Things I hate about India

Before you start sending me hate mails after just reading the title of this hub, let me make it very clear that I am also an India and no less patriotic than anybody else. I love my country and I am very proud of being an India. However being an Indian its my duty to find the shortcomings in society of India, its culture and its people so that we can collectively correct that and make this a better country for our future generation. The list I am going to produce is not about little problems, but these are the problems which have kept us from progressing from a third world to a developed one. These are the iron chain in the legs of every Indian who want to sprint and catch the rest of the the world.

I just don't want you to read this list and move on. I want you to think about it, find a solution and fix it.  So here goes the list of 10 things I hate about India..

1. Corruption

This is the biggest curse to this country which is wiping out all the hard work of common man. From being a part of the system in 60's and 70's, it has become the system now. Everyone starting from politician to a peon is corrupt.

Everyone blames other of being corrupt but they themselves don't miss any chances of taking bribes. It started when we were blindly following the communism in our early days of independence with tight regulation, red tape ism and license raj. However now it has spread it roots so deeply in the society that even though we are now more open economically corruption is getting bigger and bigger. Recent 2G, common wealth scams and lot others are so big that they are comparable to GDP of some small countries. Billions and billions are money are being looted in daylight and we have now simply stopped reacting. It may be deep rooted in our society but if we don't find a solution to this problem soon then it will not take much for us of being slaves again.

2. Deep rooted casteism

India with largely Hindu population is plagued with deep rooted casteism which has been a part of society for more than 5000 years. Hinduism is one of the most beautiful religion on this earth and I feel proud of being a Hindu. However as all other religions, Hinduism is is also not free of its shortcomings.

 Hinduism broadly divide people into broadly 4 categories based on the work they do. Brahmin does all the worshiping, teaching and rituals, Kshatriya were warriors, Vaishya were merchants and Shoodra were people who used to serve others. But these divisions were never meant to discriminate anyone. However these divisions got more finer and finer, Shoodras got discriminates and exploited and Indian society were a mess till we got independence. In current day modern Indian society, that discrimination and exploitation has not almost gone, but the caste divide is as strong as it was before. Modern day politicians use this caste divide to rule us and hide their ill doings. For example, even a most educated person will not vote for a honest person if he is from different caste but will vote for most corrupt person from his caste. Election tickets are not distributed based on competencies but on caste equations. From marriages to elections to friendships, everything is based on caste. Unless this casteism is uprooted from its very base, a real growth in terms of social equality and harmony cannot happens

3. Regionalism and Languagism

India is a country full of diversity comprising many religions, culture and hundreds of languages and dialects. In some way it is good for the country but in current scenarios its proving to be more harmful and giving any benefits. We talk about unity in diversity but that unity is nowhere to see. As if caste divide was not enough, regionalism and langaugism are also adding to the misery of Indian unity. I will give you an example of how it works. A person from Maharashtra will hate a person from North Indian especially from Uttar Pradesh or Bihar. This same person will hate a person from Maharashtra itself if this person is Maratha and the other person is Brahmin. And the same person will also hate another Maratha if this person is from Mumbai and the other Maratha is from Nagpur because Mumbai generate most of the taxes which gets distributed among the whole state and the divide goes on. The list of diving factor goes on and on. Non Hindi speaking states don't consider Hindi as their national language but they don't respect other regional language as well. and if you mix politics into it then the mud gets more murkier. Tamil Nadu is a classical example of that where hating Hindi is a political status.

4. Soft Target Image

India is probably one of the few countries which never invaded any other countries but were itself invaded hundreds of time. We were ruled my Moguls for 1000 years and then by Britishers for another 200 years. Even after independence, Pakistan attacked us 4 times (49, 65, 71 and Kargil) and China in 62. Its hard to imagine a country like Pakistan which had no real army and no money at all captured one third of Kashmir in 1949 and they kept attacking us after every 15-20 years. We had terrorist attack on Parliament and then on Mumbai and still we didn't fire a single bullet even though we know who has done it. Whats the use of having nuclear bombs and missile. Its looks like Pakistan is using the threat of its nuclear bombs better than India and they do these nuclear attack every now and then and are assured that India will do nothing fearing a nuclear war. Can Indian politician answer how they punished Pakistan for planning such a bloody attack on our financial capital. Last time I heard was that Pakistan is yet to start court cases against the suspect picked up. The conclusion is that we are a very soft country and we have no self respect left for ourselves. These attacks are not the last on our country and there will be many more unless we shed this soft traget image.

