Being an Indian

What does it mean to call oneself an Indian? Is it the name given to a person honoring the dotted lines on a map, which are constantly shifting according to political moods? Is it the feeling of nationalism thrust upon a person five minutes before a movie starts when he or she is forced to stand up for the anthem? Or is it an ideological difference that one needs to maintain when interacting with people from other countries? How does being an Indian differentiate one human being from any other? This article is my way of trying to understand these questions.

If we look at the glorious past of India, for if we were aware of her phenomenal history, we would understand that the civilizations that bred and evolved here had a strong basis of peace and harmony, simply through tolerance and acceptance. For thousands of years we persevered against the continual attacks from outside, from various battle-hungry empires that chose to plunder us and plague us with their inane ideas, but did we ever give up surviving? Never have we gone on the offensive and attacked another for the sake of profits. Yes, we did fight when the attacks got severe, but that was purely for survival. We gave into the ideas and attributes of others, we included their beliefs and embraced their theologies as our own, but we never stooped so low as to delineate our children on the basis of geography or elitism. Regardless of the differences, we considered ourselves and our ‘guests’ to be one in spirit, and this is the attitude that got us so far. We never showed off, we never proclaimed superiority and we never ever considered ourselves different from anybody or any place on earth, because of which the children of the Indus Valley always pioneered in every aspect of the pure life; we were trailblazers in social living, ploughing ahead in any adversity and laying the road for others to follow. All this without even the slightest shadow of egotism. Why are we then so far removed from our original attributes today?

Firstly, because we are still slaves and we might remain that way forever. We are maybe under the illusion that the Empire was driven off in ’47 and that we are free in our own land, but this is so far from the truth. When the West left us, they carefully engineered a system that they had skillfully developed over the centuries of Industrial Revolution and the Age of Reason, a system so deviant in thought and application to corrupt every pure human being into thinking that his or her purpose in life is nothing more fundamental than base enjoyment. The system which abrogates the motto of Indian living, which is ‘Existence through High Thinking and Plain Living’ and replaces all our social theories and evolutionary paradigms with the darkest designs of materialism. The system that I refer to is the capitalistic regime that we are all slaves of today.

Capitalism is the new Empire. That which has taken over from the Queen’s rule and has silently been guiding India and her children into the worst nightmare that humanity has faced in its evolutionary journey. Competition, an artificial sense of security, and paranoia of being deceived are all derivatives of capitalism, and we are foolish enough to preach and educate the same to our children in the system of education that exists today. According to Maslow, human beings evolve through levels of needs, the basic being our physiological needs like food, water, clothing and shelter to higher psychological levels like security, belongingness, esteem and the highest level being self-actualization, where a human being tries to understand who he or she really is and what is their true potential. What capitalism does is fix our attention on esteem-based needs and here we are living in a social setup of show and tell. Neighbors’ envy, owners’ pride, live life king-size, just do it and for everything else there is Mastercard, these are the commandments that kids grow up listening to today. No wonder then that we have to spend ridiculous amounts on protecting our ridiculous way of life. This is definitely not what the children of Indus Valley had in mind, for their inscribed and inherited knowledge is much more profound and advanced than the shit that we learn today. As the Zeitgeist Movement puts it, THE SHIT HAS GOT TO GO!!!

Secondly, because no matter what we do, we have to face these issues. This is our evolutionary journey, to deal with the issues that Nature throws along our way and see if we can pick our way through the maze. We have enough evidence corroborating the fact that Nature and human consciousness are interconnected at all levels of the gross, subtle, and causal reality. We create the world as we know it, and so the problems that confront us are not external entities, but reflections of our mental maladies. The world is facing a grave identity crisis, for no one really knows today who they are and why they were born into such a phenomenal reality. As children, we are asked not to question but to accept the fate of the world as it is. This is probably the worst advice ever given and if we do not change our perspective, we may end up as fossils of an extinct species like the dinosaurs. True awareness of our mistakes, our limitations and our negativities are what is needed to correct the deviation from our original path, and kids need to be told about all of this. There is no hiding from them, for sooner or later the more inquisitive ones will come to realize what we have done, and so it is our responsibility to increase awareness and know our potential to become what we are truly meant to be.

This August 15th was not an Independence Day or a day when freedom was obtained; it is a day of awareness that we are not the people who once fought for freedom, we are not Kashmiris or Keralites or Indians or Non-Indians, we are not rich, or poor, the down-trodden, urban-rural-metro-cosmopolitan dwellers, the gold-diggers and shit-pickers, the elite, literate, upper-caste or scheduled tribes, south, north, east or west; we are human beings, just like the rest of them on this planet, we are alive and that too for a reason, we have certain innate talents and powers, skills and knowledge not to make a better world, but to better ourselves. Nature is perfect as she is, and she will provide plentiful to the one who cares for her, loves one another and propagates the warmth of life everywhere and in everything. Love is the currency that we seek, not money; love is abundant and there is more than enough for everyone, but only if we give up our bloodthirstiness and profit mongering, our capitalistic strategies and our ideas of war.

The 15th of August 2018 is not different from any other day, and so let us make every day worthwhile in our transient lives. We don’t need parades and political tirades, what we need is unity in love, in any place and among any people regardless of what differences or diversities may exist. It is these differences which make the canvas of our world brilliant, and the painting that we paint every day, a masterpiece!

So, my answer to the question ‘What does it mean to call oneself an Indian?’ lies in the famous words of a true human being and an Indian, Rabindranath Tagore –

“Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high, where knowledge is free.

Where the world has not been broken up into fragments by narrow domestic walls.

Where words come out from the depth of truth, where tireless striving stretches its arms toward perfection.

Where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way, into the dreary desert sand of dead habit.

Where the mind is led forward by thee, into ever widening thought and action.

In to that heaven of freedom, my father, LET MY COUNTRY AWAKE!”