Friday, December 2, 2011

Corbett's India

"In my India, the India I know, there are four hundred million people, ninety percent of whom are simple, honest, brave, loyal, hard-working souls whose daily prayer to God, and to whatever Government is in power, is to give them security of life and of property to enable them to enjoy the fruits of their labours."

"...and when Hindu, Mohammedan, Depressed Class, and Christian could live, work, and play together in perfect harmony. As could be done today IF (emphasis mine) agitators were eliminated, for the poor of India have no enmity against each other."

"Those who visit India for pleasure or profit never come in contact with the real Indian - the Indian whose loyalty and devotion alone made it possible for a handful of men to administer, for close on two hundred years, a vast subcontinent with its teeming millions."

-Corbett, Jim "My India" OUP India.

This comes from a man spent most of his life among the admittedly poor often described as 'India's starving millions.' And, a person who once himself was reduced to a chapatti and dal existence.

Why do modern Indians want to "forget" this India? The qualities described above are the same ones required to make a great nation, both culturally and technologically. Do we need to look elsewhere for so called "progress"? Or, do we simply need to look within ourselves and listen to our soul?

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