5. Sense of Laziness in our attitude

We all remember how Japan was totally destroyed after the World war 2 and we also know how it gathered itself from the ashes of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and established itself as the world's second largest economy within 30 years. Till 1980, China and India were at the same start line of economic state and looks how far China have left India. And the examples are countless, from Singapore to South Korea to Taiwan and Malaysia. All these countries except China are much smaller in size, less fertile land much smaller populations. Only reason why they have moved past us is that they have worked hard and harder to make sure that their future generation will not face the hardship that they have faced. While our people were taking a nap in offices, they were working day and night to build their nation. I currently work for a leading bank in United Kingdom. Even a country like Uk where they have all the luxury, peple come to office at sharp 9 AM and work without taking break till 5 PM and leave. On the other hand, people from my company come at 10 AM, keep working till 9 PM but 10 breaks in between and then complain of overwork. What I mean to say is that we as a nation are not doing enough to make ourselves competitive against Chinese, Korean or Japanese. If we want to see our country at the top we have to work like Japanese where CEO of a company comes first and goes last.

6. Lack Of Vision

When Germany was defeated and humiliated in first world war, it decided to take revenge and by the start of Second World War, it reestablished itself as the strongest nation at that time and then almost captured whole of Europe. Whatever Nazis did was good or bad is a different topic for debate. Even after second world war, Germany was again razed to the ground and divided into 2 parts. It again reunited and became a developed nations and world leader in machinery. When Japan was totally destroyed after Second World War, it raised again to become a economic superpower and first developed nation in Asia. How were they able to do it? Answer lie in the fact that they knew what they have to do. They had their vision. Germany had the vision to be strongest nation in the world. Japan wanted to become economically strong. China wants to be the number 1 superpower. What do we want to do? What is our vision? Unless the masses don't know in which direction they have to move, what is their aim, what they have to achieve you cannot expect that nation to progress. People running this country need to give some sort of targets to achieve in short and long term duration. In fact the country vision should be a mandatory part and input to any plan we make in this country. Every single or big decision should be made considering how it will help to achieve the country's vision. Remember the Gandhi's Talisman that we read in our text book in schools. This vision should be used as that talisman to guide people as well as government in the right direction.

7. Following than creating own path

Gautam Buddha was a Prince with a palace, a beautiful wife and a country to rule over. He could have followed what his ancestors had done and live his life peacefully. Yet he choose to follow a new path which he didn't know about. He found his knowledge under the Bodhi tree and created a new religion Buddhism which is followed by more than 1 billion people over the world. Subhash Chandra Bose could have followed the path of Gandhi as he was a part of Congress, yet he chose to walk on a new track and founded Forward block. If he would have not died, he could have probably freed India before 1947 and we could have been living in a different world. There have been hundreds of examples in Indian history where people have chosen an entirely different path and rewritten history. Why cant we have people like them in modern India. Why we always look toward others to lead us. In our population of more than 1.3 billion people, if we can have just one percent of leaders who can create new paths, new ideologies and new thinking to follow, we can have more than 2 millions such leaders. If India have to make its own position in the world, it will need its people to think differently from rest of world. Its time not to follow but make your own way and this can not be possible till India have not just a handful of leaders but hundreds and thousands of them.

If you are not happy with one political party then instead of giving vote to another party which is just slightly less corrupt, start a new party and fight election. Give more option to the people to chose leaders from. Instead of working for Mukesh or Anil Ambani, create your won Reliance. Write your own book, start your own banks, bring another white and green revolution, produce your own electricity and write your own future. Instead of waiting for someone else to do something for you and then blaming them later for not doing those things, do it yourselves. In the process of doing so, you will rewrite the future of India.

8. Worshiping Human more than God

India is a land of millions and billions of God and Goddesses, hundreds of religions and followings. Yet, we have time and capacity to worship human beings as God. Some people in Rajasthan are building a temple of Vasudhara Raje for worshiping. They have already created an Goddess like idol of hers. Although it yet to be found if she have any feature like goddess or even a feature of common human being. Dalits worship Mayawati even knowing she would give a tough fight to even the most corrupt politicians for being the epitome of corruption. Same is the cases with other politicians like Karunanidhi, Jayalalithaa, Lalu yadav and so on. Its just not the politicians, people even worship Cinema actors like Amitabh Bachhan, Rajnikanth and cricketers like Sachin Tendulkar. These people may have done a great job in their fields but they have been suitably rewarded for what they have done. Why is the need of worshiping them like God? If we slightly go deeper, we may find the answer in history of India. Indians have always been forced willingly or unwillingly to worship or to see kings like God like figure. From Raja Raja of Cholas to Kushans and from Ashoka to Akbar, all of them were either seen as God or God like creatures on Earth. But these people I mentioned were from the golden age of India where the common mass was happy and content. But today's era is no golden age then why are we still following the same tradition? Its something hard to answer and I am still searching an answer to that

