Dont Cry, My beloved India. Review on Local Customs and Traditions in Asia

Anticipatory bail :

I am doing what has become a fashion on MS, putting a review in the wrong place. This is because, I have already used up my space for writing a review on “India- General”, there is no other forum on MS where I can add this as a new section (even by using mouth pad). I am sick and tired of the entirely one sided reviews that appear under “India General” which by the way appears under Travel and I happen to be one of the perpetrators of the crime by using it for a different purpose. This review was originally a comment on eyesopen’s review on India general but since it became too long I thought I will make it a separate review. I won’t ask anyone of you to rate this review, but will surely look for comments.

Prelude:

We at MouthShut get to read a review on India very often. They can be classified into two broad categories - one that puts India on a pedestal and says that she can do no wrong and the other that portrays her as one of the darkest countries in the world. I am often at pains to read both these points of view and understand the psyche behind such reviews.

Can we for one moment understand that perfection exists only in fiction, so it’s always possible for us to come with several positives and even more negatives, if we really want to. But when writing a review on a powerful forum like MS, one has to be careful about what he/she is attempting to say.

It may not be possible to list everything about a product, so one should plan the review in such a way that you can list what hurts you the most and what gives you most satisfaction, about the “subject” in review.

Its great to quote, quotations and statistics in a review to prove your point, but often there is more to life and quality of life rather than just stats and quotes. Life is not just a collection of numerals and alphabets. The almost forgotten philosopher Osho once said it’s easy to break a whole into its parts and analyze, but often these broken parts put together do not make a whole. I agree that I too am quoting from others during the course of this review, but then there is difference. These quotations should only be support your views not the other way around i.e. the reviews written to support quotations.

A country that never was…..

There was no India before the British came in. It was a set of princely states that fought amongst each other to establish supremacy. At some point of time some rulers did manage to rule a great percentage of what we now know as India and Pakistan but to my knowledge no one has ever ruled the entire country that’s now known as India. So though we go around proclaiming ourselves as one of the oldest living civilizations, let’s understand that we are not a very old Nation by any means. We as a Nation came into existence only in 1947 and that’s given us just 55 years of history.

Also India is one of the most diverse societies in the world, and where there is diversity, there is friction. In a perfect world, there would peace and harmony amongst conflicting interests and milk and honey will flow. But then this is not the perfect world. This is real.

Indian society has more Moslems than most Moslem states. India has more Christians than many countries that have a majority Christian population. Add to this various other religions like Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains and others. Now multiply that by the number of linguistic divisions (most number of officially recognized languages by any country), and caste differences. These differences will not go away overnight by adopting a stand that “let’s forget our past, past is dead”.

Compare India to some African countries, why at all? Only other country that’s comparable with India on its magnitude and diversity is probably America but then comparing ourselves with America is like comparing two extremely different subjects as even a country like America isn’t half as diverse as India is. We must also remember that America has been in existence for more than 200 years as a nation. If one went through the process of building America one can see scores of human rights violation episodes there too. I am not saying that’s its okay to violate human rights in India because there have been such violations anywhere else, what I am trying to say is that issues such as these always a part of Nation building. Until we have a fully educated society, which I agree is a distant dream we can’t dream of an India that’s truly liberated.

“Rape” why blame the country?

For long time now we in India have been equating rape cases to caste divide or religious divide. To me rape is a violation of womanhood and nothing else - “period”. There is no way someone can explain to me how rape can be politicized or communalized. A woman’s right gets violated and we try scoring political brownies or make it into a movie and earn some quick bucks..?? Rape is an act of perversion by an individual, lets not blame a society for it.

A lower caste woman raped by an upper cast man is front page news in this country. We don’t need tabloids our newspapers carry more sensational stuff than the paparazzi. In India sensationalism sells. We always want things to go wrong, so that we can sit around in our friends circle and allocate blame. Let’s grow up a little bit, after all a Nation is only as good as its proactive citizens are (No I strongly refute the comment that a nation can be judged by its TV serials, Soaps are a concept that came into India from the so called “Liberated Nations”)

Shame on us “educated” and “liberated” minds….we speak a language of morality… to us secularism is a fashion , so much so that calling all Hindus fascists is the in thing. Anything that happens in this country has to be seen only through “political” or “religious” prism and it’s the so called educated people in India and the media that’s responsible for this state lets not the blame the country for it.

If we decide to sit and point out just aberrations, and take comfort that our duties are over then we are not getting anywhere; are we? I don’t know how many of us walk on to the road and do that little extra to put a smile on a hungry child’s face. How many of us go out of our way to sooth an ailing man’s pain, how many of put in an effort, so that the next time Amnesty international wishes to comment on India it has something better to say….Rather what most us do is try and guess who is responsible for this mess….. And often as the saying goes our eyes can see the dirt all around it but not in itself.

If and when a member attempts a review on “India-General”, using it as a forum for addressing social issues rather than travel issues, please give us solutions, we all know what the problems are.

All said and done…

I love India, with all her deficiencies and its strengths. I love India for making me what I am; I love her for instilling in me values that I am proud of. I love her because she did not make a school kid who would shoot his classmates because I have a problem with the world around me. I love India for giving me a lesson on social co-existence. I Love India because I was born here (what do u expect me to do - Love Papua New Guinea..?) I love India because she is India……..