Why I secretly revere China ?

If you take a walk around the bustling and crowded market of Bhagirath Place in the old part of Delhi , you find that there is no dearth of ‘ Made in China ‘ goods . This is fine by me as we enjoy open trading policies with China . What isn’t fathomable is the yearn for such goods by the typical middle class Indians whose loyalties to their profit centric businesses remain paramount even in the wake of our military’s sporadic skirmishes along the Indo- China border . For any patriotic Indian , it is prudent to boycott their goods completely thus wiping out their businesses , and shutting the doors on them for any economic or trade relations .

But unfortunately this is not the case as patriotism in India is only limited to few public holidays where the typical Indian would sport a tricolor striped tee or decorate the dashboard of his Japanese or Korean car with a miniature plastic flag. These people are so immersed in their daily grind , so micro-optimised along with their families and friends that they have lost the aptitude to think beyond the bigger scheme of things . The idea of India for them is limited to saying 'Namaste' or talking about 'Chicken Tikka' or in more general terms ‘Cricket’ and ‘Bollywood ‘ .

The other day I was chatting with my friend over a cup of coffee discussing as to how China is turning out to be a far bigger threat to India’s security than Pakistan or Bangladesh .Though we mutually disagreed with many things, we still believed that our country under its present political leadership is quite capable of handling this very fragile and tense situation looming over our international borders .It has got the spine and courage to deal with the present situation through diplomacy or action .

But things aren’t looking that easy for India . China’s expansionist policies are quite evident with its repetitive incursion in the Indian territories , colluding with Pakistan to surround India and developing a complete infrastructure to build a corridor to connect the middle eastern frontiers to boost trade & accessibility , bypassing India .

Its antics in the South China sea has even drawn superpowers like US and Japan to the region. Thanks to  President Xi JinPing whose hardline and nationalist orientation are enough to challenge the western supremacy and interests in the region.

Let me bring the way China handled its north western province of Xinjiang . Well Xinjiang is a case in point . It is supposedly China’s own Kashmir fraught with Islamic insurgency and a disturbed past but has been dealt with an iron hand by Beijing . Xinjiang like Kashmir is a muslim dominated region in the north west of China bordering India near north of Ladhak . In 1949 when the Soviet backed Uigher rebels were defeated by the Chinese forces , the Uigher muslims made up around 73% of its 5 million people which reduced to around 45%  ( of the total 21 million ) as per the 2015 estimates . Out of the remaining , the native Chinese , ( Han Chinese ) formed 41% of its total population. Needless to say, China adopted an inclusive approach ; development strategy wrapped in its military might to transform the religious and political demography of Xinjiang while simultaneously dealing with islamic insurgency there .

China didn’t rely merely on its forces to disrupt this balance, it actually moved its Han population into the Xinjiang province in order to maintain the right balance and preserve the  unified grand narrative of China. Such diplomacy and farsightedness exhibited by China  is definitely worthy of admiration .

Now let us bring ourselves back to India and particularly to the northern state of Haryana . It is indeed shameful for a civilization as culturally rich and ancient as ours , that a self styled godman held the entire country as the hostage , causing inexplicable damage to life and property .I fail to understand how the state government allowed the thousands of supporters of Saint Gurmeet Ram Rahim congregate at one place which was the main reason for the widespread arson and looting . Clearly its is the lack of determination and political will by the State administration to deal with the situation .  

I’ve full faith in how our leaders have and will deal the present socio-political situation brewing in our country . But to my mind , its too late to clear the malaise our society has been inflicted with and set things right for good . Our culture is one of the oldest , much older than others but in reality we are continuously shrinking in size . A thousand years ago India extended from Afghanistan to Bali including Tibet and areas of Myanmar .But today we’ve been reduced to just 20 percent of our original size . This should be of concern for every common man in India let alone the politicians .  The idea of India has been fiddled around with all this while by the politicians , corporates and society in general for their own ulterior motives at the expense of our rich civilization . It is a challenge to even keep together whatever we are left with . Much of it is attributed to often misinterpreted open and secular tenets of ‘Hinduism’ .In reality it should have been accredited to the lack of expansionist ideology, little or no knowledge of foreign cultures and a confused notion of ‘India’ as a single unified entity .

