The Times Of India yesterday carried a front-page article that read "Indian youth happiest in the world". It went on to say that according to a study carried out by MTV Networks International, 60% of Indian 16-34 year olds are both religious and happy, while less than 30% in the US and 50% in the UK admitted to be.
I don't get it. What are we so happy about? Are we gloating over the fact that the country is in shambles? Is it because of the instability of the coalition governments that seem to be a permanent given? Are we happy about the law and order system, the crime rates, politicians' families running amok to the point of murder and then getting away scot-free? What about the infrastructure- the potholes where roads should be, the erratic water supply, the unpredictable power outages? What about the garbage dumps that seem to make their appearance anywhere in the city? What about civic sense in the common man? What about the regressionism that is the public epidemic? The state we're in is no secret to anyone. So what are we really so happy about?
Or has someone confused the word happiness with complacency? Is the common motorcycle-riding, loud-talking, law-bending Indian youth secure because he's insulated from the progressive thought of change? Is he happy because as long as it doesn't affect him directly in his face, it's always somebody else's problem? Is he happy because he can dump his garbage anywhere he pleases or urinate beside any road he fancies? How many of those who were surveyed actually voted so they could get a better government? Our rich get richer and the poor get poorer, but it wasn't the poor who was surveyed by a certain music channel most of them might not even have heard of, now was it?
I'll concede the fact that the family and marriage values here may contribute to the happiness, as may the booming IT industry, and the generally upward trend of the economy. But doesn't the way they actually live really matter to anyone? Don't they realize that there could possibly be more to patriotism than waving flags at cricket matches and cussing Pakistan? And why is revolutionism so unfashionable? Why does anyone who talks of such things immediately become an object of ridicule?
And what is the nature of this happiness, this contentment? Does it not cause stagnation? All the great thinkers, revolutionaries and progressionists were far from being happy with the status quo. Any instrument of progress must be bred out of discontentment. What if Gandhi, Bose or Bhagat Singh had been content? What if Martin Luther King had been? What if Voltaire, Rousseau, and Jefferson had all claimed to be happy with the world as it stood? What if the Bastille had never been stormed because the people were indifferent and complacent? What would history have been then, and what would we be now?
No, there is no room for complacency. Happiness is but a euphemism. The youth of India must realize where they are headed with this attitude of theirs and make amends before it's too late. People did not lay down their lives in the struggle for Independence so that an apathetic people can let the nation run itself to ruin. Disorder invariably increases in a system left to itself. The Second Law of Thermodynamics succinctly states so, and let me assure you, the concept of entropy does not limit itself to physics.
(I have referred to Indian youth as 'we' because even though I am Bhutanese, I've spent a lot of time here in India. I mean no disrespect to India or Indians; I would be one of the happiest people to see the nation rise to glory. But will it really?)
(The words regressionism, progressionism and revolutionism probably don't exist, so please pardon my free use of them. On second thoughts, why don't they, really?)
I don't get it. What are we so happy about? Are we gloating over the fact that the country is in shambles? Is it because of the instability of the coalition governments that seem to be a permanent given? Are we happy about the law and order system, the crime rates, politicians' families running amok to the point of murder and then getting away scot-free? What about the infrastructure- the potholes where roads should be, the erratic water supply, the unpredictable power outages? What about the garbage dumps that seem to make their appearance anywhere in the city? What about civic sense in the common man? What about the regressionism that is the public epidemic? The state we're in is no secret to anyone. So what are we really so happy about?
Or has someone confused the word happiness with complacency? Is the common motorcycle-riding, loud-talking, law-bending Indian youth secure because he's insulated from the progressive thought of change? Is he happy because as long as it doesn't affect him directly in his face, it's always somebody else's problem? Is he happy because he can dump his garbage anywhere he pleases or urinate beside any road he fancies? How many of those who were surveyed actually voted so they could get a better government? Our rich get richer and the poor get poorer, but it wasn't the poor who was surveyed by a certain music channel most of them might not even have heard of, now was it?
I'll concede the fact that the family and marriage values here may contribute to the happiness, as may the booming IT industry, and the generally upward trend of the economy. But doesn't the way they actually live really matter to anyone? Don't they realize that there could possibly be more to patriotism than waving flags at cricket matches and cussing Pakistan? And why is revolutionism so unfashionable? Why does anyone who talks of such things immediately become an object of ridicule?
And what is the nature of this happiness, this contentment? Does it not cause stagnation? All the great thinkers, revolutionaries and progressionists were far from being happy with the status quo. Any instrument of progress must be bred out of discontentment. What if Gandhi, Bose or Bhagat Singh had been content? What if Martin Luther King had been? What if Voltaire, Rousseau, and Jefferson had all claimed to be happy with the world as it stood? What if the Bastille had never been stormed because the people were indifferent and complacent? What would history have been then, and what would we be now?
No, there is no room for complacency. Happiness is but a euphemism. The youth of India must realize where they are headed with this attitude of theirs and make amends before it's too late. People did not lay down their lives in the struggle for Independence so that an apathetic people can let the nation run itself to ruin. Disorder invariably increases in a system left to itself. The Second Law of Thermodynamics succinctly states so, and let me assure you, the concept of entropy does not limit itself to physics.
(I have referred to Indian youth as 'we' because even though I am Bhutanese, I've spent a lot of time here in India. I mean no disrespect to India or Indians; I would be one of the happiest people to see the nation rise to glory. But will it really?)
(The words regressionism, progressionism and revolutionism probably don't exist, so please pardon my free use of them. On second thoughts, why don't they, really?)
3 comments:
Very interesting. I don't know a lot about India I'm afraid, but as you say it might be confused with complacency. Also being contented doesn't necessarily mean happy; perhaps some are contented with their lot in life, at the same time as ever striving for more which means they are not entirely happy. Are you happy, Utsav? It's one of those questions that is impossible to answer really, since we can be very happy in some areas of life and miserable about other things not going our way. Is anyone entirely 'happy', i don't think so.
ok i consider my wrists slapped and have updated my novel, Under A Train, it's at http://underatrain.blogspot.com/
thanks i'm flattered you're reading it x
1st comment: Yes, it's true that our emotions always exist in a mixture of varying proportions, but the fact that 60% of the people said they were happy was quite a surprise. Or maybe not, if saw the way people live here- the attitudes, the excuses, the indifference. My point is, no great thing ever was born out of indifference, and India, more than ever, needs saving, and we need to do more than just be smug with ourselves.
2nd comment: I'm on it!! :)
Post a Comment