‘Neighbour’ is a word of pure English or Anglo-Saxon origin which signifies people who live near one another. But the concept is much older, and is as old as human civilisation. Neighbourliness, then, implied certain norms like fellow-feeling, mutual dependence and all other qualities that created a cohesive (= spirit of living together or of unity) spirit.
The village community-life of the past treated all and sundry as neighbours that contributed to the health of the community. Blind faith, superstitions and age-old obsolete (= out of use) customs ruled no doubt, but the members stuck to them as one and indivisible. They considered themselves to be neighbours in their weal and woe, such a granite structure they believed they were.
Till those days, nay, even till recently neighbours as a concept in the above sense was a reality, both in towns and in the villages. In towns the muhullas (= the localities) had characters of their own. Some were more decent while others, comparatively, might have been a bit raffish (= dominated by roughs or such youths).
Subsequently political upheavals resulted in the growth of hordes of displaced persons (DPs). In India, in Europe, Australia, America, everywhere colonies of settlers grew like the mushrooms. Naturally, the earlier phases of neighbours who spent a corporate (=united in a body) life for generations yielded to a new set-up of things. The term ‘ethnic’ (a conglomerate or splintered groups bound by necessity) culture was minted (= coined) anew.
In the earliest phase, the ‘closed’ outlook of people living like neighbours wedded rigidly to values, right or wrong, was slowly modified. Enterprising young men brought new light from abroad. The superstitious values, rigid outlooks or customs changed. The mental frame of men broadened.
Thus there was a thaw (= breaking of the ice). But inspite of these the neighbourly values of respect, love, loyalty, responsibility obtained. There was no landslide, as such.
But in the present context the old concept of neighbours is fast becoming obsolete (= of no significance). To cut the long history short, today the Internet, global mobility, cash money that replaces commodity-culture are fast replacing the old values. Parental or other kinds of loyalties, societal (= born out of a faith in ‘society’) attitudes, sense of respect and mutual understanding are fast being redefined. There is an almost mad flight from the towns and the villages which are regarded as mere backwaters.
As a result of the above situation the ‘neighbours’ in multi- storied flats are mere neighbours of humane (= developed by human feelings) ties. It is an adjustment of common needs only. There is no sharing of sorrows or joys, suspicious of others makes one live behind barred and well-fortified doors. The impulse to take up the cause of a good neighbour who lives next door is, virtually, dead. The distinction between ‘high’ and ‘low’ judged by the floor– area of one’s apartment run high. Again the ‘on-line-culture’ (= internet) gradually replaces the past cultures as moribund (= almost dying) or death.
Thus the forces of alienation (= making relations or ties foreign) are fast causing rifts in the flute (= causes cracks in harmony) of a culture based on the healthy tradition of neighbours and neighbourliness.