Sadly this situation hasn’t changed much today . The intellectuals and the media in collusion with the political class have left no stone unturned to downplay the concept of unified India and malign its adherence to the ‘Dharmic culture’ which in reality forms the core of our society. The outright rejection of the govt policies by the millennials and Gen Z today is equally alarming . What happened at Delhi’s Jawaharlal Nehru University last year was quite shocking and painful for any patriotic Indian . How fluently the idea of a unified India was rejected by these so called students adhering to a particular ideology amidst the harsh anti-national slogans should be of highest concern to the security agencies.  Elsewhere , the blatant and shameless support to the Islamists by the communist and pseudo secular parties mainly in the states of Bengal & Kerela at the expense of India’s majoritarian community is a perfect tribute to the ' Breaking India ' forces . This according to me would prove to be a far bigger challenge for India to deal with in future than eduction , economy or securing international borders .

I love my country but would always question its seriousness to deal with its internal disputes with an iron hand lest it displeases its minorities and religious groups. And this is the very reason I continue to gaze at my dragon-tailed neighbors with utmost respect and reverence as they know how to deal with its internal problems, safeguard its culture in the so called globalized world and keep its borders secured from any possible foreign invasion .

 

 All views expressed are personal                                                                                                                                              20170827

The so-called modern Indian youth

Sometimes I wonder how much digital content  per day one needs . The way these mobile gadgets get marketed today , it seems that the corporates expect one to use them all the time. While walking, commuting , waiting at the bus stop, eating , drinking , at work and so on and so forth. This implies that during this time one has disassociated from the immediate environment and slipped into one’s own world, the superficial plasticy world which is driving and controlling one’s train of  thoughts . May be that is a way for many to work and communicate , but I feel it is a way to flaunt for many others. Showing off that one is fashionable and happening, one will blindly imbibe how and what others do. If donning a mobile tablet  is a fashion statement then there is no end to this never-ending maze. The branded sunglasses, the best bejeweled swiss watch, expensive french clothing and so on would join the list . It implies that our life is so much driven by consumerism and has become object oriented that we as an individual have been rendered as just the promoters of these product. It is quite surprising that today it is considered fashionable to have coke with burger for a meal or sending a whatsapp message instead of  having a meaningful conversation. The modern youth of today are totally unaware of the pleasure they can get by being with the silence of nature, the chirping of birds,  feeding or caring for animals, immersing in any form of art , reading books and so on .There is far more inner joy and tranquility one can achieve by respecting nature , its constituents and its ways . But sadly they are more concerned with the gigabyte space in their mobile phones or the wattage of  speakers and woofers installed in their homes, pubs or their awfully customized cars. Their disassociation with society and more proximity with the artificial world and material needs ultimately lead them to become arrogant, mean and entirely destitute of magnanimity .

Today for the youth , the idea of communicating without facebook or whatsapp is unthinkable , but they seem to ignore the independence movement led by Mahatma Gandhi , who mobilised the entire nation to boycott foreign products and sacrifice their riches , without posting a single tweet or sharing any content with his possible facebook 'friends' .The inspirational icons for the youth of today in general are supplied by the bollywood  or the cricket fraternity who are the perfect tools to be leveraged by these corporations to promote and sell their products. Under the pretext of greatness and hero-worship, they get conveniently satisfied by the consumption of overblown but trivial content and stupefied with their hard-earned monies.  They would never bother to look back at our history and make an attempt to learn the heroism of icons like  Shivaji, who began his military expeditions when he was just 17 and challenged the might of  Mughals by his intelligent warfare and valor. Or Guru Gobind Singh, a young sikh who built a fiery youth army , the Khalsa, when he was just 33, and defended the nation from the wrath of muslim invaders from the  North West. 

 
It is really saddening how an old and culturally rich civilisation like ours has been so easily run over by the superficiality of the material possessions  . I feel that the modern youth should introspect and find the real purpose of their lives rather than getting influenced by the marketing gimmicks propogated by these revenue driven companies and eventually enslaving themselves by their tireless and vicious cycle of consumption patterns.  There is a lot for them to learn if they anchor themselves in our culture ,  literature , history , traditional customs which are still relevant even today without being carried away by foreign influences. In the end we all should celebrate what we have been endowed with in the present context rather than yearn for something that is not meant for us and create uncalled for aspirations , desires and eventually an imbalance in our society.