One day in January: An essay in hope and dismay
A nation moved by its own hypocrisy where the rights of women are concerned. The year will be most remembered for the reckoning and the call to face the not so funny mirror and learn the cruel truth. Nothing has demanded so much action and so much reaction from the political and bureaucrat cabals that rule this land than the attack on women. And the ripple effect of that cruelty. From judges to journalists who were brought to the nation’s jury the dynamics changed dramatically to the point where men were placed on the backfoot.
Come January 26th — 1.2 billion people will have to answer that singular question.
Have we, as a nation, become savages stoked by our own frustrations, our ugly media priorities and the contempt in which we hold our womenfolk while extolling our virtuous pretense that the mother figure, the sister figure are the cornerstones of our culture. Time to grasp the nettle and face the truth or take the consequences.
We are victims of our own myths and there is now payback time.
If that was the defining point of our social structure combined with the surrogate governance from India’s raucous and intemperate TV channels then its equivalent in the political spectrum was the arrival of the Aam Aadmi Party and the shocking ease with which it scythed the incumbent Congress and nibbled visibly at the till then blasé BJP, led by its newly anointed hero Narendra Modi.
Handed the golden egg by the people’s mandate, Arvind Kejriwal has marked 2013 and 2014 with a branding of his own.
Regrettably, with every passing day of the past month he has scrambled, poached and fried that egg into a pancake of disappointment with only diehard supporters who believe that the protest and the aggression are the only ways to get attention left to root for him.
Never has India seen such an awesome revolution break its wheel so speedily and lose its way.
With the price index rising, the employment rate stagnant and the national elections on the anvil, India stands as a superpower seeking a benediction and a leadership.
As its state governments engage in petty battles at the federal level the confusion is even more a cause for concern.
The fight against corruption that became a clarion call sank to a whisper in three weeks in the Indian capital.
For the NRI, the mantle of responsibility and duty does not rest lightly.
Today, there are 29 million Indians living abroad on every continent and impacting upon the world, serving as a conduit for the best of Indian arts and sciences.
From Indian frontliners in Silicon Valley to medical practitioners in Europe to business tycoons in the Gulf and Hong Kong, from Wall Street analysts to international beauty queens, Indian acumen and expertise have become marketable commodities.
Indian music has made its mark on the world’s stage. Indian food is a cultural given.
Indian fashion now competes at the level of haute couture even as Indian fabrics are in demand in both the East and the West.
Indian novelists writing in English have hit the literary scene with force.
Indian professionalism in media, law, accountancy and engineering and information technology has formed a swathe and Indian business knowhow works on the cutting edge.
Let it not be forgotten that Indian labor translates many of these concepts and ideas into reality and it is the sweat and the sagacity that combine to make the Indian diaspora so powerful and so vital in the modern context.
These 29 million Indians may live in scattered fragments in a hundred countries but they have never forgotten their roots and on every such anniversary it seems as if the geographical distance is mentally bridged and the sense of togetherness which prevails salutes the billion at home and their congregation of brothers and sisters out in the world.
Perhaps this is the dawning of the glorious age for the country and its people.
Other influences from India also permeate the world. In Britain, Indian takeaway foods have beaten the traditional Chinese cuisine.
Indian TV channels are popular in the US and the footprint gets larger all the time. Indian clothes, shoes, jewelry, accessories are globally popular. Indian music has hit an all time high in universal acceptance.
Above all, the Indian intellect has earned the seal of approval in across the spectrum disciplines.
Coupled with the lowest ethnic crime record in the world, this makes the Indian community highly welcome as a creative and contributory force.
What we can do for other countries we must do for India.
This innate honesty and the inbred acceptance of hierarchical authority often misinterpreted in modern times as weakness rather than a Teutonic fondness for order, gave Indians a leading edge.
They moved swiftly up the ladder, excelling in organizing business, in bargaining with logic and steadfastness and always ensuring that they did not cheat their employer.
In these formative centuries of the Indian diaspora, the Indian stamina for mental exercise became a hallmark of the community’s worth and its favored status. Indians meant good output and minimum hassle.
These traits have endured the test of time. By that token the Indian’s unquenchable desire to identify with the home country has never diminished. Even tenth generation immigrants maintain the same values and traditions as does the home country, often with more fervor and commitment.
I am reminded here of the famous lines of poetry:
Breathes there a man with souls so dead
Who never to himself has said,
This is my own, “my native land.”
In the poem he retraces his footsteps back to the land of his forefathers.
We too, as Indians abroad, engage in a continual effort to hark back to our roots, to be one again with the mother country.
India’s triumphs bring joy to our hearts, India’s pain echoes within us.
This need to be one with our roots has been at the core of the Indian global movement. And we have succeeded admirably.
Our habits, our food, our festivals, our prayers invoke the priorities that have survived centuries and the richness of that tapestry is the worldwide legacy we have given to our children as they prepare take over the baton.
Yes, we will have our parade and our rulers will serve us sermons and soda water and when our civil and military icons march down that strip of Rajpath and the tricolor flies proudly we will feel the choke of high emotion and try to clutch at the good things and believe as fervently as we can that things will get better but will they?
The cost of living is into orbit, the pre-celebration week is clouded by the tension of another hike in fuel prices, the newspapers are smeared with crime reports, the system per se has become rickety and unstable, corruption has survived the mugging given by the Anna Hazares and Kejriwals and there is a sense of deep almost tangible resignation that the more things change the more they are going to stay the same.
I have never been a gloom merchant nor have I ever advocated defeatism.
But, for the first time, there is in the air a certain uncertainty, a feeling of bobbing like a cork on the water, a vulnerability in the national psyche, as if someone had rudely pulled off the band aid and revealed a scar that disfigures our image as we see ourselves.
Agreed, we have immense potential in our youth, our global diaspora is inspiring, our sportsmen toil against great odds and give us slivers of sunshine, we excel in the arts and sciences, our collective intellect and our knowledge of the world is unparalleled, our armed forces still spark a flare of patriotic fervor, our entrepreneurs and captains of industry have proven their mettle, we manage to battle adversity, still largely maintain the traditions of the family unit and love our children even as we watch them grow out of hand.
That said, the feeling of discomfort, like a burr under the saddle, won’t go away. Which makes it difficult to ride victoriously into the parade.
Have your parade, but save the republic.
