Network18 organised a blog writing competition to mark the Republic Day on the topic "63rd Republic Day India in 1950 vs 2012". The bloggers had to describe how India has evolved since being declared a Republic in just 500 words. Some of the best have been featured here.
The second winner of The Network18 Blog Writing Competition: Jaimon Joseph
This December, Jeremy Clarkson of the BBC, flashed an India special edition of his famous motoring show Top Gear. He drove around a Jaguar sports car in our slums. Attached to the boot was an open air toilet.
Showing off the car's unusual modification as he drove around the slums, Clarkson boasted: 'This is perfect for India because everyone who comes here gets the trots.' (A reference perhaps to an upset stomach.)
There were a lot of other very offensive stunts he pulled off on the show (click here to find out more). Offensive enough to make the Indian High commissioner to Britain angrily demand that the BBC pull the show off air. They refused to do so and refused to apologize.
When the story was first reported a week back, I thought - don't we have better things to do? Why link our national prestige to a mere television anchor and his jibes?
And anyway, why exactly are we protesting the truth? India has more cell phones than we have decent toilets (so says a recent UN report). Most foreigners see Indians defecating in the open at almost every railway station, bus stand and sometimes right outside major airports. Jeremy Clarkson was simply stating the obvious.
Then I realized the only folks getting worked up about such kiddish stuff, are people like us. Born and brought up in cities, with an MNC job, an apartment and a car, and night outs on the weekends. After 63 years of India becoming a republic, we're probably the first generation who have enough money to study abroad, who prefer watching F.R.I.E.N.D.S to a local soap opera, who can shell out a few thousands for tickets to the F1 race.
Folks like us don't like to be messed with. And we don't like the mess the rest of India makes. We'd much rather hire an AC cab than hop on a local bus. Go mall hopping than vegetable shopping. Stock market fluctuations make more sense to us than local language newspapers. Hell, most of us would have trouble reading a newspaper in our mother tongue.
Their headlines talk about Naxalite leaders being killed. And their followers striking back in revenge. Why do these buggers need to fight anyway? They talk about tribals in the Andamans being sexually exploited. Boss they're junglees - probably make a good lay! North-easterners are heckled and harassed in our cities. Why can't these CHINKIS stay where they came from? Kids in J&K disappear from their homes - shit why can't they just do what the army says huh?
Farmers in Maharashtra commit suicide - why did they borrow money if they couldn't give it back? Villagers in Orissa are massacred - why did they go and convert to Christianity? Adivasis in Jharkhand lose their lands to mining - Arre baba, if we don't have more mines, how can the country grow economically?
For everything that happens in this country - we have a neat solution. A cynical line. A convenient dismissal. The stories and agony behind each of those headlines - why should we bother about them? We're earning enough for our families aren't we?
What we don't realize is, out of 1.2 billion Indians - folks like us, who have the good things in life, probably number just 0.2 billion. The rest of them who sweep our floors, iron our clothes and yes, who defecate out in the open because they can't afford a loo at home - they are a Tsunami of humanity waiting to strike out.
In every corner of our country, in every state - they're waiting. Hoping for a brighter future. But it doesn't seem to be in any hurry to come. What they're getting instead is agony, starvation, humiliation, treachery. We are the world's largest and probably most diverse democracy because all these people agreed to stay together, work together.
But how long will they stay patient? Wouldn't it be easier to just break out, find their own destiny? Isn't that what we did when India was under British rule? Isn't that what J&K, Nagaland, Manipur, Telengana, the Naxals and countless other communities want right now? What will be left of our Republic then?
I'm going to end with a fairly famous quote that was originally made about Nazi Germany. About how they eliminated chosen targets and groups of people, one after another. It's a slight break from the flow of thoughts above. But stretch your imagination a bit and perhaps you'll see why it could be applied to the way we live our lives today. We're so busy with our own lives, we just don't care what's happening outside. Not the best strategy for survival.
"First they came for the communists,
and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a communist.
Then they came for the trade unionists,
and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a trade unionist.
Then they came for the Jews,
and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a Jew.
Then they came for the Catholics,
and I didn't speak out because I wasn't Catholic.
Then they came for me
and there was no one left to speak out for me."
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