Being an Indian yet not being one

Is this the India I wanted to see,
when I was growing up with all the diversity in me?
To be pulled apart in different directions,
stabbing the soul or Indianness as I knew it to be.

I shouted to all my identities torn apart, "Let's save our soul!".
They replied back, "We are secondarily Indians, so why should we even play a role.".
The alien feeling of separatism was simmering in them,
like the hidden embers of burning coal.

My immortal Indianness has now been mortally injured,
by the splinters of caste, creed and religion, year after year it has endured.
The gangrene of difference has spread too far.
Is there a panacea that can have it cured?

Erased has been the history of ages we have shared.
When we had held hands and for each other cared.
When we showed the world how fulfilling it is to move in multitude
and in breaking us apart had nobody ever dared.

But now the world laughs at us with pity.
For the internecine show we have put up with amazing ingenuity.
With all the glory lost and years of history ignobled,
lost is the principal virtue of our Indianness - integrity.