9. Always satisfied with what we have

Somnath temple in Kathiawad of Gujrat was the richest temple in the world in around 850 AD. It was looted several times by Mahmud Gazni and its generals. Not only they looted the temple, they destroyed the whole regions, killed people and took Hindu women with them. And this was mot done once, twice but several times. Its not just one story, India was invaded thousands of time by Mougals and European countries. India must be the only country in the world with all its richness, powerful kings and great army but never ever invaded any part of the world. We were always content with what we had. We always worked hard to create wealth to be looted by some one else. We always have forgiven others for whatever they did to us. At the golden period of Indian history, India used to control more than 25 percent of world's trade, now we have less than 1 percent. Yet we are satisfied. Our politicians loots us everyday in tune of billions and billions of rupees, yet we are satisfied. Nobody want to speak a word as we have accepted this as our faith. If Thomas Addison would have been satisfied with the oil lamp, we still would have been reading this hub under an oil lamp and not the fluorescent light . If Alexander Graham Bell would have been satisfied with letters and wire, then I had to write this hub on a paper sheet and post to all of you as there would be no telephone and no internet. So if you want to revive the golden era of India, you want to live a life as people lived in time of Chaddragupt, Ashoka and Raja Raja, then don't be satisfied. Go and conquer the whole world no matter what path you may have to follow because people remember Alexander the Great as a king who ruled the world but not how he conquered it. If Romans, Mougals and Europeans had their time, then it should be our time. Don't be satisfied!!!!!!!!

10. The way we got our Independence

While writing this hub, I was confused where should I put this point. I wanted to put it on the top but the decided to put this last not because it is the least priority thing I hate about India, my country, but this is something which is a summary of all the problems which our country is facing. I personally just hate the way we got our independence. Looks at the condition of a country when you get independence by begging and when the ruler give it to you because he is tired of beating you. We as a country are so used to be slaves that we have forgotten how to raise our voice. If you want to see the example, look at how United States got their independence. They didn't get it, but they snatched it by beating the hell out of British. Look at the great revolutions of countries in Europe like France, Germany and Russia. People in these countries know what is the meaning of independence because they have earned it and they will not allow any politicians to ruin it because when you earn something by violence, you know its value. If you have shed blood to to earn it then definitely you will shed blood to protect it. But when you are given independence by some one else as the case with our country, then people don't understand the value of it. Look the way politicians are looting our country but we are silent because we are so used to it for more than 1000 years. We were slaves and we will be slaves until we rise do something to protect our motherland.

I personally believe, if we had got our independence not by following Gandhi but by following Netaji Subhash, then not only we could have got our independence earlier but we must have known its value. I also have a great respect for Gandhi ji as he was honest about his thoughts and intentions, but perhaps he thought that next generations of politicians will be as honest as he was. But that didn't happen, and we are now at a place where now we need independence from out own elected politicians. Honestly current situation is not as bad as you might deduce from this hub as we economically growing at a pace of 9-10% per year which is among the highest in the world. However the rate of corruption and inflation is also growing at the same rate. And economically not everyone is growing at the same pace. High economic growth in only for the upper 10% of the population. For the 50% of population which is below poverty line, inflation rate is higher is what they are earning. That means, they are getting poor and poor and rich are getting richer. And if the corruption goes at the same rate then that would means the government will not do sufficient to keep the disparity at manageable rate and one day the fuse will go off. And on that day, same thing will happen in India which is now happening in middle east, public revolt. I might be going too much over the line, but who knows.. I will be happy if nothing of that sort happens which I have written above. But to prevent any possibility of happening such things, we have to do something. From 'We', I means all the young, educated, middle class and all those people who have brains to think and off course all those patriotic people who love mother India and want to do something for our beloved country. Elect correct leaders and if there are none, then yourselves join politics. Don't let corruptions happen near you, support the weaker section of society, stop believing in castism and any kind of religions differences. Save more that you earn, pay taxes, be honest with whatever work you do. Every single act of yourself can make a difference.

Conclusion...........

Conclusion is that India need us more that it ever needed. We as a citizen have same responsibilities towards the country as politicians have. If they are corrupt then we are more responsible then them because we elect them. If we have terrorist attacks in our cities then we are responsible because we are not able to protect ourselves. If a farmer does suicide in Maharastra or Andhra Pradesh then again we are responsible as we have not been able to get farmers their value for their crops and hard work. Anything which happens to our country, good or bad, we are only responsible for that.

So instead of blaming others, we have to start taking responsibilities and fix the problem. Always remember one thing that we cannot ever change our past as past is not in our hands. But we can always change our future and we are responsible of our future and we have the capacity and right to change our future