By Kulbhushan Kain
Not long ago we were told that good dressing meant wearing suits stitched on Saville Row, good education meant speaking in good English with a particular accent. We were told to follow rules written in European capitals and in the American boardrooms, and that the best actors and movies emanated from Hollywood. The West tried everything to convince us that we were lagging behind them and that we were a nation that worshipped snakes, elephants, trees, rivers … we were “uncivilised”!
As always, they fell flat on their face. They did not realise what was, and is, India’s strength. Ours is not a civilisation that is artificial and built because of conquests, or revolutions. It is not a civilisation that was built in 400, 500, 1000 years. Ours is a continuous and oldest civilisation that humankind has seen – built over thousands of years. It has welcomed every religion in the world and the birth of many – we have Jains, Buddhists, Christians, Muslims, Sikhs, Hindus, Parsis, Jews, … in fact we have more Muslims than Pakistan, which calls itself an Islamic state! We have thousands of languages and dialects!
The truth is that while the West was crawling on its knees and stomach, in what is so appropriately called the “dark ages”, India was streets ahead of them. We were highly developed in astronomy, surgery, mathematics, literature, philosophy, et al. We had the oldest Universities. We practiced democracy as far back as 1500 BC. India is the birthplace of Hinduism, Jainism, Buddhism, Sikhism, ….
The west tried everything to subjugate us – culturally and mentally. They fought wars against us, partitioned us, created artificial famines, encouraged and forced conversion campaigns. But they did not succeed. How can you kill an idea? How can you kill a civilisational memory?
The west is trying it again. They are using another technique. These are called “tariffs”. The continued rise of India has sent alarm bells ringing. What they don’t realise is that they have catalysed a social awakening. Every Indian is not only hurt – but is doing what they have done every time they are insulted and bullied. We are standing up to be counted.
Demographics are on our side.
The average age of an Indian is 30. Imagine, about a billion and a half people (majority of them young), hungry for improvement and hardworking. Imagine them being connected to the digital world. The west on the other hand has a huge number of retired, ageing and tired people. India is not just a huge market, but a source of manpower. India is a vigorous movement – a movement of pride, of achievement. That is the collective image of India we wake up to every day. That’s an image I carry with my passport when I visit Washington, London, Paris, Vancouver, Warsaw… You can’t bully me. I am an Indian. Don’t scratch me because if you do – you will find below my soft and charming exterior – a fighter, a man willing to die for his nation over a small argument.
My pride comes from a memory that is both immediate and goes back into history. I remember standing in a queue that stretched half a mile behind me waiting for my turn to vote. It was a blistering hot day in Jaipur. And why was I doing that? I was doing that because I was deeply aware I was a part of an electorate that was more than the combined population of the entire western world! Can you imagine the feeling? My pride comes from the fact that we were able to build nuclear weapons while feeding a billion mouths. Which other country can do that without stealing, and cheating the world? My pride comes from the fact that we built a spacecraft and reached the moon – at the cost of a Hollywood movie! It’s not funny –just imagine the achievement? I am proud of the fact that my forefathers and fellow brethren survived the partition, stayed in refugee camps, sold vegetables and coir charpoys and yet made it big. As an Indian, I am proud of the fact that our armed forces fought wars and laid down their lives for our sake. Many never came back. The ones who came back – came back victorious. I am proud of the fact that we have survived insurgencies. We paid a price for it. I lost so many students fighting the insurgency and terrorism in Kashmir. One of them, a Sword of Honour, was shot by a sniper. As his colleagues went to pick him up, he whispered “Jai Hind” while trying to raise his hand in a salute. Those were his last words. He was shot in the chest – not in his back. Like every Indian soldier –he wasn’t running away. He was confronting the terrorists headlong. In my immediate family, my brother-in-law, who was a brilliant bureaucrat in Punjab, was shot 19 times while going to take over as the Jullundur Commissioner. He wasn’t even 45 years of age. His kids were in junior classes in school. There are thousands who laid down their lives for our great nation. When you scratch me – they all will surface. Because I am Indian and have survived the most difficult situations. As a nation we survived not because of luck – no, not because of “jugaad”, but because of resilience, grit and suffering, which our enemies can’t understand. Because of their ignorance – they continue to try and needle us. They think we are soft because we worship snakes, birds, trees, rivers. They needle us because we have never conquered any nation. We are not an expansionist nation. We are a status quo nation. But we are not a weak nation.
We conquer the world with our ideas. Yoga is in every gym in the west. Indian food is a global cuisine, Bollywood is global, (I saw Kareena Kapoor staring down at me from a psychedelic advertisement in Manhattan, recently, and Amitabh Bachchan doing the same in Dubai). Sanskrit is taught in Ivy League Colleges, Silicon Valley would die without our computer engineers, our hospitals have long waiting lists for patients from as far away as New Zealand, America, Middle East and Pakistan! Healthcare is excellent and affordable in our great nation. We don’t need to colonise lands. We conquer hearts and minds.
I must end by narrating a small incident. It is said that when Alexander came to India, his march was stopped by a mystic sitting in the middle of the road. When Alexander asked him to move away, the mystic told him to get out of his way because he was obstructing the rays of the morning sun which cast a shadow on his body. I am not too sure whether the story is true or not.
However, what is true is the fact that no one should mess around with us. And if they do – it’s going to be of no use.
It’s a bit like winking in the dark!
Happy Independence Day, India. Incredible India. Mera Bharat Mahaan.
Jai Hind.
(Kulbhushan Kain is an award winning educationist with more than 4 decades of working in schools in India and abroad. He is a prolific writer who loves cricket, travelling and cooking. He can be reached at kulbhushan.kain@gmail.com)
