Saare Jahan Se Achha: The Incredible Story of India

There are very few songs that enthral the senses and stir the soul the way this song does. The sense of love, belonging and the patriotic feeling that creates an adrenalin rush is something which we Indians are familiar with. We are quite an emotional lot, we celebrate our achievements and are a tad unforgiving at our failures. Ours is a nation different in many ways.

If there can ever be a single word which describes our nation perfectly, it would be “Diversity” because we have an unparalleled diversity in our culture, religion, language, ecology, cuisine and what not! India is in many ways to the world what the Amazon forest is to wildlife. Ours is in many ways the nation of nations and the cradle of the human race. The unique features and achievements of India are something which we would be truly proud of, provided we know it. Ours is one of the most powerful and most influential countries in the world, and the developments in our nation and the stance we take in various global issues are keenly watched by others.

It is an astonishing fact that unlike many other large and powerful countries, we have never ever invaded a country, big or small. This is an incredible thing because with the abundant possession of arms and soldiers, it would have been quite easy to conquer any nation, had we desired to do so. That is why Hu Shih, the former Ambassador of China to USA once remarked, "India conquered and dominated China culturally for 20 centuries without ever having to send a single soldier across her border."

Before looking at the present scenario and the future challenges awaiting our country, we will take a quick peek at our illustrious and glorious past.

Here are a few fun facts for starters:

·        Prior to 1986, India was the only source of diamonds in the world. Amazing! Isn't it!!

·        ‘Bangalored‘ , a word which came up after heavy outsourcing to India took the world by storm.

·        Navi Mumbai, a planned satellite township of Mumbai, was developed in 1972 and is the largest planned township on the planet.

The 61st Cavalry Regiment of the Indian Army is one of the three last remaining horsed cavalry army regiments anywhere in the world.

·        English Actor Sir Ben Kingsley’s birth name is Krishna Pandit Bhanji and he is of Indian (Gujarati) descent.

·        In 1928, when the Indian Hockey team was on its way to Amsterdam, they played a series of exhibition matches in England. Seeing its caliber England decided not to field a team for the Olympics as “they did not want to lose to a slave country.” - India was still under the British Rule then.

·        Taj Mahal was covered with a huge scaffold during WW2 to make it look like a stockpile of Bamboo and misguide any enemy bombers. (It was also disguised again in 1971!)

India was the first country in the world to have a finger print forensic laboratory in 1897.

·        India has 1650 languages - 30 of which are spoken by more than a million speakers and 122 of which are spoken by more than 10,000. There are 6 distinct language families that go beyond India. In contrast, 95% of Europe comes under a single language family.

·        Justice Altamas Kabir was recently sworn in as the 39th Chief Justice of India. This means that the last three Chief Justices of India have been a Dalit (KG Balakrishnan), a Parsi (SH Kapadia) and now a Muslim (Altamas Kabir). What is noteworthy is the fact that it once again reaffirms India’s success as a pluralist democratic republic which substantiates its diversity.

Let us now start our journey back in time, and take a look at the evolution of our nation over the course of time. Believe me; this is going to be really a fascinating read!

The Glorious Past of Dominance

Albert Einstein once said, "We owe a lot to the Indians, who taught us how to count, without which no worthwhile scientific discovery could have been made." Our contributions in the field of mathematics are immense. The Algebra, Trigonometry, Calculus, the 'place value system', 'decimal system', the number zero etc were introduced to the world by Indians. It is a funny fact that we used numbers as large as 10 to the power 53 at a time when the largest number used by Romans and the Greek was 106.

Apart from the familiar Ayurveda and Yoga, we also laid the foundation of Cataract surgery, plastic surgery, leprosy treatment and many others. In fact, plastic surgery and brain surgery was being carried out in India as early as BC 2000. The world's first university, Takshashila was established in India in 700 BC and provided education to over 10,000 students from all over the world in more than 60 subjects.  In fact, what the west now calls advanced sophisticated philosophy can be found in our Vedas written thousands of years ago.

The four religions born in India are Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, and Sikhism. The Vishnu Temple in the city of Tirupathi is the world's largest religious pilgrimage destination. Larger than either Rome or Mecca, an average of 60,000 visitors donate $6 million (US) to the temple every day. The world’s largest gathering is also hosted by our country- The Kumbha Mela, held once in every 12 years. We have strange superstitions, traditions, beliefs and practices existing in our country. To avoid polluting the elements (fire, earth, water, air), followers of Zoroastrianism in India don’t bury their dead, but instead leave bodies in buildings called “Towers of Silence” for the vultures to pick clean. After the bones dry, they are swept into a central well.

