Travelling to India you can’t help but perceive how widespread the misrule, corruption and poverty is in our country; and a big doubt inevitably resurfaces – is it wise to take our families back to a place where violence is common and dishonesty, bribery, fraud and potential risks to life itself exist? I do realize some of us may not have an option between Desh Aur Diaspora, which also happens to be the title of my soon to be published book. Whenever I contemplate returning to India, I’m reminded of what Blaise Pascal the 17th-century physicist-turned-theologian said: “The heart has its reasons of which reason knows nothing.” Despite all the reservations, keeping India in mind is motivating, but relocating there raises a whole lot of issues. Sooner or later all of us have to deal with them and I often wish it was sooner rather than later - until I make another trip to India and return flabbergasted. Our economy’s resilience is reassuring, but the appalling conditions unfolding on our streets and certain parts of the country proclaim the hapless state of our nation. Sure, in some ways I know each one of us can try and make a difference, but what can we do about the misuse of power and corruption at the highest levels that are the cause of so much anarchy? Almost all politicians, ministers, government officials, police and court officials are corrupt; many are unaccountable, anti national, dangerous criminals who have seized power. Evidence of how brazenly our politicians flaunt money and power is the recent tamasha over UP Chief Minister Mayawati’s 1,000 rupee notes garland, estimated to be worth Rs. 10 crores by NDTV. Other Chief Ministers like Narender Modi, Nitesh Kumar etc., have also shamelessly indulged in the practice of being weighed in gold before a starving populace. Every year in Madhya Pradesh alone 30,000 malnourished children are dying according to news reports. The fact is as long as such lawlessness doesn’t touch us directly we don’t care but what if something happens and you or a loved one fall into the hands of an unscrupulous official, and you find yourself in a life threatening situation; perhaps it goes to the extreme and a loved one is killed. What then? Numerous incidents like this are reported in the media, and grieving families across India and many NRIs can testify to shocking experiences where there is little indication of the rule of the law. Apartheid was dismantled in South Africa a decade ago, but the murderous con game called ‘Caste’ in our country continues. For better clarity though, Indian society can probably be divided into three groups. At the top are the super-rich and powerful, currently including about 100 known criminals in India’s legislative body and their allied vested interests who try and influence the country’s policies, laws, rules and regulations for their own benefit. They must be quite adept, how else could politicians in a country like ours acquire such immense wealth? Assets declared by Lok Sabha candidates have grown by 400 per cent since 2002, making it an elite ruling club. In their pocket to a large extent is the second group, which comprises lesser politicians, businessmen, government officials, police, judges of the courts and the media. At the bottom in the third group come the lower middle class and the poor. They are divided, ruled, misled, exploited, harassed, and crushed by those in power. It seems the country’s laws, rules, and regulations, are mainly used to control this underprivileged lot. In an expose on Iran as a strict Islamic society, the Wall Street Journal asked: “How can you have a revolution when everyone is watching TV?” It noted the government has a silent pact with the educated and affluent in Iran’s big cities who render politics unto Caesar, provided that Caesar keeps his nose out of their liquor cabinets. The well-to-do Iranian drinks and reads and watches what he wishes, doing as he pleases behind the walls of his private mansions and villas. In return for his private comforts, the affluent Iranian is happy to sacrifice freedom of speech, most of his civil rights, and his freedom of association. The upper-middle class has been bought off by this pact, which makes a virtue of hypocrisy. Comparing Iran with India is not farfetched, though some Indians might naïvely gloat over the fact that while Iran ranked a miserable 168 out of 180 countries with a score of 1.8, India ranked 84 out of 180 countries in Transparency International's Corruption Perceptions Index, and its score improved from 2.7 in 2002 to 3.4 in 2008. If it seems political and bureaucratic corruption is no big deal to us city folk, India’s exploited rural poor know otherwise. With their very survival at stake, they are turning to the Maoists rather than be exploited under rapacious state rule. In an interview with SBS, Australia’s multicultural and multilingual broadcaster, activist and author Arundhati Roy pointed out: “Basically you have one India which has now seceded into outer space and has joined the elite of the world and is looking down at the old India and thinking, “Why are these tribals living on our bauxite and why is our water in their rivers and why is our furniture in their forests and how do we get them off the land?” And this is what the government wants - it wants 85% of the population to move into cities where it can be easily policed, where it can be easily controlled.” Pining with nostalgia for our roots, NRIs seldom consider there are places in India so terrifying and so brutally exploited that you and I may never want to leave the Diaspora and return home. As of 2009, armed insurrection in India is active across 220 districts in twenty states accounting for about 40 percent of India’s geographical area. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh recently declared that Maoist or Naxalite separatist violence is the gravest internal threat to India’s national security. The revolution is largely confined to the rural areas for now, but it is bound to spill over sooner or later, with increasing media coverage confirming the seriousness of the uprising. Over two million people have been displaced as government forces engage in anti- insurgency operations; caught in the crossfire hundreds of innocent tribals are being killed every month in Chhattisgarh, Orissa, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Jharkhand, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, and West Bengal. It is hard to believe such a vicious war is raging in our country, with the government’s role dubious at best. Roy is ruthless in her assessment of the situation: “I can be accused of exaggerating or going overboard and so on, but what I would like to say is that genocide is not only when you move people into concentration camps and gas them. Most of the genocide in this world is about cutting people off from their resources and letting them get thirsty or get hungry and slowly annihilate themselves. And that is happening in India.” Did somebody say Jai Hind?