Incredible India??

This afternoon, I was getting my office room cleaned. I was standing in the corridor and overheard a chat among three doctoral students. One of them was repeating the words that he heard from his professor.

It seems, the professor had told (and I reproduce what I think, I heard), "The government is promoting this campaign of Incredible India or 'Atulya Bharat'. But, what is incredible about this country. When my friends from Europe or US come to India for a visit, all they find is dusty roads, animals on the streets, poor facilities etc. etc."

On hearing this, I felt like giving a piece of my mind to the wayward student. Of course, the statement was not his. So, I just diverted my attention to the attendant cleaning my room. (Anyway, the group had already left for a cup of coffee by the time I thought of the 'piece of mind' thing).

So, here is the piece that I wanted to give :

I found the statement incredulous. What is incredible about India is its diversity and the fact that it has retained its tradition in full glory for more than 30 centuries, in spite of repeated invasions and occupation, first by the Mughals and then by the British.

Something that some of the western countries (like the Europeans) do not have, because their civilization is not old enough and they had decimated the true traditions of the land by labelling them as pagan and converting the natives to more fashionable and modern faiths with the words "Convert, or else...". On the other hand, in countries in the Americas, where the Spanish went, they found that it took less resources to kill the natives than convert them. Now, the native culture of these countries are confined to reserves, as if it is animalistic to think in a manner different than the "White Man"'s way.


It is incredible that this country has people of so many diverse languages and cultures, yet, there is something that ties together everyone as Indian. Ask people from Catalunya, Spain about their opinion on Spain and you'd know the difference.

Another distinguishing feature is the intellectual capability of this country. Many of the brightest brains of the current generation are Indian and most Indians are not dumb, if not brilliant. Compare this to the survey result where 40% of the polled Britishers do not know about the geography of the world. The people of "great" country, US of A are beyond comparison. For a country which plays a World Series of Baseball, where no teams from any other country is allowed, it would be difficult to convince them that "Rest of the World" is a real place and things can be right even if they are not done the American way (eg: right hand drive, eating with your hands, wearing a beard without being in Al-Qaeda etc.)

Well, I could have written a lot more. But, I have spit enough venom and the poison's all gone from my system. Moresoever, I feel hungry...