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!
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