Indian Independence Day

Tomorrow is August 15th, India's Independence Day. I remember Independence Day well from when I lived in India. In school, we hoisted the flag, sang patriotic songs, listened to serious speeches about our responsibilities towards our country and marched past the Indian flag. We also ate some awesome laddoos! Now I live in Washington DC, where there are a few serious events celebrating this day (flag hoisting at the Indian embassy, for example) and a few not-so-serious events, like Bollywood Night at a local club!

Whether you live in India, or the US, or anywhere for that matter, it seems to me that it is an interesting moment to think about the future of our country and how we belong to it. Most Indians feel a connection to India, even if they are a second, third, fourth (or beyond) generation immigrant. For some of those people, there is also the desire to be a part of India's future, or maybe to put it differently, to DO something for India.

But what does it mean to "do" something for India? In the old days, when the Gandhian and Nehruvian ideals were alive, "doing" something for your country meant something very specific. If you believed in Gandhi's ideals, you lead a simple life, supported local industry, tried to be good to the downtrodden of society, and supported the ideals of social justice through action. If you believed in Nehru's ideals, you strived to become a professional of some sort, worked for the Indian government, and shape its future by creating a safety-net that could work for everyone in society by controlling the greed of the rich and supporting the poor. We kept to ourselves and stayed away from the rest of the world. Doing good involved being Indian, buying Indian, and keeping India away from the corrupting ideals of the west. The road to "doing good" for one's country was laid out clean and clear. Indians who left India to live overseas were largely perceived as having rejected these goals and chosen a life of selfishness over the broader goals of improving their country.

In 2006, things are different. The Gandhian and Nehruvian ideals have proved either infeasible in the long-term or simply insufficient for progress of the sort that India truly needed to thrive in the modern world. We have embraced capitalism, and aspire to be a global player in not only the global economy, but also global policy and global culture. The sectors of the country that we are the proudest for are sectors that the government has been shut out of. We take great pride in the achievements of Indian's abroad. We seek recognition in the international arena.

In this new era, what is it that we could be doing, or should be doing if we want to be a part of India's future? I am not sure that there is a simple answer to this question any more. Those who devote their life to public service in India are indeed brave to do so, and their role in India's future is an obvious one. There are others who seek fame, money or power, and once they have it, bring attention to or fund important programs in India and also bring kudos to their country on the international stage. Their role is an important one given that we aspire to be a global power some day. There are others who work for little money, and no power or fame, in difficult conditions in Indian villages and small-towns to make small things happen for people: get their kids immunized, the schools working, the clinics cleaned, the women employed and empowered and in general, stay focussed on the lives of people who have very little. We always cry that there aren't enough people like this, and secretly feel guilty that we aren't one of these people (at least I do)......If we can't be one of them, can we still do something for our country?????

My only thought on this is that we should try to be the very very best person we can be---in whatever it is that we do every day--- and while being the very very best person we can be, we should remember where we came from. We should remember the people who sacrificed their lives for our freedom, and never forget that someday and somehow, we owe it to ourselves to give something back to them. Whether we give back by being rich and then contributing funds to bring opportunities to others (like so many NRIs these days), by being known for an accomplishment and then putting the spotlight on issues we care about (like Amir Khan, Arundhati Roy or Amartya Sen), by educating the world about our country and its heritage (like so many writers, musicians, dancers, actors, etc.), or by volunteering our time towards causes that we believe in.... being good at whatever it is we do, and never forgetting our roots will take us and our country far. Great countries have been built by great people. We all need to be the best architects we can, and we can do that no matter where we live in the world today.

Thanks for reading!