The Great Indian Paradox Part 2

(Three random men come and pose with me and the India flag on August 15th in Coonoor)

Taking two steps forward, or two steps back?

India recently turned 62 (August 15th), and I have often wondered on Independence Day (whilst sitting in hills of Coonoor) what turning 62 had meant to India and it's people.

The things I experience on an everyday occurrence have made me want to answer the big question, a question so big that the various newspaper editorials almost seem to want to discuss it on a weekly basis – "How much has India changed in the last 62 years since Independence?" I guess this question keeps popping up because a. India still gets plagued by various issues that only become evident to the world but evident to Indians too and b. well, the nation needs something to talk about!. Of course, economically and on a structural basis the answer is India has changed, or developed. But socially, is it any different? From my one year experience here, I can safely say that the India I live in is not the India that once used to scare me. It’s also not the India that others depicted to me. It still has its issues of course, I can’t deny that, but what place, town, city, country, or even continent in the world doesn’t?

Name me a country that doesn’t have sanitation problems, corruption or an over-stretching of its resources? In the UK, our health service apparently sucks, the United States has an obesity and gun crime rate as large as a jumbo bloody jet, whilst France has growing communal tensions, and the Middle East – well, will we ever get Peace in the Middle East?

India is on the path to the great life, but the same problems still bring it back down to Earth. In trying to advance, India is also stumping its own growth. For example, the country has a large waste issue. I have to say that the unique recycling methods used by people here is admirable, like using yesterdays newspaper as a plate for tomorrow's fried "aloo bhonda's" (basically potato vada). But with the lack of bins and waste disposal facilities on the streets, scores of crap is seen lying around nearly every street corner. In the mornings when I make my way to the gym, I get my warm up by argueing and barking back at stray (pariah) dogs who sit on the street corners scouring through rubbish thrown out by very educated Indians, who rather prefer to throw last nights chicken, dosa's or take away pizza on the street then find out a place where they can actually safely throw rubbish away. Can anyone blame them? Civic facilities was never a strong point. Just ask the number of parents who have lost children falling down manholes and bore wells on a weekly basis, all because nobody in the local constituency wanted to spend money filling up a hole. It can wait, as most excuses appear to be.But how long can India go on like this without addressing matters that seem so small? Is filling up a manhole a priority or is spending lakhs of money on ridiculous projects more worthy?

In the last year, I have read about communal violence almost weekly. Some Muslim’s are still segregated and Hindu nationalists still claim to be protecting India’s moral ground (see my blog post on the Mangalore attacks). But the Hindu-Muslim argument can no longer be the one factor affecting Indian society but more close to home, India's caste system is and I have experienced this myself.

Upon signing the deed for my flat back in August 2008, the landlord's witness (who also functions as an authorised notary, businessman selling tiles and religious nut on weekends) asked me what I was. What was I? I said British-Indian. He smiled. His question wasn't about nationality. It was about caste. Again he asked. Again, not answering his question directly, I said "Originating in Gujarat". He smiled again. "But what it is you are?" I needed him to be more specific. And so he said "I am Brahim. What are you?" "Oh, I'm a citizen of the universe" I replied, but he never got the joke, so I said "Kshatriya". After that three minute encounter, he didn't even bother checking any of my credentials (passport, job, documents) and signed the form and said bye. This incident occurs everyday. You wouldn't find a Dalit on my road because that would just be disastrous. My landlord has already told me that 4 Iranians took a flat two streets away from mine, and after 26/11 terrorist attacks, no "risks" could be taken so they were reported to the police. No doubt they were reported after they had paid a deposit. Even after 60+ years of Independence, untouchability is still the thorn of civic society. Even if change is evident around the country, these unfortunately have only come in small instances. How can a country claim to be the largest democracy in the world when democracy means equality and freedome for all?

Dalits are still segregated with little access to temples, water sources and upper caste areas. In Radhanagar in Hooghly district, the birthplace of social reformer Raja Ram Mohan Roy, there are separate crematoria for Brahmins and non-Brahmins. Waganagere village in Gulbarga district of Karnataka had a case where 120 Dalit households were forced to draw water from their well even after a dog fell in and died. During festivities, not only are they served food separately, but they have to bring their own plates and tumblers.

Such instances only begs the question - Is India stumping its own growth? Recently, Australia has been under fire in India for the wave of attacks upon Indian students living and studying in their sunny haven. Indian newspapers and the media claimed Australia was a racist and dangerous country for Indians and that something had to be done about this both diplomatically and through political protest. But I wondered to myself had India ever taken an introspective view of this? Aren't Indian's racist too? With a caste system that goes back centuries, Indian's still use the race and caste card to this day. In Mumbai, North Indians are targeted by Bal Thackeray and his mobs because apparently they're not welcome in Maharashtra. In Bangalore, girls and guys from the North East of India are called "chinki" and you only have to see it for yourself to sit back and feel utterly disgusted by it.

India isn't all doom and gloom and one year here has shown that it's beauty and soul is still what makes me feel like I'm somewhere special. I don't know or can think of another place in the world where school children can ask random guys on bikes for a lift up the road at traffic signals (without it being seen as weird or as if the biker is a child molester whisking another victim away). Neither do I know a place where everybody knows how to touch your heart by asking you the simple question "have you eaten?"

62 years is a long time and India is coming a long way, but it still does have longer to go. The potential is too big to minimise into words. India is not going backwards, but in going forward it has to make tough choices between what is seen as tradition, what is seen as Indian and what is seen as forward movement. Is India going forward with more clubs, bars, cinemas and malls? Is India going backwards more emphasis on caste, religion and regionalism?

As I said in my last post, the outsider view of India is much easier to have then the complex one I have by living here. If I compared my view of India before I came here with the view I have by living here, I would say its so much more easier to have an perception of something than be constantly involved in the evolution process of something right in front of you, because you cannot find words to describe it yourself.

Many Indians abroad may complain of the bad fruits of this nation but deep down many want to come here and experience its riches. That may sound colonial, or imperialist, but it isn't. I don't live the life of the upper-classes here. I try to live in India how the majority of Indian's would live it. Experience of this tells me that India hasn't gone beyond itself and neither is it underachieving. It's just relaxing in a position where if it wanted to push on, it can, but instead it chooses not too. Why? Well, if i knew that answer I wouldn't have so many questions! Life is "araam sai" (easy going) here and will continue to be.Wherever India is headed, all I can say is that I'm lucky to be apart of it.

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Ravin is heading to Mumbai in the coming weeks and will be on holiday. The next blog post will be the first week of October.