Do Indians Take Things Lying Down?

Has anyone heard of Francois Gautier? He is a respected journalist and has worked for various newspapers and magazines, including ones in India. He has several books to his name and they are all about his perspective on India. François is now the editor in chief of the Paris-based La Revue de l’Inde and a director of a book collection on India with the same publisher. François, along with his wife Namrita, is also the trustee founder of FACT – India, which does exhibitions and commissions films documenting Human Rights abuse in South Asia. 

Amongst them:

·       an exhibition on the persecuted minorities of Bangladesh

·       one on the plight of Kashmiri Pandits (which was shown to the US Congress in 2005)

·       and another one on the testimonies of the Mumbai train bombings of 2006.

He obviously knows what he’s talking about when he writes on India. Take the following article – Are Hindus Cowards? He wanted to make the point that Indians took things lying down. He spoke of Islamic militancy, Chinese bullying, the US not handing over the chap who master minded the Mumbai attacks, the Saudi Arabians giving shelter to Tiger Memon, the Kashmiri pundits... In Kashmir, the land of yogis, where Hindu sadhus and sages have meditated for 5000 years, Hindus have been chased out of their ancestral home by death, terror and intimidation: there were 25% of Hindus at the beginning of the century in the Kashmir valley… and hardly a handful today.

All of the above is definitely part of our history. It is something we know for a fact but Gautier suggests we prefer not to acknowledge it out loud. Our politicians don’t either. It is almost as if we are browbeaten and cowed into silence. And that makes us cowards. The only confusion I had was whether in the article he sometimes meant Indians instead of Hindus.

On going over my response to his article I now feel it simply proved his point even further. I spoke of individual freedom - the ability to think and decide for oneself - and the fact that more Indians are able to exercise that freedom than our Muslim counterparts.  

To be honest I believe this is only part of the solution. Why do we Indians generally prefer not to talk of the aggression committed by others on us? Why do we feel we shouldn't mention such things? I think it isn’t cowardice. It is the fact that we don’t have the stomach for a spat. We know that the others will start arguing and defending their actions loudly; that a war of words might ensue; that we don’t want to appear uncivil or to stir up a wasp’s nest. And perhaps, this war of words might escalate into something bigger. That is enough to subdue us. 

Is that cowardice? Or is that a desire for peace at any cost? 

Can we not have that peace if we state things as they are? As they happened? Or are we afraid that the others who we argue with won’t let us move on? That there will be some other, indirect, vengeful consequences? That, in order to win an argument we might get caught up in some bigger undefined threat?

Till we try learning to stand up to bullies and to state indisputable facts, perhaps quietly and civilly, we will never find out. We won’t be able to move on. And others will continue to play their little (or huge) games with us. 

What is heartening is that at least we’ve started speaking out against the wrong doings of our own politicians. Their appeal to our finer senses while ignoring their own lack thereof doesn’t work anymore. Their final trump card that we are being disloyal to India by speaking out against their individual excesses doesn't fool us anymore. That seems to us like the fudging of issues. They are not India. We all are. They are our representatives. Where is their loyalty to India and to us when they commit their excesses like dipping into the Indian treasury, indulging in bribery, corruption, land grabs etc is what we'd like to know. 

Change is definitely in the air. Wonder how Indians will vote in the 2014 elections. As Manu Joseph rightly said, All Indians, including voters, lament that corruption is destroying the nation, but again and again they return the corrupt to power. Wonder if we will have the guts to give the non-corrupt a chance this time.

Note: On Gautier’s blog the comments section deteriorated into a spat. Both arguers were right in their own way but each dug in, indulged in a lot of name-calling and refused to see the other’s point of view. What could have been a mature exchange of views became childish. We have a lot to learn about arguing civilly and effectively to arrive at a satisfying conclusion – to take the best from each point made and move on. 

Here's the link to the post on Gautier's blog again.

Nothing is ever black and white. For shades of grey read the comments, some measured, after the following post that outlines a few episodes where India could've reacted more strongly and a few examples of how other countries have behaved in the face of muscle flexing bullies. India never had guts; so will never be glorious