Why we should not be proud of India ?

“Sare Jahan Se Acha, Hindustan hamara; Hum bulbule hein iske, ye gulistan hamara"

Better than the entire world, is our Hindustan/We are its nightangles, and it our garden abode.So runs the lines of Muhammad Iqbal in praise of India. And same were the lines spoken by India's first cosmonaut in space when asked by the then prime minister on how India looks from space. Despite these glorifying ode, India has long way to go before she can describe herself to be "Sare Jahan se Acha". And there are many things about it, for which Indians should not be proud of.

"In a world in which Greek, Egypt, and Rome have all vanished without trace/ Our own attributes(name and sign) live on today." Although said in its praise, these lines of Iqbal also epitomizes what is wrong with India. The fact that India continues to show its ancient attributes in twenty first century while people belonging to regions of erstwhile Roman and other empires have shed their backward attributes is a signal that all is not well with it. The prevalence of baggage of past, comprising women subjugation or crimes against her, untouchablility, atrocities against "lower caste" groups, irrationality, etc holds back the progress of nation. For these and other attributes, Indians should not be proud of.

"That tallest mountain, that shade-sharer of the sky/It is our sentry, It is our night watchman; In its lap where frolic thousands of rivers, Whose vitality makes our garden the envy of Paradise." Contrary to this claim, rivers feel enervated because of flow of industrial effluents, human excrement, household or municipality garbage/waste into these thousands of rivers, among whom Ganga and Yamuna suffers the most. In similar fashion, across the geography of India, natural landscape have been subjected to exploitation by its citizens. Northern plains are losing their fertility owing to excessive usage of fertilizers/pesticides and monoculture. Sundarbans delta is being continuously robbed of its Mangroove forests. Beaches are littered with human and animal excreta. And our night watchman, i.e. Himalayas, is a victim of deforestation, dam construction, hotels etc. For all the wreckage that India has created, neither Paradise will envy nor Indians should be proud of.

"Religion does not teach us to bear animosity among ourselves/ We are of Hind, our homeland is Hindustan." Religion has always been a factor of animosity between different groups within India. Recent past is an example of it. Butchering of Sikhs in 1984 or savagery in Gujarat against Muslims in 2002 are just two major examples out of numerous local violent communal incidents on yearly basis. Rifts along religious lines are further exploited by politicians of various parties election after election with public joining the bandwagon every time. The fact that Muslims continue to lack quality education, health services, jobs and find it easy to live only in the Muslim neighborhoods is symptom of larger malaise spread across India. For prevelance of these problems within India after 7 decades of Independence, its citizens should be not proud of themselves.

Despite the cultural heritage that India enjoys, Indians have been negligent about it. For example- lack of appreciation for classical dances like Bharatnatyam, Kathkali or Kuchipudi and folk dances among common people and esp the youngsters; lack of interest in Ancient paintings of Ajanta caves or Mughal or Rajput paintings of medieval period; discoloration of monuments like Taj Mahal due to rising pollution; linguistic jingoism; environmental impacts of Diwali or Holi; lack of infrastructure development in form of Museums or at galleries and indifference among people towards them. For all these, Indians should not be proud.

A land that gave birth to statesmen like Nehru,Patel etc and moreover who presented to the world an inspirational figure of Mahatma Gandhi, is today struggling to keep the promises of its Constitution which obliges it to bring Justice, Equality, Liberty, and spread Fraternity among all. Widespread poverty, unemployment, hunger, discriminations, persecution, inequalities, which defy the tenets are our constitution, should not make Indians proud of themselves.

Indians should not be proud of widowed old age women who are kicked out of their homes by its children, of poor who can't feed her family, of women who face sexual harassment at home or office or public places, of children who works at tender age, of slow judicial system, of large amount of money stashed abroad in banks of Switzerland, of civil servants and police men that asks for brown envelope before doing public service, of domestic maid who works for pittance, of its education system which do not educate, of its family value system that creates obstacles for girls, of rights/freedoms that are frequently transgressed by State, of tribals who gets exploited and whose cultures are ruptured, of undertrails who languish for years in jails without being proven guilty, of LGBTQ who are denied rights and so on.

"Iqbal! we have no confidant in this world/ What does any one know of our hidden pain?"" In this age of globalization, we have many confidants and our pain is longer secret - from outsiders or insiders. There is much about India to be disliked and be not proud of. Our motherland, as we call it, is infected by elements from diverse fields -historical, geographical, cultural, social, political etc. Combinedly, they present a garden of thorn. And for this, Bulbuls(Nightangles) can not be proud of themselves.