Should you be proud of being an Indian?

Greetings my well wishers.

I was gonna write not 1, but 2 blogs on different subjects, but as I was just going through one of my very old blogs (Retro stuff you see) on Ibibo.com, I thought of sharing this Cult (Seriously cult) blog of mine with you. Coz this is the blog that has received a whopping 72 comments (highest number of comments for any blog of mine till now). The blog titled “Should you be proud of being an Indian?” was written and posted on the internet on January 13, 2007. And fortunately all the 72 comments it got were positive (All Praises you see)

Many of the readers of “Believe the Hype” haven’t read that blog, so I’m putting up an edited version of that blog over here. Also my old readers can refresh their memories by reading this blog again.

As I start this blog, I’m asking you all a question, are you Proud to be an Indian. And if you are OR if you are not, then why?

What makes you so proud of being an Indian?

On the other hand, what makes you Ashamed of being an Indian?

If you are Proud to be an Indian, what makes you proud of belonging to “THE POOREST OF THE POOR COUNTRIES IN THE WORLD”? What makes you proud of belonging to “THE MOST ILLETRATE COUNTRY IN THE WORLD”? What makes you proud of belonging to “The COUNTRY WITH THE HIGHEST HIV POSITIVE POPULATION”?

If you are Ashamed of being an Indian, what makes you ashamed of belonging to a nation that is considered a LAND OF ENDLESS SPIRITUALITY & UNREASONING MYSTICISM? What makes you ashamed of belonging to a country that boasts of “THE OLDEST & THE RICHEST CIVILIZATION IN THE WORLD – The Indus Valley (Harrapa) Civilization.” What makes you ashamed of belonging to the land where the almanacs of wisdom, priceless treasures of science & oceans of unending knowledge “THE VEDAS”, “THE UPNISHADS” & “THE BHAGWAD GEETA” & even the Holy “GURU GRANTH SAHIB” were composed. What makes you ashamed of belonging to the nation which produced the greatest Emperor to have ever lived on planet earth, not Alexander, not Akbar, not Genghis Khan, not King Louis the XIV, but our very own Emperor Ashoka the Great.

Now thats a Major Dilemma isn’t it.

You must be in splits by now. It must be tough deciding what you are, a proud Indian or unfortunate to be an Indian. It must be confusing whether to take pride being an Indian or cribbing yourself for being born in an Undeveloped Country.

As you take time in deciding on which side you are, let me tell you what I feel about my Indian Identity and whether I’m proud or ashamed of being an Indian. And I’m sure when you read my description of Yesterday’s & Today’s India, most of you will agree with me.

I, Shawn (Sushant Taing), am proud of the India that was, the India which used to be known as “Sone Ki Chidiya”. I am proud of the rich & prosperous India which flourished & bloomed under The Mauryan Empire, The Kushan Empire, The Gupta Empire, The Chola Dynasty, The Chaulakya Dynasty, The Rajputana Kingdoms, The Khilji Sultans, The Tughlaq Sultans & the greatest of them all – The Mughal Empire.

I am proud of the India that produced great Kings from Chandragupta Maurya, Kanishka, Chandragupta Vikramaditya, Raja Raja Chola, Harsha Vardhana to Prithvi Raj Chauhan, Maharana Pratap, Babar, Badshah Akbar, Jehangir, Shah Jahan, Chattrapati Shivaji, Maharaja Ranjit Singh and undisputedly the greatest of them all – Emperor Ashoka The Great.

I am proud of the India that produced divine and pious souls like Gautam Buddha, Mahavira, Chanakya (also known as Kautilya), Charkha, Sushrutha, Aryabhatta, Banabhatta, Kalidasa, Tulsidas, Hazrat Nizam-ud-din Aulia, Muin-ud-din Chisti, Abdul Rahim Khan-i-Khana, Sant Kabir, Sant Gyaneshwar, Mirabai, Chaitanya Mahabraphu, Guru Nanak Dev, Guru Gobind Singh & Shirdi wale Sai Baba.

I am proud of the India that produced reformists & visionaries like Rabindranath Tagore, Raja Ram Mohan Roy, Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar, Swami Vivekananda & Swami Dayanand Saraswati.

I am proud of the India that produced Freedom Fighters from Moderates like Mahatma Gandhi, Pt. Jawahar Lal Nehru, Sardar Vallabh Bhai Patel, Acharya Vinoba Bhave, Bipin Chandra Pal, Aurbindo Ghosh, Lala Lajpat Rai to Extremists like Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose, Bal Gangadhar Tilak, Veer Savarkar, Bhagat Singh, Chandrashekhar Azad, Chaphekar Brothers and Shaheed Uddham Singh.

