Analysing India

A foreigner's point of view on the country's sometimes baffling contradictions and interesting quirks

It's strange bow important: natio n al id entity is to us humans. Despite being an artificial construct, nati o n ality bolds a special place in many people's hearts.

Austr alian writers can c riti c ize Australia as much as d1ey like, but whe n a foreign jomnalist friend recen tly penned an arti cle abo ut Melbou rne's public transport system, d1e respo n se was pure vi tr io l Th e respondents, all Australian, appeared to have been personally offe n ded by her ra d1er honest a nd constructive thoughts. In his book Tbe Clash of Civilisatio11s, political scientis t Sa m uel P. Huntington claimed t hat wid1 me wars of tribes and ideologies ove r, culmral ide nti ty is me most na niral and obvious po int behin d which people will rally I r is with moderate trepidation merefore drn t I begin thi s m ontb's piece, covering m y o b servations of t he Indian psyc he.

T he longer I spend in India, t he m o r e I begin to n otice m e subde national quir ks which m ake Indians who d1ey are. While lndians may n ot realise it , these seem to ba:ve profound effects on the country and the way mat it functions. My first observatio n is the very common juxtap osition of national pride and self- loa thing. l ationalism has swelled in India in recent decades, and al mough the country has always been a very p ro ud nation, th e patriotism shown in the past ten years suggests dus i s on me incr ease 1n fac t, accordin g to man y p eop le who I meet, lndia is me best country in the world. However, I'm often left wondering ju s t how good it is whe n those same peop le ask me to help them m igrate to i\ustralia.

W hich leads me to my sec ond observation; m at a majority of Indian people are in a so r t o f unequal relatio n s h ip with foreign countries, particularly Britain, J\.merica and the Arab Gulf states. With all the iss u es that plague Indian society, life in tbe West can be particu larly seductive, and as a result a large section o f so ciety see m s to iliink mat alth ough l\fother I n dia is home, d1e West is so m eh ow basically 'be tter'. Bollywood must share much of the blame for this, for it s productions n early always present a san i tized version o f li fe in the \XTest, overl ooking actua l issues as soc ial isolatio n, alcohol- fuelled street crime and the sexuali,ing of children Equall y, many :Muslims on me subcontinent h ave an alm ost unfalter ing adn.uration fo r Arabs as the gatekeepers o f ] slam Thar respect is n't returned in Gulf Arab sta tes, wh ere many locals treat Indians wim contempt, and see Soud1 Asian Musli m s as being 'not proper !vfuslims' - a sentiment w hich in fact viola tes th e Qur'an's egalitarian values ] won der if this partial inferiority complex i s d1e legacy of hisroric events. Is the sp ecial r espect of India n s for Arabia and ilie West a hangover fro m the days of t he Mugh al and British administrations, whe n one was fo rced to respect Muslims o r Britain ?

\Xlhat results is a reali ty gap whic h manifests itself in perceptio n s of India and foreign nations At home, some Indians are inclined to believe dungs which might not b e accurate, but which compensate for a perceived inferiority " Buddha was born in. India", "India's Kanch e n junga is the highest mountain in die world", and "India bas me s trongest military in me world" are just a few exan1ples. Meanwhile d1ese sa me people set d1eir sigh t s o n the ' b etter' abroad - and often s till believe d1e filmi stereotypes about money, g irl s and success in th e West. A strange contradiction eme rges, where otherwise patriotic Indians di smiss attractions as being 'too poor' or 'too low ly', si m pl y be cause d1ey're in India - when in actual fact, mere's nothing wro ng wim said attraction At d1e extreme end of th is spectrum, we see tbe c ontradiction in some N Ris w ho will scrub commodes in me \ ':v'est to make ends meet, bm won't d rive through perfectly fine su b urb s in India b e cause " it's dirty'' Apparen tly, Indian dirt is worse that Western dirt.

The positive s ide of India's reali ty gap is mat Indian so ci ety remains less cy nical that soc iety Th e belief mat a dream m ig h t come true still exists in many Ind ians, no matter how ma n y beatings that dream m ay take. Lots of studen ts graduating from school actually believe tha t d1ey will o n e day be r ich beyo nd d1eir wild est dreams If they graduated in d1e West, a large section of soc ie t y would pull d1em aside and tell that mat n o matter how hard mey work, some people ju st never make it. Lots of Indian s seem to believe m at love, in the end , will trium ph - in the West, it is commonly held that onl y the lucky o n es stick together. Wh en d1e D elh i Metro opened a co u p le of years ago, hearts thumped w i m pride. The sam e project in A u stralia W(mld have been torn apar t by a society fed up with b roken political promises.

Nationalism has swelled in India in recent decades.

D espite the constandy b roken promises of t heir government, an d despite often co m plaining about w bat:'s wrong wi th their country, for better or for worse, Indians are still a h opeful bunch.

I sincerely hope m y time in Jodia ha s rubbed off on m e, a n d ma de m e m ore Indian in mis respec t

So I h ope tha t I haven't offen ded anyo n e, o r cur roo close to rbe bo n e. Mor eover, I hope d1at t h is is n ot interpreted as an attack on Indians or Indian values - it is simply a recount o f my observation s L1dia is a co m p lex being, a n d as such psychoanalysing he r is a h azardous task. An d as for a p syc hoanal ysis o f A u stralian soc ie ty? D on't get me started