India Can!

India Can!

- in Kanchan's Blog
0
Comments Off on India Can!

By Kanchan Banerjee

The lure of India is historic. One can trace the journey over the centuries and how western people came to view India.

Gone are the days when voyagers from Europe went searching for India, for a brighter future by sailing across seas. Remember that Europe especially people of England around 15th century, was poverty-stricken, controlled by the orthodox churches; hence there was an urgent need to go out in search of  religious, economic and political freedom.  With that as prime force, and a dash of adventure, many courageous souls sailed out for the unknown. Christopher Columbus missed real India’s soil, but Vasco da Gama (Portuguese) reached the shores of India; then came the Dutch, the Danish, the French and the English along with their leaders such as François Caron and Robert Clive. 

But it was the British, who colored the Indian mindset and even influenced how the world viewed India.

India was ‘shining’

But before the arrival of these 18th century future colonists of India’s land, people and economy (even after the tyranny of nearly 1000 years of invasions and foreign domination) was more ‘shining’ then compared to today!

According to economic historian Angus Maddison (in his book The World Economy: A Millennial Perspective), India was the richest country in the world and had the world’s largest economy for 11 centuries. When the British occupied India around 1760 the currency conversion rate was 2.8 pounds per Indian Rupee. When British left India in 1947, after prolonged exploitation of the land, the rate was – 1 Pound to 5 Rupees.

British colonists in order to dominate and rule India fabricated and introduced the Aryan Invasion theory and proclaimed that “…a single shelf of a good European library was worth the whole native literature of India and Arabia.”1  As if India had no history, no culture, no contribution to the world; and the ‘white’ masters gave the impression that they were the saviors, out to save millions in various colonized nations ( mostly non-white population).

 

Thomas Babington Macaulay confessed and planned for a change the psyche of Indians:“I have travelled across the length and breadth of India and I have not seen one person who is a beggar, who is a thief. Such wealth I have seen in this country, such high moral values, people of such caliber, that I do not think we would ever conquer this country, unless we break the very backbone of this nation, which is her spiritual and cultural heritage, and, therefore, I propose that we replace her old and ancient education system, her culture, for if the Indians think that all that is foreign and English is good and greater than their own, they will lose their self-esteem, their native self-culture and they will become what we want them, a truly dominated nation.” 1

 

India: historically a trailblazer

 

Fact is, Macaulay was successful in creating ‘brown sahibs’ in millions, and there are plenty of them in various Indian institutes, who forget that India has contributed substantially in most areas of modern civilization like  – mathematics, language & grammar, astronomy, chemistry, metallurgy, health – you name a field, and India has a hand in it! Before the Muslim Invaders destroyed the Nalanda University in 1193 CE after emanating knowledge to the world for over 800 years, it was credited to be the source of over 900,000 manuscripts on thousands of knowledge sectors!

Thanks to Macaulay and Indian education system which is still influenced by his thoughts, many Indians believe even today that only the West has reached the peak of civilization. As if the West has the right to pass judgment on other societies, cultures and governance based on their  standards and world view!  

Living in peace, spiritual health is important

Standard of living does not mean standard of civilization. Economic prosperity is only one major part of our civilization. Living in peace, harmony and good physical, mental and spiritual health is also important.  

Yes, poorer, less developed countries cannot meet the basic needs of their people. But that does not mean that West has achieved everything! Every household in America did not have a car and refrigerator till a few decades ago. And sadly, we have seen in last few years  a sharp decline of living standard, even though America consumes a great chunk of world resources.

There are biases not only how western and developed countries view less developed countries and its people. It is found in the media, text books and even in the statements of certain world leaders.  Two recent incidents open our eyes on how the world views India and her people.

First one was to do with India’s spectacular and successful Mars mission. Unfortunately, the world news headlines were not necessarily very positive about this achievement of Indian scientists.

After all, each breakthrough and milestone (discoveries and achievements) by science and technology is in reality a milestone for the entire humanity. When others look at these achievements with colored lenses, it may reflect not just ignorance, but also racial biases.

