There is dwindling moral strength in a large composition of India’s politicians and population to put the state before self.  How many in the current disposition can be promoted as statesmen?  But, is that all that is wrong with us?  If we do hypothetically manage to reverse the order and put country before party politics and vested interests of all hues, then can this degeneration be stemmed?

I would say “no”.

There is hypocrisy typical of us Indians, wanting alleviation in our upbringing and training, thus denying us true and lasting achievement in every sphere.  Let us not react and roll off a string of Indian notables and their deeds and other socio-economic, military or political done-its in history. They are an insignificant clutter in mailboxes sometimes of the year. This is a land which has been conquered and reconquered several times in it’s recent history and our present national status is a little more than half a century.  Our loyalties and affiliations are of an impermanence born of ingratitude.  This tells on performance, and performance as a percentage of the nation’s population (where parameters like poverty, literacy or religion should be no yardstick) can give you the true picture.

This is a land of losers vis-à-vis the size of the populace.

We just don’t seem to understand what’s good for us.  We have the typical “What’s good for you may not be OK for me” attitude.  Do we understand that democracy is about the greatest good of the greatest numbers?  If not, then we shall remain a pseudo-democracy where militancy and later terrorism shall soon be projected as “vibrancy” in the political blind spot.  We have already made mistakes like linguistic states, religion specific personal laws, reservations on the lines of caste, tribe and community and our politicians have spent the taxpayer’s money on religious and other institutions which are of no historic or national significance, besides, giving freebies from the state coffers to pressure groups.

Being hypocrites, we quote history to serve our own purposes.  But to be a hypocrite you must not nurture gratitude.  That is why – knowing full well otherwise – we do not publicly acknowledge the positive fallout of British Imperialism in Indian history and nation building, yet we have taken the Mughal Empire to be one of our own.  This mistake together with it's modernized transformations today shall cost the nation dearly in the years to come.  We Indians are being destroyed for our lack of gratitude and scant regard for history. School text-books may be doctored at will to warp impressionable minds, but, history can mercilessly change the course of the nation including it’s territorial integrity.  And, since the nation is not together in spirit – which is owing to our past and continuing mistakes, we may yet live to see an India territorially limited to the Indo-Gangetic plain and the Deccan.

You may choose to move to the states in this region should you want your children and future generations to remain Indian - but then as they say – history repeats itself.

Jai Hind !