Indians at the best of times are not the most understated people. Colourful celebrations, exaggerated dances, a cacophony of noise are Indian trademarks, especially in the current age where we toast any success which has even a semblance of Indianess in it.
You just have to look at the furore in India surrounding Sunita Williams' mission to space and then the visit to her native village in Gujarat to understand that. Born to an Indian father and a Slovenian mother, she is the latest darling of the population, feted by the media and the masses alike. I have no gripe against Ms Williams, may she inspire a generation of Indian kids to perform even more remarkable deeds. What I do hold a grudge against is the way we cling onto anything that can be connected to us and spin it as 'New India', 'India Shining' or a plethora of other phrases that the media never tires of churning out. Any success story anywhere in the world is scoured for an Indian element and then fed to the hungry masses as another example of India's rising stature in the world. Now, I am all for patriotism. If India sends a man to the moon or wins 10 gold medals in the next Olympics, I will be the first person to put on my party hat and compete with the next guy in trying to drink our body weight in beer ( I am very light - so the advantage will be with me). But this incredible and ridiculous whirlpool of excitement generated over someone born and brought up in another country, someone who made excellent use of the infrastructure provided by that country to etch her name in the history books, proves nothing. Well ok, it proves that genetically Indians are as smart and as capable of achievement as any other colour of the spectrum (I know, I know, white is a mix of colours and black is not really a colour but you get my drift), but really, do we still need to satisfy ourselves that this is indeed true?! If so, it is a sad commentary on the regard in which we hold ourselves.
India is supposed to be a young vibrant nation (the median age is 24), full of confidence. Why then the paradoxical sensitivity to criticism of India or anything Indian? I will draw upon an example from the allegory of India, cricket. In one of the recent test matches between India and England, the former English captain Mike Atherton suggested that the beamer thrown by Sreesanth might have been deliberate. He was subjected to such vitriolic feedback that he mentioned criticising the Indian team or any player has actually become life threatening! Now I think Atherton was being a pompous, hypocritical, whining idiot, but it would have been far classier to ignore these comments than go ballistic with cries of racism, accusations of dirt-in-pocket et al. This is only one of many occasions when the whole populace has gone up in arms at the slightest hint of disproval shown by a foreigner at the state of India or anything Indian. We have transitioned from an almost reverent deference to all things and individuals foreign to scathing red hot replies to any white person who has the audacity to question us. Talk about balance. Only when we grow impervious to criticism by developing thicker skins can we call ourselves mature, developed or other terms which are bandied about with gay abandon.
India, at this juncture, is noveau riche. By this I do not mean we have solved the mountain of problems facing us. But India is growing economically which, given the capitalist nature of society we live in, means that we have found a voice several decibels higher than it used to be . And as with any individual who has climbed to the next level of the social ladder, India and Indians are unsure of how to react to these changing times. Too loud and boisterous, and we run the danger of being labelled cocky, arrogant - unable to mix it with the 'big boys'. Too taciturn and controlled, we run the risk of being marginalised...again. The key therefore lies in picking our battles, choosing the right ones to fight, ignoring the other rubbish which comes our way. Unfortunately, economic growth is not an automatic precursor to emotional growth which again takes time and experience to develop. Does that mean we continue acting the same way and wait for things to take their natural course? This is rhetorical of course, because when experience is in short supply, self assurance has to lead the way. I don't mean the swagger of a bully behind whose aggressive visage reside more issues than can be resolved by $200 an hour psychiatrist, but the glowing confidence of a young man armed with education, knowledge and the infallible trust in his own ability to change the world. It may sound over-the-top and exaggerated but just to make a point, Indians can sell ice to the Eskimos, sand to the Bedouins and maps to an 18 year old American. In the face of such remarkable and almost frightening capabilities, why the fear?
5 comments:
Very well-written, Abhishek. Let me know if I got this wrong, but your point is this: the youth of this country should take the balanced path while taking on the rest of the world. Or are there any other hidden messages that I missed?
Hey! How are you?
The point of the post is that we really do not need to feel threatened by outside criticism..and neither do we need to try and cling on to successes which are not really ours in the first place. Since the majority of Indians are quite young, we should come across as a confident nation..not as someone yearning for the approval of the world
allow me to deviate from this topic--
I was trying to ask myself how I would react to a criticism and of course the context wasn't sport but was dance- And here's what occured to me-- there can never be a structured 'right and wrong' to something like dance (I dont want to take the liberty of replacing dance with Art). Of course the audience or an expert crtitique can chose to love it or hate it, understand it or step out of the performance completely blank, enjoy it thoroughly or get utterly bored-- but how many rights and wrongs can be pointed out? (I know many will disagree with this- but that's all we can do-- have a difference of opinion--and certainly not provide a wikipedia link to prove one or the other wrong!)Guess that's what I love about dance-- any crticism is always just an opinion, anyone can be a 'best' dancer and there is no 'world cup' to be aspired!
have i just listed all the things that you love about sports? :p would love to read your thoughts on this.
It stems from a lack of self confidence, a sort of desperation to get some adulation that a lot of Indians feel has been long overdue.
Consider this, an Indian from a lower middle class to middle class background, living in the information age, seeing average white person on reality TV, reading about how they’re too stupid and expensive for corporations in their own countries to hire, how their marvelous education system ( as opposed to our ‘by-hearting’ rigmarole) has only managed to churn out a mass of idiots, and they think, “ you know, our lot is just so much better. Its only a matter of time before we show them!”
And then we sit here and wait for India to do something glorious and original, something that’s not from the past, something on the scale of Brahmagupta’s shunya, but accomplished at some point on the time scale that’s closer to the present.
It’s like when the crowd roars for a four before the ball crosses over the line and is actually stopped short for a two. We’re just hungry for something to be proud of. We’re trying our best. We think we’re on the brink of greatness and we’re dreaming of it constantly, so much so that sometimes, we actually believe we’re there. And its maddening to think that the world may not be seeing it that way, so we imagine that it must be the world that is to blame and not us.
I don’t think its ever just the world or just us.
That said, I don’t believe that my dear mallu boy Sreesanth could have really thrown that beamer on purpose… * wink*
Anon #1: Will try to write something along the lines of what you mentioned..need time to think..:P
Anon #2(name please?): Why do Indians feel that they are owed the respect and adulation of the world? We are certainly getting there but as of now, there is very little basis for that premise. This is I guess part of the problem. When you feel you are owed something you'll try to get the world's attention through any means.
As for the white man being stupid - they managed to rule us for 200 years didn't they? And in the example I had given (feedback to Atherton for comments on Sreesanth), most of the people who wrote back seemed educated in the sense that could communicate decently and capable of rational judgments without being influenced by the media but they didn't!
We certainly are doing a lot better (very vague I know, but I hope you get the point)and the feel good stories which keep filtering in are indicators of that. But the point is we are not there yet and our continued insistence to the contrary by claiming something which does not belong to us (i use 'belong' very loosely - but am referring to Sunita Williams) is actually retarding the process not helping it.
And I too am sure Sreesanth did not throw the beamer on purpose. I wish Atherton had been on the receiving end and had copped it on a more painful area south of his head. Then he would have had something to complain about
Post a Comment