How Indian are we?

The Independence Day has come and gone… the independence month has passed too. I wanted to write this article long back but I was waiting for the month of august to finish….

On august 15^th it was festivity everywhere, schools, colleges, even auto stands showing their patriotism towards our motherland. one could witness the tricolor everywhere, messages were exchanges that had happy independence day as the subject, patriotic songs of all languages and of all movies till date were blaring out of al kinds of places.

But as the month ended I wanted to pose a very important question. `How independent are we?’

Oh I know many would say we are fully independent, that if we were not then I would not even had the liberty to put forth such of my thoughts on the net. I agree with all those people. But my question was not asked by keeping in mind the literal sense of the word freedom. I meant how free are we from the various shackles, the various ideologies that still plague us and in turn hamper the growth and development of true India?

One of the many such problems is regionalism. Do not mistake me. I am not against the love one should have towards ones land of birth. But why is it many of us introduce ourselves as am a kannadiga, a tamilian, a maharashtrian, a dilliwallah, a keralite?? And they do so with utmost pride. But why not say am an Indian?? Are we ashamed to say that?? Am not!! Why should I be??

India might not be U.S.A. but it is still my country.

Every Indian is trying to imitate the great western culture. But why not imitate their unity? I don’t see Americans being divided over their states, and, they have more number of states than us!!!

I was passing by an atm once and what I saw really troubled me. The sign board of the atm was written in 3 languages. One of them in English one was in hindi and one in the regional language. Some miscreants (or perhaps misinformed) bunch of people had smeared black paint over the English and hindi signs leaving the regional language intact. Protesting against English is to a limit tolerable (even though I totally disagree with it too) but what is their intention by treating the national language in this manner??What kind of message are they intending to put across? Unity in diversity is definitely the strength of our nation. We proudly say on every Independence Day that even though we are made up of so many states and 1618 languages and yet we are united. But what happens to the same spirit after aug 15^th? Where does this spirit disappear? Or is it meant for only that particular day? That conveys the message that it’s all a façade and not the truth. Isn’t it?

Whenever a foreigner comes to our land we welcome them with open arms ( athithi devobhava!!!!). But at the same time we see Maharashtrians complaining about biharis settling in their land and taking their job. When will people realize that we are all one? It’s not about me my land, its about us, our land.

Look at china, people! Look how far ahead they have gone. Its time Indians woke up. Every country in the world harbors fear towards India because they know that we have the potential to be the no. 1 country in the world. But sadly India herself is not aware of that fact.

I don’t understand why we Indians under estimate ourselves so much? Why do we think that those westerners are above us? From where does this feeling emerge? Ours used to be the wealthiest, most cultured and the most peace loving country. It’s the same people even now but sans the wealth (looted away by firangis) and the rich culture being thrown away by the youth. It seems funny to me that we Indians have to pay millions to get back what is rightfully ours like the sword of tippu sultan, etc.

The British evolved a strategy to defeat India- united they stand and divided they fall. The British have long gone but the strategy that they seeded in the Indian minds still survives. We are indeed the sole reason for our present state.

It’s high time we stopped cribbing and started taking the matters seriously. Don’t say what can I do to help, I cant do it alone. Excuses are for the lame. Wake up and revive the lost spirit in as many individuals as possible. That’s the least you can do.