I am proud of the India where Global Sports like Chess & Hockey were invented.

To be precise, I’m more proud of The Golden India (The Pre Independence India) that was the APPLE OF THE EYE OF THE ENTIRE EUROPE and THE JEWEL IN THE BRITISH ROYAL CROWN.

But I hardly find any reason to be proud of Today’s India, The 21^st Century India. An India, that after 60 years of Independence is still UNDEVELOPED, ILLITERATE, HIGHLY POLLUTED, OVER POPULATED, MALNURISHED, LARGLY UNEMPLOYED & FULL OF POVERTY. An INDIA whose both Houses of Parliament are full of mostly Goons, Dumb Asses & Pseudo-Intellectuals. An INDIA whose top investigation agency The CBI, takes more than 2 months to solve a simple Double Murder Case.

How can I be proud of an India which has THE MOST CORRUPT POLITICIANS, POLICEMAN, JUDICIARY and BEAURCRATS IN THE WORLD?

How can I be proud of an India where Serial Killers, Rapists, Kidnappers & other GUNDAAS become Members of Parliament (MP) and Members of Legislative Assembly (MLA)?

How can I be proud of an India where Social equality still doesn’t exist & where minority religious groups are still discriminated?

How can I be proud of an India where superstitions & blind-faith still exist – practices like Sati, Child Marriage & Dowry still plague India?

How can I be proud of an India where 90% of the movies are second rate – all RONA-DHONA & NAACH-GAANA & STORYLINES PLAGIARISED FROM HOLLYWOOD MOVIES and now EVEN from European, Iranian & Korean movies?

How can I be proud of an India which makes the most Disgusting kind of TV Serials (THE SAAS-BAHU SOAPS) and all those Over The Top Melodramatic Reality Shows – all 3^rd Rate?

How can I be proud of an India which has no Sports Culture, fails Miserably at all Olympics, has never won any major Soccer(Football) match, is going Down in the Dumps in its own game Hockey and has never been No. 1 in its most popular game – Cricket?

How can I be proud of an India whose media is so Biased? When we win an ordinary Cricket Match i.e. a One Day Match against Bangladesh, it hits the headlines in all Newspapers and TV News, but When Jaspal Rana Wins 3 Gold Medals in Shooting at The Asian Games (A Bigger Honour For the country) or Vishwanathan Anand regains World Number 1 Rank in Chess or Pankaj Advani wins a major International Billiards Tournament that story is reported somewhere in a small section in the Sports Column of The Newspaper and the visual media happily ignores it (As it doesn’t give them big ratings).

How can I be proud of an India where untalented jackasses like Himesh Reshammiya, Anu Malik, Qazi Touqueer and Sandeep Acharya are considered Rock stars and ugly Bimbos like Rakhi Sawant & Mallika Sherawat are considered Divas? (Just because they are experts in skin show).

And how can I be proud of an India whose Present Prime Minister is a mere Puppet & a coward and lacks decision making skills?

Clearly there are not many reasons for being proud of Today’s India.

But wait, don’t write off India as a bad country.

I’m proud of my country whose Armed Forces guard the post at Siachen Glacier under Minus 10 degree C Temperature everyday. They brave the bitter Cold, just to make the neighboring countries realize, ” Don’t take us for Granted “.

I’m proud of my country which has produced Intellectuals like Amartya Sen, Sir Salman Rushdie, Anita Desai, Kiran Desai, Vinod Khosla, Amar Bose, Sabeer Bhatia, Deepak Chopra, Shekhar Kapoor, Manoj Night Shyamalan, Mira Nair, Deepa Mehta, Vikram Seth, Amitav Ghosh, MF Hussain, SH Raza & Jhumpa Lahiri, all of whom have conqured the west.

I’m proud of my country which has produced Entrepreneurs like Lakshmi Mittal, Ratan Tata & Vijay Mallya who are buying foreign Companies & proving that Indians have arrived.

I’m also proud of my country where I break all the traffic rules and spit on the Streets (even in its capital where I live) and bribe the police so that I don’t pay up being arrested & fined.(Thats Sarcasm for the uninitiated)

As we say, it happens Only in India.

Buccaneers as politicians, copycats as musicians and vision less and imagination less chaps as film directors; that tears the veil from the real face of India! But still,even the darkest and gloomiest of Storm clouds have a silver lining,the vices might be overrunning the virtues right now,but still, there are enough reasons for us to be proud of our nationality!

Hence I’m a hardcore Proud Indian.

Hindustan Zindabad.