India..musings

Excerpts: "India was one of the earliest of the great civilizations. It defined the goals of civilized life very differently from the west. The west raised individualism, materialism, rationality, masculinity as its ideals. India’s great tradition insisted on non-violence, renunciation, being alive, the female as pillars of civilization. And through all the triumphs and disasters of her history she hung on to that ideal; an eternal quest to identify humanity with the whole of creation; a unity in diversity."

Mark Twain: The Indians may seem poor to we rich westerners, but in matters of the spirit it’s we who are the poor person and they who are the millionaires. History is full of empires of the soul but India alone created an empire of the spirit.

I loved hearing these. Felt my chest swell with pride. That Indianness in me was stroked pleasantly.

Then, I just paused..To be my own devil's advocate, I just took a step back and thought for a while.

All that is said above is true. I do feel proud about it as an Indian. But I question myself, do these grand beliefs apply to this day? I hesitate..I cannot get myself to say a honest 'Yes'. I sense that the ideals we hung on to as a nation for thousands of years are now slowly dissolving and moving more towards the ideals of the west - individuality, materialism, rationality and masculinity. Good or bad, each one might have different opinions. If we think it is good, we should stop talking about ourselves as if we still continue to embody non-violence, renunciation and the others as our ideals. We should come out and accept that we like the ideals of the west and so are going to embrace them proudly. We like materialism. We like individualism. We like rationality. We like masculinity. Can we say that, true to ourselves? I think most of us feel conflicted here. Ofcourse there are people who can cross the bridge and go over the the other side. But a good majority of us are caught in a place where we like some but not all the ideals of the west and we do not want to let go of our ideals either because we see their value too. So we choose to live in this false notion - basking in the past glory, telling ourselves our ideals havent changed, when in reality we are just deluding ourselves.

Knowing this makes me feel very uncomfortable. I suddenly feel myself stripped of that protective shield that I had in front of me - my defense against any attack against me or my country - that we have a rich heritage, a rich culture, we value life, we value spirituality, we know, we are Indians, we were once the most powerful country in the world, even when you westerners were hunting and gathering we had flourishin civilizations, we wrote the vedas, we knew all about astronomy, stars, planets, positions, galaxys thousands of years before Copernicus, we knew all about surgery, we were the masters! But isnt that all what it is..just history? What is gone, is just what it is, its gone. We cannot continue to delude ourselves with that and forget about the present.

With India rising and shining again, it puts so much more pressure on us as a country to remind ourselves of our true values, ideals, capabilities and most importantly, our limitations, which are many! Thankfully for us, our rich culture and heritage has given us the resilience and the power to surge forward. But in order to sustain the surge we should make sure we are critical about ourselves in all respects.

There are glaring defects in us -
We need to come out of Indian Standard Time (First this applies to me)
We need to stop aping the west
We need to start practising what we preach
We need to start appreciating and valuing what is ours
We need to start taking ownership for our follies and those of our countrymen
We need to stop blaming the government
We need to start respecting our fellow countrymen as much as ourselves
Small things - civic sense, helping a blind person cross a road, giving up our seat for an old man, standing up for justice if you see injustice being meted out, these are a few of our true values, what we claim to stand for as a nation.

The other day I heard a friend say that we are beginning to be more progressive in our thinking as a nation. The example s/he gave was that there are more and more youngsters getting into live-in relationships before marriage. I was shocked! Shocked not because I am against live-in relationships, but because such a thing was seen as a sign of progressive thinking! More premarital live-in relationships, more free sex, more divorce on the name of independence - these are not signs of progress! These are just manifestations of free will! These will not do us any good..we will just go down the path paved for us by the West.

As a society we need to change many things - we need to rebel against the vertically structured caste system that says one caste is below or above another, we need to rebel against corruption which is against every fundamental belief in our heritage, we need to truly see humanity as one and stop drawing lines based on caste, creed language and nationality - that doesnt mean blatantly opposing our parents and family and moving out to live with someone we love who belongs to a different caste/religion or speaks a different language or whatever. That is brash and doesnt lead anywhere. No, instead before even going there, we should first clean our system of the corruption, of the lack of ownership, of the lack of civic sense, of the mindless violence, of the deep-rooted inefficiencies. First these should be tackled. Once these start getting set right we automatically build a platform for transformation and change. As a next step we should make a concerted effort to remove the basic underlying bias in society against people 'different' from us just because of 'birth'. However this is a gradual change. And it can be effective only when done gradually. We have seen in the past revolutionaries - Lord Basaveshwara, Gautama Buddha, Raja Ram Mohan Roy, and many such others - go down in history making their mark but not being able to institute permanent change in the entire society. Such is the resistance this deep rooted system offers to even such strong revolutionaries. These people are the Bhagat Singhs of societal reforms. But it takes a Gandhi to get freedom. Bhagat Singhs are necessary to shake up the system too. But to achieve the end goal, the patient and concerted effort of a Gandhi is what is needed.

When I started writing I had no idea where this will lead. But now I know where it has led me. To our very own dear Munnabhai! :D Yes, Gandhigiri as preached by Munna is what we need to practice today as a nation! :)

We want to be a developed nation, not another America. Do you see the difference? The way society is moving today seems to me that we will be another America with all the bads and some of the goods. Instead we should aim to be a developed India, with all the goods of America and all the goods of India and if any, the bads of India and not of America!

Forgive me here - I have nothing against the West or against America. I myself am studying here right now and benefiting from all the great things this country has to offer. But living here also makes me see more of the great things our country has to offer and how as a nation we seem to be giving those up for the superficial attractions of the West, which the West itself is now trying to shed.

I am not saying India is no longer spiritual, no longer united in diversity, no longer believes in the pillars of civilization as mentioned earlier. India does, but not Indians. We like to delude ourselves into believing this to be true that we have this rich culture and tradition and energy and what not and hence are superior beings in this world. We can beat the US to death, give China the run for the money, etc., etc.. We like to live in the glory of the past and have a tendency to ignore the ignominy of the present. I am one of those people myself. Ofcourse, here I am taking an extreme stance, which most people will push back on, call me delusive even, but I would rather take a pessimistic approach when it comes to working towards improvement, than be an optimist who overlooks the glaring lacunae of India's modern society.