We have had a few trend setters in the fashion industry as well. When Jawaharlal Nehru was featured in Vogue, his distinctive close fitting, single-breasted jacket briefly became an important fashion statement for the Mod movement in the West. Named the Nehru jacket, the prime minister’s coat was popularized by the Beatles and worn by such famous people as Johnny Carson and Sammy Davis Jr. 

Tippu sultan, the king of Sultanate of Mysore, was the first to use Rocket artillery in the war against East India Company. Inspired by its design, the British made use of the technology and developed a more sophisticated version which they used in the war against Napoleon. But, the fact remains that rocket technology was first developed in India.

India is the birthplace of popular games like Chess, snake and ladder, polo, badminton, playing cards etc and the martial arts of Judo and Karate. Simple but highly useful materials like button, cotton gin, ink and ruler were also invented by our forefathers. Cool! Right?

Will Durant, the world famous American historian summed it up beautifully when he said, "India was the motherland of our race, and Sanskrit the mother of Europe's languages: she was the mother of our philosophy; mother, through the Arabs, of much of our mathematics; mother, through the Buddha, of the ideals embodied in Christianity; mother, through the village community, of self-government and democracy. Mother India is in many ways the mother of us all".

The Convalescing Present:

Years of colonialism and despotic rule had driven our country to near ruins and depleted it of its vast resources. “Athithi Devo Bhava” was our attitude, which was exploited to the greatest extent by foreigners who established control over our homeland. We paid the price for trusting foreigners implicitly and at times, foolishly and it still remains as a harsh reminder that we ought to be prudent. They began as simple merchants, and later took hold of the reigns of the country and sapped its riches.

Finally, after several years of struggle, we obtained our much revered independence, with millions sacrificing their lives for it. The economy during this period was struggling, with poverty and unemployment being widespread. We began slowly, right from square one, and have taken rapid steps towards becoming a developed nation. India is at present a regional power, a nascent great power and a potential superpower.

The manner in which our government runs is a source of admiration and curiosity for the western world for it is beyond their imagination to run a nation as diverse as ours. No other country has had to govern a country as diverse as ours, let alone draft a constitution for these many billions of people with just the name ‘INDIA’ to unite them. Perhaps, we need to take our time to analyse and applaud the excellent work done by our constitution makers to create something which glues the country.

The diplomacy and tact required in running our nation deserves special praise. The freedom that our media enjoys, the rights our citizens possess are something which even the developed nations lack. In fact, the reason why the incidents in our country create ripples around the world is because of the tremendous power and freedom our media enjoys.

We survived the global financial crisis with few niggles and have succeeded in maintain an excellent GDP growth rate since 1991, and other countries look at our economic stability with admiration. Today, as we all know Indians are at the helm of affairs at most of the big companies and firms abroad. India is one of the tourist hot spots in the world with beautiful and lustrous landscapes and exotic architectural marvels.

However, the present isn’t as bright as it should have been for a nation that is 65 years into independence. Today, one can find Indians at the helm of many of the top companies in the world. More than a million Indians are millionaires, yet most Indians live on less than two dollars a day. An estimated 35% of India’s population lives below the poverty line. The homicidal rates, abortion rate, divorce rate, crimes against women are all on the increase. Corruption is another issue for which our country is known for. Things have worsened so much that today, if we feel like visiting any politician, we need not go to the Parliament. We can easily look them up at the Tihar Jail!!

I would like to focus a bit on the manner in which we treat women, which undoubtedly, needs to change quite a lot. The crimes against women (even foreign tourists) are increasing at an alarming rate in our society. It is one thing that has not changed in our culture, the policy of treating women as inferiors. Women have been at the receiving end of things right from the ancient times with practices like sati, child marriage being very prevalent in our society. In earlier times, a widow was not invited to social gatherings, and was not even allowed to go near newlyweds as it was considered bad omen. The dowry system and the neglect of girl child have worsened the state of affairs. But, we find that all throughout, the womenfolk of our country suffered everything in silence. Women in India are known for their polite and submissive nature, always full of respect.  Even now, many wives will never say their husband’s name aloud, as it is a sign of disrespect. Isn’t it time we too treated them with a little more respect?

