[8]: Rajput Beingness and the Dangerous Other

In the beginning there is infinity. Then the being arises from it. The being has subjectivity and that’s the root of self-awareness or self-knowledge. Against this subjectivity, there develops a sense of objectivity. This objectivity is the field that keeps the being in existence and prevents it from merging back into the infinity from which it arose. In other words, our relation to the other defines who we are and who we could be. Our being and our becoming proceeds from this relationship that we share with others.  The other is the opposite pole, as it were, against which the growth and journey of the being is to be made. The journey could be made in the authentic mode; the mode in which the Being doesn’t fall into the other. Or in the inauthentic mode wherein the Being falls into the other losing its original self-knowledge and self-awareness, thus forgetting everything about its original beingness and turning itself into something of a very different kind. Thus, the other could be a great friend and yet it could be the greatest possible enemy there is. 

In the social context, there is a constant encounter with the other. A community with a strong sense of Being, thus living in the authentic mode, manages to thrive while a weaker one easily falls into the other upon encounter thus losing its beingness or identity. In other words, the other in the social context is the most dangerous kind of other. And in no other situation does this interaction with the other become more pronounced than in the situation of a war. It is for this reason that martial communities gain much from each other even as they engage in battles and bloodshed. Rajputs have fought against every foreign tribe starting from the Pagan Greeks to the Muslim Arabs, Turks, and Afghans and the Christian British. Every encounter with the other has helped the Rajputs in their growth through time without losing their fundamental beingness. Anything that doesn’t kill you makes you stronger. Thus, the Rajputs have lived in the authentic mode for more than two millennia. 

However, in the modern post colonial times, the trend seems to have reversed. With the loss of sovereign power, the Rajputs lost the ability to gauge the others through the prism of war. And this change in the modalities of the overall social and political environment has caused much damage to the basic beingness of the Rajput social makeup. The Rajput community has suffered from a general decline not just in political clout, and economic and military power, but also a gradual decline in its most fundamental and ownmost beingness. The Rajput community has been living in the inauthentic mode for a very long time now and therefore it has been falling into the other more and more. This inauthentic mode of life is the most fundamental error that must be remedied if the seed of the Rajput has to survive.

To make a course correction, the Rajput community must understand that the situation of war has become more subtle. It must discern the nature of the wars of the modern times clearly. The enemy here is not very tangible. But it is always the other. And the other is always dangerous. The only difference is that the other has learned how to hide its toxic being behind the veil of the ideology. It could be anything ranging from Secularism to Hindutva. The Rajputs must fight this war by countering these existing ideologies and propaganda with their own ideologies and propaganda. These newly confected ideologies will give a new sense of meaning to the community and help it recollect its original beingness with a new regenerated vigor and will help the community do the course correction. From inauthentic to the authentic mode of being, forever keeping in mind the danger of the other.