I recently came across some criticism on how the film “slumdog millionare” showed a very negative picture of India, infact some newspaper surveys came out with staggering numbers.. I am neither defending the movie nor did the movie sweep me of my feet, and certainly not offend me for what is portrayed as India (I have seen my country India, in much worse light - situation and circumstances)

But what that criticism did for me was trigger some thought and questions on - what we feel proud about india, what do some people imagine India to be. I really want to question people about what part of India are they living in, what part of India do they represent and are proud of..

- That 1/3 rd of India which is living or aspiring to live the western life / that seemingly is developing / that is consuming and wasting like the west / dreaming and living the American life..

OR

- That 2/3rd of India, which is struggling to make ends meet. That lives in darkness , that cook their daily meal on wood

To the folks that represent the 1/3rd of india and have massive pride in “India Shining” some perspective from the Mr Surya Sethi of the planning commission might add some value to your thoughts, as he says “We will run into all sorts of problems in the country – our development paradigm is not the correct development paradigm – we are deficient in all the key resources we need for development – land, water and energy ”

A little digging into the numbers tell us that with 17% of world population, globally our country has
-     2.4% of land reserves
-    Less than 2% of water reserves
-    We consume 3.5% of global energy supply

To keep that seemingly “India shining” there is a huge part of india which is living in poverty – like Mr Agarwal from Save the Jharaia coal field movment says “The buck stops here - the poor always end up paying the price.”

The 1/3rd of India is Making the other 2/3rd pay for the bills for its impact on society, environment etc.. One example I can draw from our case “Why New Coal” – the energy that is driving all our developmet - that is keeping the lights on in the shopping malls and a/c’s running in our houses – have we ever thought of where that electricity is coming from and who is paying the price of it..That electricity is coming from the coal being mined in the poorest part of india , Jharkhand is one state for example. And Mr AP Khalku, Superintendent Environment, BCCL ( a state owned Coal mining company)  himself says “Jharkhand has been exploited – the nation has benefited – India has gotten a lot of advantage from jharkhand without keeping any advantage of jharkhand in mind.”

He continues and says “Because of Coal, soil degrades – fertility dies out, people get displaced, water population, river pollutes, natural water table goes down, air gets pollute (dust etc)”

Now coming back to my original question on what part of india are you proud of?? I can say for myself I pride the rich culture, heritage, values of the country – and all the periods of struggles and the victories..

I am proud of the 2/3rd of India which is struggling and still puts a smile on his face cause he sees another victory looming near..

This entry was posted on Wednesday, March 4th, 2009 at 4:23 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.