India today presents a mixed picture of hope and anxiety, with plenty of reasons to rejoice and at the same time a lot to be worried about. Today, the  newspaper reports are flooded with news on increasing crimes, of misuse of power and of gross negligence of the weaker sections of the society so much that they overshadow our achievements. If the changes introduced by Dr.Manmohan Singh in 1992 brought about a dramatic change our economy leading to economic reformation, it is time now for a moral reformation.

The Future of possibilities:

Looking into the future, we have a lot of promises, as well as a few reasons to be concerned. Whether the future will be bright or dull depends on 3 M’s related to 3 P’s: Media for they can effect a change in ‘Perception’, Ministers denoting the men in ‘Power’, and Myself, the citizens, who is responsible for the ‘Performance’ of the nation. The population of our country is predominantly young and the direction in which our country heads will depend more or less on them. We belong to this category and we have our tasks cut out.

Our media too plays a huge role in the manner in which we look at our nation.  Though it is true that the media and the civil society have played a huge role in bringing many unknown stories of crime to public attention, I strongly feel that the sensationalism attitude existing in our media must change. It would be much better if the media showed the same vigour and energy in bringing out the achievements and success stories to inculcate a pride of being an Indian in our minds. I strongly believe that news reports could be better.

We need the people who wield the power like the ministers, social leaders, teachers and the parents to be more responsible. I believe that we have already drafted enough bills to last our country for the next 10 years; we have never had any shortage of ideas when it comes to the drafting of bills. It is when it comes to implementation that we run out of ideas. Better implementation of existing laws could have made our country into a superpower, and a developed nation. The parents and the teachers have a lot of power and responsibility entrusted in their hands for it is they who have the greatest opportunity to turn a child into a Jesus or a Barabbas! Someone said, we need men with a capital M!

It is true that we have had a splendid past and are now a dominant force in today’s world. The onus is on us to make sure that our country does well in the future also. After all, we have to do our own growing no matter how tall our fore fathers were! Let the spirit of India continue to ignite our mind and let us strive to maintain the uniqueness of our nation!

The 3 things that history teaches us

I have no intention to go into the boring stuff (may be interesting to some) we all learned in our history classes at school. Instead, I have tried to encapsulate the essence of history, and the message it gives us!

The first thing that 'came to mind was that the word impossible simply does not exist in the annals of history. Whatever was deemed impossible in the past has been rendered possible today thanks to the focused effort put in by someone or the other, simply because he believed it was possible. Until a few  few decades ago, people looked at the night sky with long powerful telescopes. They couldn't think of a day when people could set foot in those far-off places in the galaxy. Now, we hear of it almost every day, due to which we fail to appreciate the possibilities we have before us today.

In the 1970's Sir Isaac Newton calculated that a day will come when man will travel at over 40 miles an hour. Hearing this, the great philosopher Voltaire ridiculed him saying, "Doesn't he know that if man traveled 40 miles an hour, he would suffocate and his heart would stop?" That was because during those days, the fastest mode of travel was by chariots! With benefit of hindsight, we may find this funny. This to me, is an epitome of the fact that nothing is impossible.

The second lesson we can learn is "the power of an individual". We often underestimate ourselves. As someone once said, the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world, are the ones who do! There is no limit to what an individual can achieve and become. In fact, the only limit is that which exists in the minds of individuals. History is full of people, people who have challenged the dogmas, individuals who sacrificed their own interests for the benefit of the masses, great men who went to greater lengths to safeguard the interests of humanity.

Gandhiji mobilized masses across different cultures and languages alike, at a time when there was no microphone. Abraham Lincoln advocated for the freedom of slaves when not even a single slave demanded to be set free. Galileo, Leonardo Da Vinci, Martin Luther King etc are examples of people who rose above the rest, and showed us the "potential" power every individual has! There have been other men, like Hitler and Osama Bin Laden, who show us the other side of things. It would be an understatement if we say that the power every individual is capable of wielding amounts to such that it could even be frightening! Everything depends on what our attitude is.

The third and the most important lesson is that no one really learns from history! History teaches us that impossible is nothing. It clearly illustrates that there is no limit to what we can achieve. It proves beyond a point that dreams do come true. However, here we are, stubbornly refusing to believe in our power, afraid of pursuing our dreams, assuming things to be impossible and not daring to step out of our cocoon. Once we truly recognize this fact, we will learn to dream big, and achieve great things.

The opportunity is there for everyone to leave their mark in whatever they do, and to stand tall above the rest. It is a question of whether or not we accept the challenge. The choice is ours. After all, it is our choices that script our destiny!