A Proud Indian, Indeed!
Submerged deep inside my mind are all those little pieces of information that minds store away, including comments about our lives and living conditions, comments that come from those who have known and lead a better life. There are innumerable instances, in our collective minds, when those from other nations looked down upon us just because we were Indians – instances of being slighted and treated as sub-humans. On occasion, some of us may have fought back verbally and with measured arguments, about our ancient culture and recent developments in one or two areas of human endeavour – perhaps, more than one or two areas. But, that does not detract from the fact there are reasons, and many good reasons for others, who know and understand less, to look down on Indians. Instead of merely fighting them, we need to address the very questions they raise.
Given, that we have been ruled for centuries by outsiders, looted and plundered innumerable times, and all the other possibly myriad reasons, for our poverty and lack of development. However, that does not change the fact that we have failed as a nation, at least until today, in the modern context. Instead of going into the past, instead of spending all our time and energy talking about our glorious past (the past belongs to our ancestors and the glories they achieved belong to them, not to us), we need to get down to the task of making ourselves better, of trying to achieve our true potential. I say potential, because there are millions of Indians who fail in India but end up as great successes abroad, in countries like the USA, Great Britain and dozens of other countries. The reason, I believe, is our system. For some reason, we have primed our socio-political systems to stem creativity and enterprise and instead, to encourage crime and corruption.
The failures and successes of a nation begin and end with the leaders, their vision, their policies and the laws they promulgate. If, we as a nation have failed, the reason is purely, squarely and absolutely our leaders, our Prime Ministers and Chief Ministers, their cabinets and bureaucrats. It is their duty to provide us a leadership that thinks creatively and acts pragmatically and takes the nation ahead in every field. Why must an Indian, who votes them to power, die of hunger or even heat or cold? Why must an Indian die or be injured in countless train and airplane accidents? Why must an Indian live in poverty, filth and degradation? Either they must perform or let them perish. Either they must change the systems they have in place or change themselves. It’s time they stopped their narrow, partisan, power-hungry brand of politics. They need to stop thinking about themselves, their families and parties at the cost of the nation. If they cannot lead our nation to prosperity and welfare we need to throw them out, individually and collectively. We need to change the systems we have in place. If Democracy does not work for us, we must look for another ‘cracy’.
Barely, thirty years ago, China was caught in a quagmire of poverty and starvation. Today, they are already more developed than India, which thirty years ago, was far ahead of its northern neighbour. They achieved it not by changing their systems, but by the way their systems worked, by first changing themselves. I refer to the top leadership and the leadership ensured that the system was ready to change from within. That is purely and simply the main reason for China’s huge strides into development, into modernity.
We must regain our place amongst the community of nations, in the hearts of the people of the world, and above all within our own hearts.
I, for one, am tired of pretending to be a Proud Indian. I need to see the action – now. I need to see every fellow Indian stand tall, shoulder to shoulder, with anyone from anywhere in the world. I know we can do it…
