Not a time for denial and self-denigration

Indian commentators must learn to critically evaluate, rather than accept Western analyses as the gospel truth, says NOEL G. DESOUZA.

India’s Independence Day celebrations should be an occasion for celebrating the country’s achievements and not for lament and self-denigration. Yet that is exactly the impression one gets from three special articles in the prestigious The Times of India. These articles create the impression that India has gone backwards since Independence.

That is not the message which the leaders of the USA, Britain, France and Portugal have conveyed in recent times. Their visits to India have included tributes about India’s progress. They have been promoting economic and scientific ties with India as it emerges as one of the world’s leading powers.

Do some Indians revel in self-denigration?  That was justifiable at the time of India’s independence because India then had a lot of ground to make up to catch up with the developed world. The penchant for self-denigration apparently still prevails.

One Times of India article by Amit Bhattacharya is entitled Food Fight: When will we get freedom from hunger? This well-meaning article intends to highlight the case for better food availability. The article, however, relies heavily on UN figures. Stating that “numbers speak for themselves”, it quotes that 27% are undernourished, 43% underweight and that 70% under-5 children are anaemic. This unquestioning and uncritical quoting from foreign reports such as by the United Nations World Food Program is what Indians need to eschew. The article accepts the dubious ranking by the Global Hunger Index 2009 and the Millennium Development Goals (2010) which say that hunger has increased from 20% to 21% from the years 2000-2002 to 2005-2007.

Rather than lament, it would be more appropriate to consider the enormous progress that India has achieved since Independence despite its population tripling since then.

It is one thing for UN agencies to survey health and nutrition in small North European countries with small homogeneous populations. It is entirely different to estimate health and nutrition in India with over a billion people and a high degree of diversity. The figures are at best guesstimates. Cannot Indian writers living in India see the situation for themselves and critically evaluate and question foreign reports?

Has it been considered that North European countries, unlike India, have ageing populations, small population growth, high-energy consumption and high carbon emissions? With regard to anaemia, has it been considered that thalassemia, an iron deficient genetic disease, is widespread in South Asia as it is in southern Europe (such as in Italy) and the Middle East? Genetic factors are at play here. 

Rather than lament, it would be more appropriate to consider the enormous progress that India has achieved with regard to food production since Independence despite its population tripling since then. Has India forgotten the extremely serious periods of food shortage that took place during the British Raj such as the infamous Bengal famine?

Rather, India’s food problems lie elsewhere. As S. Viswanathan writes in The Hindu (Fighting Hunger: Role of Media and Judiciary), there is a clamour in India for adequate food storages and all public food distribution system. The Supreme Court is scheduled to hear a petition that large quantities of food are being wasted because of inadequate storage facilities.

Again, the article The Hollow Language Of Women’s Empowerment by Nandita Sengupta relies on quotes from academics which paint a sorry picture of Indian women. India, unlike several neighbouring countries, gives freedom of expression to its women and does not threaten its women writers. Indian women occupy high positions; universities have good female enrolment, and women freely act in movies. None of this appears in the article.

In another piece, A Million Mutinies Now, Subodh Varma laments separatist tendencies, the clamour for new states, caste politics and lack of freedom for young people to choose their marriage partners. That there are demands for smaller states is not per se unacceptable as smaller units are better governable. That India as one nation is accepted, for the most part, is to be applauded.  

On the other hand, The Hindustan Times gives the opposite story providing hope and optimism. Acknowledging that social security programs initiated by the Indian government to eradicate poverty are often frustrated by corruption and mismanagement, it points out that reforms are afoot to use technology and talent on a scale never seen before anywhere in the world. The name of this project Imagining India comes from the title of the book by former Infosys CEO Nandan Nilekani. 

In The Silent Glow of Innovation, Vivek Wadhwa points out that whilst in 2004, India produced 17,000 Masters and 900 PhDs in engineering, in 2007 India’s top five IT companies produced 120,000 engineers. President Obama repeatedly cautions Americans that India and China are forging ahead in producing scientists compared to the USA. 

As Samar Halarnkar says in How We're Creating The New, New India, “Despite the limitations imposed by the country’s weak infrastructure and antiquated education system, India has rapidly evolved into a global knowledge and innovation hub.”

This is not the time for self-denigration but rather for celebration.