Hi Lasya
A very deep question and I don't know if I could do full justice to the question you put forward but would try .Would be very interested in knowing your views too and so waiting for you to unres ...
"should Children ever be used for one's own political agenda"
At the outset ,The ideal answer in an ideal world would be no .Children bring in profound joy to everyone involved . They are source of happiness and so ideally should be allowed to be nurtured and grew up in their own space according to their own skills .A mother's love is considered unconditional and so pure as she is the one who has the capability to truly love a child with no expectation and can find simple joys of life in every moment of the child.
But even mothers though not intentionally but in a way indirectly can try to influence
You made me nostalgic of a moment I would like to share .
When my son was born as an over enthusiastic and blissful new mother does I also used to search for all the toys which have raving reviews which would improve all his gross motor skills and buy them. But as children do he in his own way thought me a very valuable lesson which I knew yet has forgot in the daily mundane of life . He with the child's own curiosity for learning left all those toys and crawl to the kitchen and was fascinated and utterly captured by the sun rays falling on the kitchen in a particular area .He was keeping his hands on and off and seems to be engrossed by the fascinating patterns created in his hands .That day I once again was made to realize simple joys of life lies abundant in plenty among us there is no need for running at something we think as joyful forgetting all these gifts of god and mother nature.
That's y those days we had gurukuls were a child when reached an age when learning is to be initiated were send to ashram were they will grow up learning all skills and be judged by an impartial teacher and allowed to truly nurture their own skills.
Sorry for deviating but coming back to your question .How would this be in a practical world?
Within the confines of our show
I would like to bring in 3 Maham,Ruq and Ruqsar
Former 2 clearly does this and we all witnessed what could be the ill effects and to which level they could get on to satisfy their own ambitions, greed and lust for power .Again they are not real mothers but were given motherly positions and their intentions are really evil so no argument whatever they did is morally ,ethically and legally wrong .
Coming to ruqsar unlike them we have no clear picture yet so whatever i'm saying is just my perspective of thinking on how a woman would feel at her state and could we call her wrong if she had any agenda of her own and try to shape up daniyal? According to what is shown in reel the life of other begums (I have excluded chief queens though its also arguable) in harem seems to be a pitiable one .they have constantly to fight for some attention from their husband and couldn't even most of the times convey their concerns directly to him(I'm referring to the time when jalal refused to meet all of them before harem election.. ) . So its mostly for them a state of "Survival of the fittest" to bring in any recognition to them . So wouldn't it be natural for a mother to expect from a son a way to the well being of her life and wouldn't she see it as a chance to finally regain a degree of respect for herself. It would definitely be wrong of her if she try to uproot salim and bring in her own son ,but I couldn't condemn her if she just want a space for daniyal too as I see many mothers who in our century too, if they didn't get the love and respect from their husband look for their son for solace and respect .
So could we call that agenda completely wrong is a question I have ?
Now in a broader perspective
I would like to go further into the word use
I think here we can't generalize but also take the situation and intentions into account .
There are incidents where the children are shaped up according to ones dream and even further their ambitions as the one who would finally succeed in accomplishing their dreams for the betterment of the nation or society as whole like letters of Nehru to Indira ,Rajendra chola to build a powerful chola dynasty or chanakya's shaping up of Chandra gupta(though i'm not sure if its done as kid or as an young man) to name a few .These are positive examples when the word use is used in a right way. Here the children also seems to be equally inspired and have that natural ability and aspiration to take it further.
Again if we see this question by just leaving out political and see if children could be used for accomplishing one's own agenda the spectrum grew wider. Here mostly the intentions would be good ,like they want the child best or for some would want their child to follow their legacy etc.. and if the child matches their abilities and aspirations, all is well .Profound goodness can come out of it as the society will benefit in general . But what if the child lacks aspiration or is skilled in other .There are many sad cases that these children are further compelled and loose what they have ,develop a sense od insecurity and loneliness and sadly becomes wayward.
To sum it up ,parents normally wields a certain amount of their dream or aspirations on children but definitely a line should be known or set where to stop and where to nurture further . This is just my humble opinion and would love to know your views on it and sorry for the long post .Only excuse I have is I found your question to be too deep to answer in a few words and even at the end of the post i'm also left with questions only as can ever a parent get a true detachment and fully allow the child to grow and learn on its own? .Is it good or bad ? etc..
