INDIAN – The World in a Word

We receive countless “please-forward-otherwise-you-will-have-bad-luck-for-seven-years” mails nearly everyday. But sometimes, we also receive mails that we are not likely to forget in a hurry. One such mail I received a long time back had a photograph that I have given below. While the photograph is self-explanatory, I can’t help penning down a few thoughts about it.

I don’t know where this place is or who took this photograph. I just know that when I looked at it, I felt stunned, euphoric, intrigued, and proud, all in the same moment.

I wonder who wrote that board. And I realize that it’s just another Indian. Who else would find one common thread of unity hidden behind seemingly unrelated words?

To me, being an Indian means so many feelings rolled into one complex, inexpressible, and strong emotion. It’s so electric, sometimes it shakes me. And I find most people around me reacting to patriotism just as strongly, sometimes even more.

As India celebrates its 61st anniversary, I find myself wondering what India would look like if she were a living, normal person like one of us. Would she appear as a woman in a white saree with a crown on her head and a trident spear in her hand? Or would she appear in chains like the freedom-fighters used to portray her in the pre-independence years – dejected, defeated, and waiting? Or would she just look like a proud, happy mother who has just witnessed her child taking its first steps?

Two hundred years is a long time. It is not easy to shrug off the chains that bound us for such a long time. Sixty years, however, is a remarkably short time for the amazing feats we have accomplished! And yet, it is not just scintillating achievements that make an Indian uniquely different. When I try to see beyond the stoic face of today’s Indian professional who carries a smart phone in one hand and a laptop in the other, I find a complex individual sculpted by years of tradition, hard work, conflict, struggle, and persistence. I see a human being who recognizes freedom of the mind and spirit as top priority, who despises unfairness, and reaches out to help someone less fortunate. I find a spirit that loves laughing and expressing; a person who has worked really hard to be successful and takes pride in achievements. I see strong emotions, easy expressions, and great patience. I see righteous anger against biases of all kinds, whether it be based on gender or religion or caste. I see stress, tension, declining health, and pressures unimagined 50 years ago. I also see a lot of faith, trust, and sincerity and the dogged determination to change things for the better.

That is the Indian I see in each of us – the personality I can identify with. Just such a one as you and me – discovered that an Indian is not just a Hindu, or a Muslim or a Sikh, but the complex whole of all religions, traditions, and cultures melted and fused together to form the rarest of personalities.

“India is like a palimpsest upon which layer upon layer of thought and reverie has been inscribed and no succeeding layer could completely erase what was previously inscribed” – wrote Jawaharlal Nehru in The Discovery of India. Indeed, India’s personality is multifaceted as a diamond, reflecting myriads of lights and colors in startling ways. India is a melting pot of numerous cultures. This is the one land where mighty warriors came to conquer and were conquered themselves.

Refreshingly humorous, deeply understanding, infinitely expressive, thoughtful, kind, generous, and wise beyond the collective age of humanity – that’s what I see India as. And, the Indian of today carries all that within.

Diane Raine alias Geeta Arya