Waking up, are we ?

I sometimes get the feeling that we in India are living in very important times. Not just because of our new found place as an emerging global power. More because of the way we are evolving as a society! As a society that can think, speak, discuss, debate and decide. Two major happenings of the recent past stand testimony.

• Article 377 - The fact that there was enough gut among us to discuss this on Live TV in a supposedly conservative society itself so amazes me. I would not vouch for the quality of the debate that often happens on TV but I though few NDTV debates were pretty fair and can form an important instrument in framing public opinion.
• Jaswant Singh's book on Jinnah and partition - I am particularly happy for the nation-wide debate the book will stir (or has already stirred, perhaps!). That someone, after Advani's Jinnah episode, will have the gumption to touch a soft subject like the partition and thereby kick-start a debate underscores the fact that our society is emerging into a truly pluralistic one. Not a pluralism that is defined by the multitudes of religions and cultures that exist here -facets that are more imposed on us than chosen, but a pluralism that is defined by our ideas and views that evolve with our experience and learning.

What say???