Are you a proud Indian ... or Proud to be an Indian?

Yes I am a proud Indian, but I am not sure that I am proud to be an Indian. For those of you who missed it and are re-reading the previous sentence the two words “to be” has been added. Let me see why I am a proud Indian. Well, for a lot of reasons. The geography that comprises the Indian land mass today (and I am talking largely about the sub continent here) has a history and culture that goes back thousands of years. India is proud to have offered to the world Hinduism and Buddhism and Jainism and Sikhism and a lot of other wonderful teachings. India of the past boasts of such stalwarts as Aryabhat, Chanakya, Tansen, Emperor Akbar (he was born an Indian, wasn’t he?), and in more recent years Rabindranath Tagore, Satyajit Ray, Mrinal Sen, Dhyan Chand, Sunil Gavaskar, Sachin Tendulkar, Hargobind Khurana, Amartya Sen and recently we have discovered Kailash Satyarthi, someone no one had heard of till a small group of people halfway across the world put him on a pedestal and conferred the highest civilian award in the world – the Nobel Prize.

Yes I am a proud Indian. Proud because I belong to the community such stalwarts come from. I am proud that they did what they did to make minions like me feel honoured and proud. I am proud that the Passport I carry is in the same colour as theirs. Do disregard the possible fact that all Aryabhat needed to do is sit on the back of a camel and travel down the Silk Route, if he so desired. He did not need no Passport.

By the same token I am a proud human being to belong on the same planet as Alexander the Great, Achilles (of the tendon fame), Atilla the Hun, Confucius the Master, Chingiz Khan, et al. I am proud to have read the stories of the brave men who fought in the trenches in all the Wars and the selfless ladies who tended to the wounded. I am proud to have watched Neil Armstrong walk upon the Moon and relived the stories of Tenzing Norgay and Edmund Hillary standing on the top of the world. Incidentally, Tenzing is Indian, despite Nepal claiming him to be Nepalese and the Tibetans claiming him to be a son of their exalted soil. If you take Tenzing away from India, then we have one less thing to feel proud about, don’t we? Oh yes, Tenzing is as Indian as they come. Like Siddhartha Gautama was Indian, despite there being no real proof whether the Sakya empire lay in Nepal or India ... I doubt if Nepal and India existed as such 2,500 years ago.

Yes, I am proud Indian and a proud Earthian, if there is such a word.

But am I proud TO BE an Indian? Ah, therein lies the problem. But let me first finish with me being a proud Indian first.

According to Merriam Webster, “proud” is an adjective and means “very happy or pleased because of something you have done, something you own ... causing someone to feel very happy and pleased”. According to Oxford Dictionaries, proud is defined as “feeling deep pleasure or satisfaction as a result of one’s own achievements, qualities, or possessions or those of someone with whom one is closely associated” and “causing someone to feel proud”.

Looking at these definitions, I have no reason whatsoever to believe that I had anything to do with anything I profess to feel proud about. Aryabhat and Sachin Tendulkar have every right to feel proud of their achievements. Parents have every right to feel pride in the fact that they sired the likes of Amartya Sen and Kailash Satyarthi. What do I have to feel proud about except that I have appropriated my accident of birth in the same land they had the privilege of being born in?

Merriam-Webster also has another definition – proud of “someone you know or are related to”. Ah so that is why I am proud Indian. I am a proud Indian because I lived in the same land, by virtue of an accident of birth, as many stalwarts who were born here. Of course I have everything to be proud about! No matter that I do not have anything to show for myself, any achievement whatsoever, to be proud about. Let us complete the following sentence ... “I am proud because _______________.” I do not have an answer to that question yet. I am not yet done revelling in the reflected glory of basking in the brilliance of men and women gone by. Ergo, I am a proud Indian since I do not have anything substantial to say, “I am proud to be me”.

Now to the question of whether or not I am proud TO BE an Indian.

Again, we get into slippery territory here. I am proud that Silicon Valley and NASA, Apple and Microsoft, comprise largely of Indians. I am proud that Hotmail (do people even remember that?) was invented by an Indian. Or Java. Or the USB. But again, personally I do not having to be proud about.

When I say PROUD TO BE AN INDIAN, I should have the courage and strength of character to take the good with the bad. I like the diversity that India possesses, and I have to accept the filth on the streets. I like the strides India is making in space exploration, and I dislike the sheer poverty I see everywhere. I like the fact that more and more children (and girls) are going to school, yet I detest the fact that the girl child is aborted with frightening regularity. I like the swankness of the modern airports, yet I turn my eyes away when I see people defecating on railway tracks. I like the way companies from all over the world look to India to solve their backend (the BPO ones I mean, not what you might be thinking) issues, yet I shudder to learn that a majority of the population does not have access to clean drinking water.

Am I proud TO BE an Indian? Not wholeheartedly. When I walk down the streets and see a foreign tourist taking pictures of paan stained walls, I am ashamed to be an Indian. When I see a beggar on the street, I am ashamed to be an Indian. When I see little children carrying loads of bricks in a construction site, I am ashamed to be an Indian. When I learn that my driver gets paid more than a school teacher (who is grooming India’s future), I am ashamed to be an Indian. When I can get away by bribing the cop for jumping the light, I am ashamed to be an Indian. When I see an injured person lying unconscious on the street thanks to an accident and drive on by, I am ashamed to be an Indian.

To be a proud Indian I have to roll up my sleeves and do something about it. Till the time I am able to do that, in whatever humble way possible, I do not give myself the right to proclaim “I am a proud Indian.”

Only when I can do that, and everyone else in the country comes forward and does his or her bit, can one day we hope to collectively make the proclamation, “Proud to be an Indian.”

God bless India. Waiting for the day when God blesses me with the realisation that I am proud of my nation and my nationality.