Reflections on India

These are my reflections two days after leaving India. I appreciate hearing alternative views and feedback, and I apologize if anyone takes offence as none is intended.

India is magnificent, India is dreadful, India is exciting, India is scary, India is diverse, India is intolerant. A place of contrasts and unlike some other developing countries, it's not clear if there is a majority that have a vision we would recognise as modern. For sure, Hindu nationalists and bigots are in a minority, but through the BJP, they control the country. I don’t know if they directly or indirectly support the calls to the Supreme Court to rule that many mosques were built illegally on Hindu sites and should therefore be destroyed, but it does seem they do. We didn’t see any violence. We didn’t see any discrimination directly, but we did see that in Agra, a city with a long, proud, and famous Muslim history that only Hindu statues were allowed.
We did visit two areas where other religions dominate. The Punjab with the Sikhs and Nagaland, which is Christian. Now, I am not religious, but I could at least associate myself with most of the tenants and values of these religions. A religion that puts everyone in castes, on the other hand, is worse than my pet hate, namely royalty. It perpetuates privilege for some and poverty and lacks opportunity for others. Then there is the pure weirdness of 35,000 godlike characters and the holiness of cows that wander all over and defecate all over. I just don’t get it, and for me it’s a huge drag on any attempts to modernise, clean up, and make India a fairer place.
I should, of course, not pin all 8the blame for India’s problems on its current rulers, or even the rulers since independence. In Nagaland, we saw a clear example of how colonial arrogance, ignorance, and indifference have sowed the problems that still haunt the sub-continent today. On the day after the British Empire declared India independent, the Nagas (the indigenous people of Nagaland) declared independence, but that effort was crushed by the new Indian government. Also the British drew various arbitrary lines on paper to divide India, Pakistan, Bangladesh (then east Pakistan) and Burma, and as a consequence they separated many peoples in Nagaland by putting part of a community in India and the other half in Burma. Moreover, they incorporated Nagaland into India, which culturally had nothing whatsoever in common with India. Our guide Keja gets asked when he is in Dehli, what part of China he is from, and when he is in China, they speak Chinese to him even though he doesn’t understand a word. What a mess those glorious heroes of the British Empire made, including but not limited to the Queen’s uncle Viscount Mountbatten (the last Viceroy of India).
We, or more precisely, I made a mistake, in thinking we had to show the children India. I underestimated the health risks, and I overestimated the ability of simple oral medicines and electrolytes to overcome the tough gastro infections. We did show them India, but at times, in hindsight, the risks we took were too great. I will never forget my three nights on a couch in the hospital beside Lennox, worrying about him, or the 1st night with Oscar when he was not responsive, and said he couldn’t see anything even though his eyes were wide open. I wouldn’t do it again with young children. Not in India.
Back to the positives. Everywhere we went, we met very nice people, even if I would give soecial prause to Jaiman (Sikh) and Viktor and Keja (Christians) , and the hotel manager in Santosh (presumably Hindu) who made personal sacrifices and special efforts to make our stay smoother and more enjoyable. There were many more like the ladies giving us free bugs in the markets, the guide at the golden temple showing us around for free, and the boys in Delhi who would go out and get me a cold beer, that was not allowed on the hotel menu.
There was also the incredible experience of the NEA school near Delhi, where the management has such a warm nurturing philosophy, and where the teachers were clearly excellent at their job. Wow, if only such energy and enthusiasm were available to the same extent in Europe. That said, it was noticeable that in NEA, 2/3 of the pupils were boys, underlining the fact that Indian society still treats girls as unequal citizens, and this is not only the Hindus
I worry about India’s future. The lack of a modernising vision, and then repeating mistakes we made in Europe long ago, but which they are repeating. For example in the 1960’s across Europe, to cope with the post war baby boom, we build high rise apartment blocks, but these over time became places where the weakest in society landed and where the social cohesion broke down due to people not respecting norms (noise, rubbish, etc) or worse (theft, violence, drugs). In large parts of India with its population explosion, the solution is massive high-rise developments. Given that today, in India, much is dirty, grimy, poorly maintained, etc. one can easily imagine that these high rises quickly become undesirable dwellings.
Is there an upside I haven’t seen, or have you understated? Possibly. There is a growing and increasingly educated middle class. Maybe they can develop a vision and a movement that modernises the country, or maybe the BJP, with its power base in the countryside messes up so badly that people realise religious populism is just as bad as American, British or Brazilian populism. I guess at some point, one of these two will happen, but I doubt it is soon.En savoir plus