We're still too young!!

It’s a lovely, breezy morning in Sydney and the bell rings for the first hour… Trrrringggg…. A bunch of 11th grades rush into class and dump their i-pods and smart phones into their bags and get to their desks… Suzanne Bichel, an elegant woman in her 30 something, clad in corporate skirt walks in with her I-Pad... Whoa!! Not quite… Wait… Let’s Indianise it… It’s a hot and humid morning in Chennai with “children” of 11th standard running into their classes after assembly to put the papers in which they’ve their “cow bull” scores back into their bags. “Mrs. Rajarajeshwari Miss”, a 40 something woman clad in a cotton sari enters the class with a piece of chalk and attendance register. “Ok students, I don’t waant to take class today… Let us introduce avarselves first and” blah blah “and what your respective fathers do”… As the buck gets passed, Sunny gets his turn. He looks hesitant and stutters when he tries to say what his father does. He finally says he’s not too sure what his father is doing. Sounds a bit weird, but the teacher catches it and goes ahead with the next student.

Drawing a parallel to that horrendously drawn up scene above, most of us Indians have always acted like kids who’re not proud of their dads just ‘cause they aren’t well to do. They expect their peers to stamp their parents as fabulous, just the way we crave for western recognition. We acknowledge our prowess only if west calls it an asset.

Many Indians used to introduce themselves as Asians abroad, especially to American and Brit co-workers. In that sense, the British imperial intentions still reign. I believe I don’t have to quote source to reiterate the true intentions of Lord (Yeah Right!!) Thomas Babbington Macaulay, the first Law member of the Governor-General's Legislature, in introducing English education in India. He teamed up with Max Muller to propound the Aryan theory and fool the world (which sadly includes India too) that the Vedas were written by Aryans who according to that theory were Barbarians. This way, the feudal league tried to tarnish the self esteem of Indians and got English education introduced in our country.

But Macaulay, not even in the wackiest of his dreams would have ever imagined that Indians would use English to turn the financial demographics of the world. We’ve pulled it off from nowhere. From a state of economic emergency (if I may call it that), facing forex crisis which left India with forex inadequate to even meet 3 weeks commitments in 1991, to a country running for economic super-powerdom now. We’ve grown in a dizzying pace. It is this rapidity in the Indian growth story that, apart from strengthening its credentials has also invited a lot of cynicism and skepticism. Though there are some genuinely concerned thinkers who flag valid points which could be put to constructive use, most of the others are mere wannabes with baseless and unrealistic claims.

Even a country like Vatican City which is a sovereign city- state located within Rome having a population of 826 individuals, will have skeptics who always wear the “black hat”. Given that India has almost 1.5 million times the population of Vatican City, we definitely are going to have galore and galore of self-negators. It’s always better to take a rain check when we come across write ups and statements that put India down very badly calling metrics like forecasted future growth as a mere spreadsheet gimmick or our success story as a mere offshoot of west’s financial catastrophe.

These are mostly based on comparisons drawn with countries like The USA or The UK which have never been colonised or been independent for almost 250 years. There are also some funny critiques that loosely compare India to fragile countries like South Korea which will catch cold if USA eats ice cream. A comparison with China is again highly subjective as there are just as many grounds on which China can be made to look like a “crippled concentration camp survivor” in front of India, as there are, to belittle India before China. We are way too young a country to fret over not being the way most of the developed countries (yeah those guys still call themselves that!!).

I am saying nothing, anywhere close to, defending the mindless corruption or the deaf ear the government turns to the woes of the poor. These are all irregularities in the machinery and will eventually get corrected as India, as a country moves forward. All the development we’ve seen is despite these monstrous parasitic crooks sitting at every limb of our country. India can’t help but unshackle herself in due course and march forward in the clearly visible years of glory that are inevitable.