I've watched two very thought-provoking episodes of 'Satyamev Jayate', hosted by Aamir Khan. The first one, a couple of weeks ago, talked about the abhorrent practice of female foeticide. The second one, today, was about the practice of dowry in Indian marriages.
The thing that struck me the most about these programs is the fact that its not a case of a few bad eggs in basket of good eggs. No, if anything, it's a case of a very few good eggs in a huge basket full of rotten eggs. In other words, the cases that are being brought to light in SJ are only a small sample among a large unreported set of such incidents.
Granted that there are many good Indians with pure hearts, noble intentions and ideas and opinions that are not stuck in the Dark Ages. But, they still pale in comparison to the huge number of Indians that are selfish, greedy, self-serving, narrow-minded, cruel, unfeeling, heartless, miserly, lazy or a miserable combination of all these.
Here's where Malcolm Gladwell's concept of the "Tipping Point" comes into play. For any groundbreaking effort / movement to succeed, it needs to reach a tipping point, a critical mass that will keep the momentum going. Today, with India's population crossing a billion, that tipping point implies a number that simply cannot be brought to bear on such a positive movement that SJ hopes to generate. For every brave / righteous person who stands up, speaks out or takes action against such heinous practices, there will be a dozen of the "baddies" waiting to silence him, buy him off or even eliminate him from the face of the earth.
In other words, I strongly believe that the mentality of the Indian populace cannot be changed by external forces (like policing, laws, punishment, etc) alone. The most powerful force is that of self-realization, the 'a-ha' moment that occurs to a human being where he/she understands / realizes the extreme inhumanity of his/her actions and not only corrects himself/herself, but spreads the good word and takes action to prevent more such acts of inhumanity. That, to my mind, is a more powerful and self-sustaining force.
Having said all this, I'm not going to hold my breath waiting for these changes to happen in India any time soon and neither do I expect my children or my grandchildren to see any significant changes.
Coming to the topic of this post, I see so many of my FB friends posting links/images that talk about being proud to be an Indian. Why? What exactly is it that the average Indian is proud about? I'd really, honestly like to know. If this was somebody from the Indian Army/Navy/Air Force, I can understand. They're doing an incredible service to the nation and they can certainly feel proud to be an Indian and defend its borders. But, let's see what the average Indian reads/sees/experiences in an average day. He reads/sees/experiences murders of innocent people, murders of righteous people, murders of brave people, suicides by repressed people, suicides by hungry/desperate/helpless people, incredibly rich people cornering more and more of the country's wealth illegally and still not feeling satisfied, rich/educated/sophisticated people taking advantage of precious natural resources, looting the country or it's people to increase their own standing/wealth/power, people flouting all written laws and unwritten laws of society to get a leg up on the others. I can give a dozen examples from each day of living in just one city like Bangalore. People throwing garbage all over the place, drivers breaking every conceivable traffic rule to get ahead of others at traffic jams, people spitting and peeing willy-nilly (yes, that's a pun!), people tapping electric and phone lines to avoid paying bills, it goes on and on and on.
So, please, please don't ever try to convince me that I should be proud to be an Indian. I am not an Indian technically and I will not fancy carrying that tag any time soon. The natural follow-up question (posed to me) is: So, why did you decide to return to India and stay here? Now, that's a topic for another post, another day.
The thing that struck me the most about these programs is the fact that its not a case of a few bad eggs in basket of good eggs. No, if anything, it's a case of a very few good eggs in a huge basket full of rotten eggs. In other words, the cases that are being brought to light in SJ are only a small sample among a large unreported set of such incidents.
Granted that there are many good Indians with pure hearts, noble intentions and ideas and opinions that are not stuck in the Dark Ages. But, they still pale in comparison to the huge number of Indians that are selfish, greedy, self-serving, narrow-minded, cruel, unfeeling, heartless, miserly, lazy or a miserable combination of all these.
Here's where Malcolm Gladwell's concept of the "Tipping Point" comes into play. For any groundbreaking effort / movement to succeed, it needs to reach a tipping point, a critical mass that will keep the momentum going. Today, with India's population crossing a billion, that tipping point implies a number that simply cannot be brought to bear on such a positive movement that SJ hopes to generate. For every brave / righteous person who stands up, speaks out or takes action against such heinous practices, there will be a dozen of the "baddies" waiting to silence him, buy him off or even eliminate him from the face of the earth.
In other words, I strongly believe that the mentality of the Indian populace cannot be changed by external forces (like policing, laws, punishment, etc) alone. The most powerful force is that of self-realization, the 'a-ha' moment that occurs to a human being where he/she understands / realizes the extreme inhumanity of his/her actions and not only corrects himself/herself, but spreads the good word and takes action to prevent more such acts of inhumanity. That, to my mind, is a more powerful and self-sustaining force.
Having said all this, I'm not going to hold my breath waiting for these changes to happen in India any time soon and neither do I expect my children or my grandchildren to see any significant changes.
Coming to the topic of this post, I see so many of my FB friends posting links/images that talk about being proud to be an Indian. Why? What exactly is it that the average Indian is proud about? I'd really, honestly like to know. If this was somebody from the Indian Army/Navy/Air Force, I can understand. They're doing an incredible service to the nation and they can certainly feel proud to be an Indian and defend its borders. But, let's see what the average Indian reads/sees/experiences in an average day. He reads/sees/experiences murders of innocent people, murders of righteous people, murders of brave people, suicides by repressed people, suicides by hungry/desperate/helpless people, incredibly rich people cornering more and more of the country's wealth illegally and still not feeling satisfied, rich/educated/sophisticated people taking advantage of precious natural resources, looting the country or it's people to increase their own standing/wealth/power, people flouting all written laws and unwritten laws of society to get a leg up on the others. I can give a dozen examples from each day of living in just one city like Bangalore. People throwing garbage all over the place, drivers breaking every conceivable traffic rule to get ahead of others at traffic jams, people spitting and peeing willy-nilly (yes, that's a pun!), people tapping electric and phone lines to avoid paying bills, it goes on and on and on.
So, please, please don't ever try to convince me that I should be proud to be an Indian. I am not an Indian technically and I will not fancy carrying that tag any time soon. The natural follow-up question (posed to me) is: So, why did you decide to return to India and stay here? Now, that's a topic for another post, another day.
