I’m a happy Indian
MINA ANAND
This refers to Hema Raghavan’s piece “Triumph and Tragedy” (Open Page, Aug 31, 2008). The author rightly eulogises the Chinese for their ‘awesome medal tally’, their ‘fulsome pride in their nation’, and confesses she is ‘envious of the Chinese.” Where I beg to disagree, is with the ‘envy’ bit. Never once did I feel envious of the Chinese and their medals tally, or of their feat in brilliantly hosting the Gam
es. On the contrary, as an Asian, I felt proud, and not envious of China. The Chinese Olympic triumph is a feather in the cap for Asia as well.
Meanwhile, I am more than happy to be Indian, and to be proud of many things of which the writer spoke – our rich inheritance, philosophies, culture. For me, the biggest plus is our plurality that includes secularism, a vibrant democracy (in spite of vote bank politics), a uniquely structured Constitution, an outstanding apolitical armed forces and a truly independent Supreme Court.
Moreover, I don’t see any need to ‘show the world’ what it is to be Indian. While we may not have acted to bring Olympian glory to our nation, we are the envy of many — for our democratic way of life, our energetic, driven and intelligent youth and, for our free press and the resulting right to information.
The real laurels
While we strive to reach for Olympic gold, we still possess the real 22 carats — the guarantee of Civil Liberties (including freedom of speech, right to equality, minority rights), and the fundamental right to move the Supreme Court to enforce these rights under Article 32 (the “Soul of our Constitution”). We have had women showing their mettle through the ages and, more so, now in political and corporate fields, not to mention an illustrious list of minority and Dalit leaders, holding the highest offices.
National pride
Can we forget the Indian spirit in the freedom movement? And while some may say that it requires a freedom struggle, a war, a cricket match, a ‘Singh is King’, or a single gold medal, to get our act together, the feeling of nationalism is always there, perhaps not worn on the sleeve, but as a strong underlying current all the same.
On the flip side, we have terrible blots — anti-Sikh riots, Gujarat, Orissa killings, stark poverty, caste murders and so on. There is no great joy in claiming to be Asian Giants if the ‘powers that be’ forget the means to the end, in their haste to become ‘super powers’. India always shines for me, thanks to my upbringing. I grew up imbibing a sense of pride in my parents, of being Indian.
Perhaps it also helped that I was brought up on sports. Our heroes were the legends of Indian cricket and the inspiring tennis families. We had the great Ramanathan Krishnan storm into the Wimbledon semis twice.
We have Viswananthan Anand on the world chess throne, Milkha Singh and P.T. Usha, who did us proud. What if they didn’t win any medals? Their performance is truly golden. Why should winning be the only yardstick?
Or maybe because I am ‘cricket mad’, and for that reason alone, I can’t think of envying a cricketless China! Though if T-20 becomes an Olympic sport, China may well win that gold as well, but will that compensate for the rich (no pun intended) cricketing tradition India has?
Seriously, aren’t we proud to be cast in the ‘golden’ Indian mould?
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