We, the People of India

26th January is India's Republic Day. India's constitution, completed on 26th November, 1949, came into force on this day. The preamble of India's constitution reads:

"WE, THE PEOPLE OF INDIA, having solemnly resolved to constitute India into a SOVEREIGN SOCIALIST SECULAR DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC and to secure to all its citizens:

JUSTICE, social, economic and political;

LIBERTY of thought, expression, belief, faith and worship;

EQUALITY of status and of opportunity; and to promote among them all^[5]

FRATERNITY assuring the dignity of the individual and the unity and integrity of the Nation;

IN OUR CONSTITUENT ASSEMBLY this twenty-sixth day of November, 1949, do HEREBY ADOPT, ENACT AND GIVE TO OURSELVES THIS CONSTITUTION."

We used to memorise the preamble in our Political Science class. The whole course, just like that in every other nation, was meant to instil a sense of pride in what our nation is. We studied about how we came to be occupied by the Western powers, were oppressed by them and sacrificed our lives for the sweet air of freedom that we breathe today. The most important part of this course, and the preamble as well, is the first word, we. In the little time I've been outside India, I've realised that this "we" is also the part that I find most difficult to explain when when people ask me about India. I keep having this feeling that whenever people ask me about India, I struggle to give a very good explanation about it and in the core of this inability to give a good answer lies my inability to explain "we" to them. Who are we, the people of India? 

This struggle to explain "we" is for two reasons for me:

1. I sucked at Political Science. I couldn't remember the dates and names in History. I attended classes only because my History teacher was gorgeous. I was so bad at Geography that I couldn't tell which one of Gangtok, Hong Kong and Bangkok was in India, China and Thailand. In fact, I Googled the 3 again to ensure correctness when I wrote the last sentence. Civics had the least weightage in the exam so it never really got my attention. 
2. The second reason why I, or for that matter any Indian, will struggle to answer this question to an outsider is because it is something that only we, the people of India, can understand. There is no single definition of "we", there is no single common binding factor in terms of history, language, culture etc. that makes us "we" and yet it is we, the people of India and nothing less than that. 

Hence, in this post, I have decided to write a short post explaining what India is in my opinion and experience. I hope it helps both, Indians as well as those who aren't Indian. Please feel free to let me know your thoughts in the comments section below. Part of my motivation also comes from watching the movie Airlift. It is a Bollywood movie based on the airlifting of Indians from Kuwait in 1990 after Saddam Hussain declared war on Kuwait. It is the world's largest civil evacuation from a war zone. Although the movie was highly commercial and borderline fictional, the background that it was based on was true and truly inspiring for me. 

I remember hearing this saying from my parents growing up and from a few other sources which directly translates to "There are a million different kind of India reside in India". It is this basic thought that is so unique about India that it makes explaining "we" so nearly impossible for me. It is also this "we, the people of India" that the constitution of India represents and explains in a manner which is unique only to India and as I celebrate India's 67th Republic Day, I'll make a short attempt in trying to explain the same. 

The Languages

The most common question that I hear from people is "How do you say 'xyz' in India?" or "How do you say 'xyz' in Indian?" where 'xyz' stands for any particular phrase or thing. This 'xyz' ranges from "Hi/Hello" to "Cheers/Motherf***er/terms for relatives etc." While I can easily tell them all this in the language(s) that I speak, it will be unfair to and unrepresentative of India (unlike the Constitution) to give the impression that this is how it these things are said in India. Hence the following points will tell you about the languages in India:

1. In addition to English, we have 22 official languages. While the technical term is not "official", what I mean to say is that these 22 languages are recognised by the Constitution of India and hence, have significant value. 
2. While English is not an official language, almost entire official work now takes place in English only. In my personal opinion, India should probably make it an official language as well. We even have a lot of people (like me) who are almost native English speakers, albeit, with a funny Indian accent. 
3. To add confusion to the mix, we have a total of 30 languages (including the official 22) that are spoken by more than 1 million speakers and 122 different languages spoken by more than 10,000 people (2001 Census Survey). Add to all this the various dialects that are present in each language. My mom and dad are from different states and I have to know a bunch of things that are called differently in their dialects. They even have a different term for their son, which is me!! Imagine the problems!!

So next time you're going to ask someone from India about a phrase in an Indian language, don't make the mistake to ask "How do you say 'xyz' in India?" Instead, ask "How do you say 'xyz' in your language?" and subsequently, try and get to know which Indian language that person speaks. It would also amaze you to look up the words in English that have an Indian origin. 

