take up some more years to paper over the cracks, the fallacies and the grudges left over by such divisive politics.

To ensure that such narrow-mindedness does not survive and that our own typical Mauritianess do prevail, perhaps, these words from an international humanitarian may help

“There is an underlying unity in all the cultures around the world. We should realise that we are one family and find the common thread in different religions and cultures. I remember my father used to say, the world is full of people and mistakes. Love the former and forgive the latter.

We need to forgive the mistakes, forget the wrong doings of people and bring everyone together in a spirit of celebration, spirit of love, compassion and serving. Bringing all the cultures of the world together, and stringing them in a beautiful garland; this sense of belongingness, that we belong to one family in spite of different colours, languages and food habits, has to be developed in all of us and in our children and youth. Let's enjoy the diverse variety of creation by honouring, respecting and loving them all.

We no longer live in an isolated world. We have no other choice than to honour diversity. It is a necessity, not an option. It is in our nature, and it is a sign of intelligence and evolution when we feel that all the cultures, all the civilizations, all the different schools of philosophy, belong to us.

Unfortunately, prejudice based on ignorance is the greatest impediment to embracing diversity. …It is time to celebrate the differences and celebrate life on this planet.

We have to create a society for our children, which is better than what we inherited. Today it is said ,only unity has power in this era. When many bristles are put together to make a broom, they are far more effective in sweeping a large hall than they would have been individually. If we move together, we can do something big. Come what may, whatever the circumstances, everyone must keep his spirit high and realise the dream of seeing the world(….and our Mauritius) becoming one family.”

Or these ones from a renown philosopher

“ When you call yourself an Indian or a Muslim or a Christian or a European, or anything else, you are being violent. Do you see why it is violent? Because you are separating yourself from the rest of mankind. When you separate yourself by belief, by nationality, by tradition, it breeds violence. So a man who is seeking to understand violence does not belong to any country, to any religion, to any political party or partial system; he is concerned with the total understanding of mankind.

It’s easy to argue -in theory - that it’s harmless to attach a strong national affiliation to who you are, or to proudly and boldly wear your belief system as a badge of honor, and it may well be harmless, but the broader phenomena -in practice -is never harmless.

What starts as noble, however, gets clouded by labels and irrational tribal affiliations that we begin to treat as facts, something that we implicitly assume to be attached to some objective part of reality, a process which then gives us the moral high-ground to commit atrocities.

If we take a closer look at history, we’ll see that the mere labelling of people, regardless of good and bad, has led to more suffering in the world than the actual bad committed by the people we are so fervently against.”

Or these quotes from Kabir, the mystic poet and saint,

“Same is the semen,skin,urine

Same is the blood and bone

From single source we all are born

Says Kabir, all are born as human

We all hail from far off land

And reach here on earth

Touched by the winds that blow here

Each pursues his different path.”

10Prakash Neerohoo, Ravind Nithoo and 8 others

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10Prakash Neerohoo, Vijay Bhattu and 8 others

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