In a small town in Texas, two Indians found themselves in the lobby of a plush doctor's office.  They looked at each other, and then quickly looked away.  With furtive looks, they tried to evaluate each other as questions buzzed in their minds, "What does he do?",  "Wonder if he is an H1B or a green card holder?", "Is he married?, and finally, "Where is he from?" Both showed an eagerness to communicate, but the big wall of pride, prestige and a fragile ego forced a quick retreat.  Meanwhile, there were 3 more patients and the wait seemed long.  One of the Indians walked up to the receptionist to ask a question about insurance.  While talking to her, he happened to glance at the visitor's list and noticed the name of the other Indian.  Suddenly, he lost all interest.  "He is not from my state.  Why waste time by talking to him?" he said to himself. The instinctive acknowledgement of oneness as an Indian got derailed to the comfort zone of a regional cul-de-sac in splendid isolation.

And it happens all the time. The psychological baggage of regionalism, casteism and elitism stays like a leech sapping the unified strength of Indians abroad.  Our countrymen constantly yearn for the warm, social glue of community and home, yet are unable to connect with ease with their own fellowmen.  Sometimes, they are embarrassed and many a time, they are contemptuous of anything Indian.   Eager to earn the certificate of a "model, rich community," they willfully ignore the psychological and social warts that leave gaping voids in their "hungry for attention" lives.

If the regional disconnect abroad causes a trek into social wilderness, in India it has spawned civic friction ranging from violence against Indians from another state, to secessionist movements as in Assam and Nagaland.  It may start from a vague "left-out feeling" as when some people  do not understand the language spoken by other Indians in a group;  or it could be pretensions that a particular state's culture is superior to other states;  or it could be cultural insensitivity as when the Kannadigas and other South Indians lament that, "North Indians show little respect to local culture and language,"; or it could be the North Indians opining that the "South Indians stay within their group and do not like to mix,"; or finally the Mizos, the Assamese, and other North-East Indians who state, "we are considered as foreigners because we look different," and so on and so forth.  It is sad that the Indian who spouts, "Vasudeva Kutumbam," universal brotherhood and justice in every international forum cannot unite with his own brothers at home just because they come from a different state, or look different.   He who shows so much openness and acceptance of the whole world, and regularly tolerates humiliations abroad is unable to tolerate his own countrymen.

Not too long ago, Indians from every nook and corner of India, thought of India first and were willing to die for the nation. Khudiram Bose did not think only of Bengal, the Marathas did not think of saving only Maharashtra but took the fight to Panipat.  The idea of India was in the soul of every freedom fighter languishing in dungeons no matter whether they were Marathis, Punjabis or South Indians.  If Sardar Patel had thought only of Gujarat, we would not have one India, but over 25 bickering states all ready to be exploited by the ever vigilant enemy pushing on the borders to intrude boldly and rule brutally as had been the story of India for 1000 years.

Last update : 08-03-2010 00:08

Keywords : No Nationalism Makes India Weak, Aneeta Chakrabarty

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