Dear India, Please Don’t Ask Me To Prove My Identity

My love for my nation is indispensable from me.

(Photo: Kamran Akhter/The Quint)

Dear India,

In my beautiful nation,
I am a Muslim and a proud Indian.

My love for my nation is indispensable for me,
For in its love, I have lost all my glee.

For my existence is in the existence of this great nation.
For its love, my ancestors died and suffered from plight.

They fought with all their pace, never bothering who they face.
The nation where I took birth and for whose freedom my ancestors shed their blood.

How can they ask me to prove myself as Indian at all?
To those who say to ‘go to Pakistan’.
I send blessings of peace, for this is all they need.

Let us pledge, I say, not to hurt the people in any way,
For if you hurt others, you are no longer a human anyway.

And for all of those who want this nation rise up again,
Let us rise above this hatred, if greatness we want to gain.

The nation where the Mahatmas took birth,
And where all the communities came to merge.

The nation where lives of all people were like one.
With one collective identity, all the differences were shun.

I plead you all, have the courage to rise up, for the justice and morality.
And forget the differences and focus on commonality.

This very nation for which we too have suffered great plight
Falls now in the danger by the divisive minds that encourage fight.

For whose constitution is one of the best of its kind.
And whose values we must process in our mind.

If you say this nation is yours then it is mine too.
For god's sake, we all should unite just like glue.

The India that I aspire for is beyond my sight.
Where every section of society flourishes in delight.

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