Here are some newspaper headlines:

 “India Mars Mission to Launch Amidst Overwhelming Poverty.”– CNN 2

 “ISRO to launch India’s first spacecraft to Mars:  Critics of Britain’s aid programme in the country have also been angered by the mission. The UK gives India around £300m each year.” – The Guardian 3

“How can poor countries afford space programmes? What if the 16,000 scientists and engineers now working on space development were deployed instead to fix rotten sanitation?” – This Economist 4

The second one has to do with building of Sardar Patel’s statue. In a recent Yahoo story titled ‘India’s Modi aims at history and Gandhis with world’s tallest statue’ 5 the writers (jointly written by white and brown folks) misses the relevance. And then read the readers’ comments – most commentators, apparently western, have deep rooted biases – very similar to the ones written about the Mars mission!

The West must first know the real India

We, the people of the West, white or brown need not learn from the ‘colonized’ Indians, but need to do our independent research to know India. While we feel for the poor of India, sometimes we overlook our own backyard! We must not shy away from these facts before we poke our nose in others’ affairs!

Check these facts:

  • Total cost of Iraq and Afghan war may be $6 Trillion. 6

Could we possibly spend that money in industries at home and for job creation?

  • Every 1 in 6 American goes hungry every night. 7

Shocking, but true!

  • Unofficial figure of unemployment in America is more than 14% in America. 8

Unbelievable but true?

  • Over 600,000 people do not have a home to sleep every night. 9

Pathetic, but true!

We the West (especially Europe) is more or less responsible for the current state of affairs in India, to begin with, and then the Nehruvian model of development caused major setback to India’s growth. Then came the dynastic rule which is credited with scandals and corruption stories every month, which actually is detrimental to India’s development!

India can reach for the stars!

India is free to do everything to respect their leaders/heroes.  India is not all about poverty, it is only one facet of ‘India the wonder it is‘! If Patel is the true hero of India (both sides of the political spectrum agree with that)  – there is nothing wrong in making his statue, since most of the cost will come from people’s donations (cash or scrap metal)! One can know the exact details of the project here: http://www.giganticstatues.com/gujarat/#chitika_close_button

Prime Ministerial candidate Narendra Modi has the right to do it because he has developed his state Gujarat, beyond anyone’s imagination. He has earned his right to build such a statue. India has the right to reach for the stars, build the best, biggest, tallest everything it can.

Modi can and will build a new India, if elected. And we, the global citizens should be part of the success story, and not eternal pessimistic critics!

 References:

  1. 1.(Thomas Babington Macaulay, “Speech in Parliament on the Government of India Bill, 10 July 1833,” Macaulay, Prose and Poetry, selected by G.M. Young (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1957), pp. 716-18)
  2. 2.http://www.cnn.com/2013/11/04/world/asia/india-mars-space-race/
  3. 3.http://guardianlv.com/2013/11/india-mars-mission-to-launch-amidst-overwhelming-poverty/
  4. 4.http://www.economist.com/blogs/economist-explains/2013/11/economist-explains-0
  5. 5.http://news.yahoo.com/indias-modi-aims-history-gandhis-worlds-tallest-statue-090452150.html
  6. 6.http://articles.washingtonpost.com/2013-03-28/world/38097452_1_iraq-price-tag-first-gulf-war-veterans
  7. 7.http://feedingamerica.org/hunger-in-america/hunger-facts.aspx
  8. 8.http://www.forbes.com/sites/dandiamond/2013/07/05/why-the-real-unemployment-rate-is-higher-than-you-think/
  9. 9.http://www.endhomelessness.org/pages/snapshot_of_homelessness

About the author

Kanchan co-founded the NGI platform and portal in 2008. Kanchan is a prominent NRI living in Boston, USA for over 3 decades. His interests include History, Neurology, Yoga, Politics and Future of mankind. His top hobbies are travelling, cooking and writing. Email: Kanchan@newglobalindian.com

You may also like

Do I want to be in PM Modi’s pocket?

Let me tell you the saga of my