It’s not new in India to speak high about the work of the West and the opposite about the work of an Indian. Across the fields, the opinion would be the same with paltry exceptions. Hearing this all these years had intrigued me with a question in my mind – “Are we really inferior?” I would like to share the thoughts that are flashed in my mind, the answers provided by Google and few other questions that are digging my brain.
You are inferior – long been these words are being whispered
in our ears. How long? History has the answer. It was the time where the
English, the Dutch, the Portuguese and many such traders were trying their hand
to establish their factory in the so called ‘Land of Riches’. Through fair and
foul means, each one of them had managed to establish their factories and as a
consequence their products were trying their hand in the Indian market against
Indian products.
The workmanship of Indians was such that they were one
of the best in the then world. The blend of Indian, Persian and Greek delicacy
was seen across all crafts. Unfortunately, for the infighting Indians,
overtime, the factories became forts, tradesmen became soldiers, and companies
became rulers. Europeans, especially the British and the French, were showering
in the goods that came after the “Age of Enlightenment.” Capitalism started
taking roots along with the Industrial Revolution. Investment was flooding, new
machines got assembled and the unit cost of a product got cheaper, too cheap
that it was able to negate the home advantage of ‘the Third World’.
Still a challenge remained, perhaps the last.
Handmade products were much sought after by Indians than the industry made ones.
Then came the Western disturbance and Westerlies with a whisper from Europe –
“You are inferior”. With gun and words, the empire building Europeans were in a
position to buy anything in India. Indians were made to sell raw materials and
not finished products. Import tax was slashed on European products and homemade
products were taxed. Export tax for Indian goods was over 300% - for example
piece of cloth was sold at Rs.100 with more than Rs.75 going towards tax.
Slowly, the artists and craftsmen were abandoning their trades. They lost their
patrons – former royals of India, and then they were taxed to stop making
finished products and finally, the whisper.
The whisper was sound enough such that its echoes are
still reverberating in an Indian’s ears. It was a thought that was carefully
planted, watered and nurtured by the colonists for their benefits. Centuries of
delicate workmanship were lost in the sand of history. The past glory was
forgotten and the slave life got saved in the mind.
Even
after independence, much didn’t change. Caste discrimination remained, girls
were still the secondary sex, corruption swelled and so does the echoes of the whisper.
Still we were taught to compare two things – the West and the East, the high
and the low, the White and the Black. It was inculcated in every Indian’s blood
– by parents, teachers and by the society. On the global scale, Gross Domestic
Product (GDP) is being used. Among parents and teachers, marks and ranks take
primacy. Comparison by earning is reserved for the society. Everyone compare;
everything got compared.
Comparison became necessary. It’s the point where
efficiency stood up. After all, all a chased deer need is to outrun, not the
lion but another deer, to see another day. A wildebeest, another prey, or a bison
cannot compare its speed with that of a deer or a gazelle. It would be foolishness
to do so and ten out of ten times the bison will land in the losing side –
Comparison of the incomparable. The bison traded its speed for its mass (lions
dare not to kill a bison mob), zebra traded its mass and speed for the
confusing stripes and gazelles got speed.
The
above fact should not be limited to the grasslands of Savannahs. Men inspire
from nature and applying the same here won’t be an unwise act. Yes, we are
comparing the incomparable. For the first 50 years after that historic midnight
and Tryst with Destiny speech, we cocooned ourselves by comparing the Islamic
republic of Pakistan and the Secular, Democratic Republic of India. We ran many
races – in arms, in development, and international politics, as if we had only
one opposition. India won every race but failed to win any cup.
Then came “the Asia Century” catch phrase. After
winning every race against our North Western neighbor, we stretched our muscles
against the People’s Republic, a race between a tiger and a dragon. Odds are
clearly not in our favor. But that’s how it can be when we are inferior. But
against Pakistan, we reigned supreme. So, we are not inferior. It’s a bad
conclusion as we have pretended to compare India and Pakistan, though Pakistan
didn’t, as we actually compared India with the West. Now the equation holds
true – We are inferior!
All
we failed to understand in all these years is that we have only one in this
world with whom we can compare ourselves, to see just the progress – It’s us! An
eagle with lesser values, a colonial leech, a dragon without democracy, a
hammer and sickle dipped in blood, a slow but steady walking elephant, a racist
kangaroo and a white colored rainbow are the ones we have compared. Sounds
crazy? So does the result – We are inferior.
India, as a nation, stands on the bedrocks of
secularism, socialism, democracy, and individual rights and No first offence
and non-alignment as State policy. No nation in the above mentioned has all
these. Some are aligned, some has fewer rights and some are racists. So, how
come these nations got qualified to get compared against India, a country that
had a greater democracy, equality of rights and socialism as a goal? A city
state like Singapore can easily be developed than a nation which itself has
many biomes. Using geographical terms, I just wished to show how the two
countries are different in every aspect and cannot be put to comparison in the
same weigh.
My
country had a rich past. My country is having an aspiring present. My country
will have a bright future. Shortage of food is a thing of the past, the chain of
bondage was long been broken and the prediction that India will not stand
united after a decade of its independence was proved to be a harbinger’s lie. I
can compare an India that has begged to feed its people and an India that is
exporting agriculture surplus, an India that was refused a super computer and
an India that is achieving in indignation, an India that was a pawn in global
politics and an India that is a Grand Master. Are we inferior?
