India: A Wounded Ego

 

The above video clip shows a group of villagers attacking an electric transformer because a cow was electrocuted. The incident took place in Madhya Pradesh. The cow is a holy creature in present India. So the death of one of them may have disastrous consequences. In this case, there were other reasons too. The villagers were frustrated by longstanding infrastructure negligence and previous unaddressed complaints about the hazardous wiring.

Seeing the video, a friend of mine raised a question: “How to decipher this national anomaly?” My instant response was that the masses have no brain. As Ayn Rand said, there is nothing called a group brain. The mob is a leviathan driven by instincts and impulses. Right now, the Indian right-wing is moved by one instinct only: hatred of the Other. And it has all the blessings of the ruling dispensation.

India: A Wounded Ego

From Muhammad bin Qasim to Aurangzeb, the Muslim dynasties ruled over India for about 700 years. The British controlled the country for about 200 years. For a population as vast as India's, centuries of continuous foreign rule left a deep and lasting imprint on the collective national psyche. The scars still linger. Some of them seem to be festering too. Hence the anger towards Muslims and Christians even today.

V S Naipaul called India a “wounded civilisation” in his 1977 book of the same title. He argued that repeated defeat crippled India’s intellectual, artistic, and institutional vitality, leading to a state of creative stagnation and intellectual passivity. I think a “wounded ego” is a better description of present India.

Under Narendra Modi, whose ego is gargantuan, India is erasing parts of history it doesn’t want to remember or vilifying certain characters for the same reason. Naipaul’s conclusion is valid, however. India was trapped between a defensively glorified past and an unassimilated modern present, he argued. He went on to say that true regeneration could not come from romanticising ancient traditions, but through an honest, unblinking confrontation with its historical traumas and internal social flaws.

This is just what India is refusing to do consistently under Modi’s leadership. It is still keeping its gaze fixed on a glorified ancient past. Go through the new textbooks of NCERT and you will be stunned by the obsession with the past. Such obsession destroys a nation in the long run. We need to look at the present with clear vision and goals.

Image by Gemini AI

Where to go from here?

India has to do almost everything differently if it is to move forward. Replace revisionism with critical thinking, to start with. Take a sincere look at Article 51A(h) of the Constitution, which makes it a duty to develop a “scientific temper, humanism, and the spirit of inquiry and reform.” Prioritize STEM, vocational training, and critical research skills.

Institutional integrity is an area that demands urgent attention. Every institution without exception has been corrupted or perverted. Bring back a semblance of honesty to them. Contain hate speech, mob violence, vigilante groups, and radicalisation.

Promote inclusive urban planning and housing policies that discourage ghettoisation of religious minorities. Foster everyday interaction across social boundaries. Create grassroots economic programmes, cooperatives, and trade networks that depend on intercommunity collaboration.

Most importantly, perhaps, shift public pride from static historical dominance towards tangible present achievements such as poverty reduction, scientific advancements, environmental stewardship, and public health improvements.

This may sound like a moral science lecture delivered by an obsolete man. If there are other, better or easier, ways to make India great again, do let me know in the comment space below. There’s no word limit to comments here.