P.S. - I speak Hindi and a bit of Punjabi. That said, the way Hindi is spoken on my mom's side of the family is different from my dad's side. My dad's side tends to mix it with Punjabi. In addition, I attended a school where the medium of instruction was English right from kindergarten. Hence, the near native English speaking skills. 

The Religion

The freedom of religion is a fundamental right guaranteed by the Constitution of India. This implies that each citizen has the right to follow any religion of their choice or not to follow any. This is representative of the fact that just like the languages, India is a mix of religions. India has 6 significant religions: Hinduism, Islam, Christianity, Sikhism, Buddhism and Jainism along with a bunch of people with stuff even I don't know. Since, it is a fundamental freedom, it is technically supposed to be nobody's business what an individual's religion really is. In addition, there are huge variations in the way religions are practiced and celebrated within India. A hindu in Punjab (a northern state) is completely different from one in Kerala (a southern state).

That said, I would be the first to admit that communalism i.e. division in society on religious lines doesn't take place at all. While I would love to portray that India is a country where all religions leave peacefully with each other, it isn't true. From time to time, there have been and continue to be, communal classes in India. 

Luckily, despite all the divisions and clashes, we are still, the people of India. The point to remember here, for me and for all other Indians, is that the forces that keep us together are stronger than those that try to set us apart. This has been the sole reason in the past and hopefully, will continue to be the sole reason in the future that keeps us together. 

The Food, Festivals and everything else

You're probably beginning to see a pattern here now. Just like the last 2 sections, there is no single type of food, kinds of festivals, traditional clothing and dances, lifestyle etc. that you can describe as "being Indian". There is nothing can be termed as 'an Indian thing' with universal standing. The pictures (bottom of the post) show the traditional clothing of the various Indian states and you can see how much they vary. We, the people of India, can sit in a restaurant in Bangalore, with people speaking Bengali and Gujarati in either adjacent seats or with us, and read an English menu to order Mughlai/north Indian dishes as we celebrate Eid or Christmas or Diwali irrespective of what religion we may actually belong to.

Everything is a subset of the large variety of things that can be termed 'Indian' with equal righteousness but near zero representativeness as being Indian. From Kashmir (northern most state) to Kanyakumari (Southern tip) and from Arunachal Pradesh (East) to Gujarat (West), we, the people of India, are just people living with the belief that there lies 'Unity in Diversity'. We don't always live up to this idea. We don't always succeed in being united or coming together. In fact, we probably spend more time on our differences than our similarities. The only thing we have in common is the Constitution of India which we, the people of India, celebrate on 26th January every year. 

In this post, I've tried to explain what my parents meant by the idea of a million kinds of India. It is something that many people find it difficult to wrap their heads around. Yet, it is a reality that we, the people of India, live everyday. I admit that we don't do it very well on many days but then everyday, we make an effort to get better. 

So next time, whenever you meet an Indian and ask him/her about things in India, make it a point to also try and find out about which 1 of those millions of India those things are about. When you ask him/her for a phrase in their language, also ask which language it is or the region it is spoken in. When they talk about festivals, ask the religion or region. Ask as far as your curiosity can take you because you can never know enough to say that you know about India. Just when you think you have India figured out, India will throw something at you that you possible can't figure out at all. It's also understandable that perhaps you aren't that curious. You experience some Indian dish but you don't care about all the extra details. It's perfectly all right but then don't extrapolate it as something common in India because there are very few things that are common in India. Just like you can't extrapolate terrorism to Islam, you can't extrapolate everything you hear about India to India. The pictures below have traditional dresses from the various states of India along with the state of origin. I hope you like them.

There are also a bunch of other very common questions that I'm repeatedly asked. I'm going to list them down here but I'll save the answers for a later post. If you feel like you can relate to them or if you have any questions of your own, feel free to post them in the comments section below. I'll try and make a post sometime in the future about such stuff. 

1. Caste related questions - "You guys have something called the caste system. What is it about? Is it still happening? Like I hear you can't marry someone from a different caste. So how do you make sure to find someone you love within the same caste? What happens if the person is from a different caste?" And a million other versions of caste related questions. 
2. Beef related questions. Too tired to list them down but yes, I hear a lot of them too. 
3. Off late, questions about sanitation problems. It is becoming increasingly known that 60% of India's population lacks access to proper sanitation (acc. to World Bank). This is partly due to India's Prime Minister, Narendra Modi's huge emphasis on improving this figure. 
4. Cricket related questions. I don't even want to go into in right now. Just in case you have absolutely no idea, I'm not talking about the insect. I'm talking about a sport named Cricket. 

So far, I've tried my best to answer questions on these. I'll probably hear more with time. I just hope I'm able to answer them right. :)