Modi did not insult India. Indians need to ask what they should feel proud about

What did Narendra Modi say in Shanghai that deserved to trend as #ModiInsultsIndia on Twitter, worldwide? Self-flagellation on foreign soil is not considered kosher in India, though in this connected world, nothing is hidden from anyone. Modi said that Indians abroad believed that being born Indian was a curse.

That, obviously is quite harsh but let's face it, overall, he only sang praises for the motherland. However, that little bite led to a sudden discovery of national pride by even those who curse this country day and night. Pride can only come after we deal with the truth. Hence, some shaming is in order. What are we proud of exactly? Just being Indian? You cannot be proud of your luck. Being born in India makes one lucky because it's so diverse, in all possible ways. People, languages, land, faiths, hills, beaches, nature's bounty, everything is mesmerising in this land. The oft-touted pride has nothing to do with these.

The "#ProudToBeIndian" pride is hollow, meaningless and as vague as it can get. We have bettered our battered economic and strategic status, but is that all? As a people, as a society, and even as a nation, we continue to hide when we can't defend our casteism, communalism, corruption, superstition, misogyny and false pride.

Hollow

From adulterated infant milk to fake life-saving drugs, from gender-based abortions to dowry deaths, from discrimination based on caste to killings based on community, from love for littering to aversion for traffic rules, from giving bribes to taking, what can we be proud of? Pride is not about building the tallest statue or the largest dam. Pride is about values that a nation holds dear.

As I write this, news comes in that six women have been ostracised by a Panchayat for working in factories. Just 60km from Delhi, the idea of financially independent women threatens the social establishment. While we envy the economic leaps made by China and other Asian tigers, we tend to forget that the women there work with men.

Have a look. Go to their farms and factories and see the number of women there working alongside the men. Here, the denial of that opportunity begins in the womb. Which respectable person will allow this? We are changing, but the pace is pathetic.

Among the recent stories that went viral on the internet was one where two national-level sportspersons were found doing menial work. It said more about our attitude towards labourers than that towards our sportsmen. We, as a people, do not understand the dignity of labour. The classification of caste on the basis of work has been in our DNA. Which respectable country looks down upon people because of their field of work? This is more so in our so "backward" villages, where people are kept backward and poor by politicians and governments in the name of protecting farmers and agriculture. Even entrepreneurship is based on caste here.

Caste

Now look at caste and the progress that we have made. We should be ashamed of how we have dealt with this curse. Take, for example, caste names and how another benevolent idea with built-in malignancy has failed us.

Did we not make certain caste names officially an insult? Now imagine, a person from that caste filling in a government job application and seeking the quota s/he is entitled to. I am that what can't be said publicly, right? Look at how people themselves deal with this. Go to Punjab where the same people battled the social "stigma" by flaunting it. Putt Chamaran Da is a popular bumper sticker. They have rejected the loaded, club-'em-all-together euphemisms like Dalit and Harijan. But in another part of this great country, a Dalit had to wear a helmet to his wedding because riding a horse invited stone pelting.

What pride are we talking about?

The fear of the next communal riot keeps our towns and cities on tenterhooks. What kind of people go on a killing spree over rumours? Politicians of all proclivities stoke the fire. One invokes Modi, and the other, the fear of Modi. They do so because people vote on communal lines. We do not want to acknowledge the fact that the disease is now deep-rooted. A company just denied a job to a young Muslim graduate because it hires only non-Muslims. It's not always the politician, or the government.

We, the people, want to sing songs of harmony hoping nobody hears the cries of desperation. Look at Jammu and Kashmir. We refuse to acknowledge that Pakistan successfully communalised the dispute because the harmony was hardly there. The process was completed in the late '80s. More than three decades later, you will have pundits, including some Pandits, talking of Kashmiriyat and ignoring the jihadi streak as if it did not exist.

Because as a people, we are not honest about uncomfortable subjects, and comfortable with corruption. We were ravaged by invaders and foreign powers for centuries because our loyalty could be bought. We fought them and made sacrifices to become a democratic nation. A fabulous democracy one can be truly proud of. Now take a good look at our politics, the force that sustains a vibrant democracy. It is devoid of principles.

Corruption

Modi was not far off the mark when he spoke about the way the Congress party ruled India for decades, even if he did not name it. Not very long ago, people had to apply and wait to buy a scooter and often beg for political favours for a telephone connection. The rent-seeking system nor malaised corruption.

What did we as a people do? The few that could - migrated. Those who couldn't - took the garibi hatao kool-aid and slept through it. To rephrase George Carlin, if we removed corruption, this country would collapse - it had become so integral to the system. Arvind Kejriwal built a fantastic movement against corruption and then quickly erased all evidence for that self-same movement. It's not bureaucratic corruption that needs a movement.

It's the moral corruption of misogyny, retardation by religion, casteism and communalism that keeps our chest-beating as hollow as the hashtags.