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From: dmiruke@isis.UUCP (Dataram Miruke)
Newsgroups: net.nlang.india
Subject: Re: Mountbatten's role in India
Message-ID: <343@isis.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 17-Feb-86 03:58:33 EST
Article-I.D.: isis.343
Posted: Mon Feb 17 03:58:33 1986
Date-Received: Wed, 19-Feb-86 07:10:30 EST
References: <687@harvard.UUCP> <802@brl-smoke.ARPA> <334@isis.UUCP> <6911@duke.UUCP>
Organization: University of Denver Math and Computer Science
Lines: 119

> 
> >When I came to USA, about three years back, one of the americans
> >asked me, whether there are still horses used for travel on the roads in
> >Bombay and other cities!!! 

> Really? HORSES? Jesus Christ!! Did someone really ask you
> that?! I can't believe how ignorant
> some people can be! I mean to say, I have lived in Delhi

	I am quite aware of the fact that there are horses and horse driven
carriages in major cities in india, apart from the rural parts and I have
travelled in them quite sometimes. However today if you want to go to say an
airport or just a market far from your place in any metropolitan city or for
that matter any reasonably big city in India, what is it that one is more likely
to take as his/her mode of transportation? How many of us would go to the
family stable and pick their favorite horse and travel to the airport or market?
		Unfortunately my family could not afford even a scooter,
forget a Ferrari, which seems to be your common mode of transportation, so I
would generally either take either cab or bus and for your information about
99% of the population would do the same, except of course those who has had
the luck of owning a Ferrari.
	The emphasis of mentioning the event was to indicate that the
Americans many times are ignorant of many aspects of India and for that matter
most of the thirld-world countries. The point does not seem to be well taken.

> (which, I would think, qualifies as an "other city") most of my life 
> and I have never seen a single horse-driven tonga except in the
> movies. As a matter of fact, I understand that the ones used in the
> movies are specially imported from some third-world country where
> they still use this incredibly outmoded form of transport. You
> know what, I think I'll write to the producers of the TV
> show "That's Incredible" and ask them to go to this particular
> third-world country and do a story on this. Won't our friends

	By all means please do so. At least that would give an opportunity
for them and possibly some Americans to learn about what India is. It is just
that in spite of being a quite industrilized nation (Isn't it supposed to be
tenth major industrial nation?), the main impression of an average american
or for that matter many westerners, about India still should be a country of
horses, tigers and elephents and maharajas, is what irks me (and many others).
Isn't it time that India has a better image in todays world? Isn't the
"image" of a nation is as important in the world politics, as it is for
personal life? When India can handle some of the most sophisticated technology
in world today, why it is that the India has to be equated with the horses and
maharajas? It is true that a large part of the population is poor and
below-poverty level. But why is it that only this particular aspect has to be
in picture, when it comes to the image of India? Isn't India striving for
uplifing the poor? Unfortunately, I could not go to any of those festivals of
India, but from what I have read it does not seem that those gave a good idea
to average american/westerner, about today's India, but it rather dwells on
the past of India, its history and "exoticness". It is time that indians try
to shed the image of exoticness and of being only historical importance,
often associated with India, and start creating the image of that of a modern
nation striving to become a major influence in today's world.

> in Delhi and Bombay be astounded when they see this 
> spectacle of people actually travelling on one of these
> rickety contraptions being pulled by -- get this -- a HORSE!
> When I would go out on one of our 8-lane super-highways in my
> Ferrari Testarosa my grandfather would tell me stories of the old times
> when the people of the villages would travel in what he
> quaintly called "bullock-carts". "They would pile the cart high
> with produce, (like suger cane)," he would say, "and take it to 
> the village market-place. More often than not, the whole family
> would be perched on top of the pile of sugar cane, for at the
> market there would also be a mela (fare) with rides and other rustic
> entertainment. They would have to start on the previous day
> because the fifty mile ride took a day as they travelled at
> a stately 5 mph. The richer farmers had two bullocks to pull
> the cart instead of just one and usually the animals wore
> a bell around their necks that tinkled as they went along."
> 
> And I would look out through the tinted window of my Ferrari at
> farmers in their sporty four-wheel-drive trucks and scarcely knew
> whether to believe him, for I simply couldn't imagine animals
> being used for transport in 20th century India.

	Not a bad picture! Except for the imaginary scenes of farmers driving
in four-wheel-drive trucks it just might be true. Except for the fact that
today many of those few in India who can travel in a Ferrari and all such modern
"contraptions" do so by sucking the blood of a vast number of poor people and
at the expense of people like me, and such people also include
many of the indian politicians. I could tell you about the similar scenarios
except for two things : one, I would be replacing all the four-wheel-drive
trucks with bullock-carts and the ferrari with a bullock-cart...get this
a BULLOCK-CART, with my uncle and me in it and also those would be true
scenarios and not the imaginary like the ones you have been paintng. 
	It is unfortunate that one could not bear to discuss about
the real issues that I raised in the original article but started the discussion
about some minor points that were essentially meant simply to emphasize
the points under discussion. I just happen to think that the network should
be used for some better purposes than this.
	No doubt, India is still a poor country and a "thirld-world" country.
However, it is just that many of us, seem to be contended to be just that, be
a "thirld-world" country! It just does not seem to be important enough for
those people to have a vision for future. India has the potential to be a
major power in the world and be an important influence in today's world.
It is just that many people seem to happy with keeping India what it is and
just that.
	In spite of all the greatness of non-violence and with respect to all
those like Mahatma Gandhi, I still feel that a common man would have more
respect and appreciation for his/her freedom if they had to sacrifice in
a substantial manner for it. Many of ours and our fathers/grandfathers did
sacrifice for India's freedom, but still the importance
of freedom does not seem to be quite well-entrenched in the minds of most of
the indians. To see this one has to just go to some rural parts (and even
some big cities), during the election fever and try to observe the events.
	Coming to non-violence etc. however one may be proud of the way in which
we got independence, it would be a mistake to say that non-violence is and
was a way of life in India. I just wish it were so. Even the essense of
Indian philosophy (here I do not mean just hindu India, lest that might start
another of those useless discussions, but the Indian culture as a whole), Gita
was born on the battlefield. This is not to be-little its importance but just
to say that under some circumstance the goals are better served by the use of
force than just being non-violent.

							- Datta Miruke
							 dmiruke@isis
							 dmiruke@udenva