Chauvinisam V/s Patriotism - By Adv. Radharao F. Gracias
Our self-belief in our greatness is unfounded, and is the cause of India's
downfall, says Adv. Radharao F. Gracias.
It was sometime at the beginning of the 19th century that a soldier in the
French Emperor Napoleon's army, when asked to justify the incessant wars
that France launched against its neighbours, gave the classic reply: "My
Country, therefore right" (later modified as: "My country, right or wrong").
The soldier's name was Eduardo Chauvin (not Faleiro). He gave the world and
entirely new concept: 'chauvinism'
As a people, we Indians seem to have the highest regard for Chauvin: we have
mastered the art of Chauvinism. If chauvinism were to be declared as a
sport, India would sweep all the medals at the Olympics. A symptom of our
chauvinism is apparent in the oft repeated slogan 'Mara Bharat Mahaan' (My
India is great). The question arises; is it really so?
There hasn't been too much greatness about our country, not in the last two
thousand years or so. Our history is nothing a record of invasions,
conquests, subjugations and enslavement. Perhaps no other country has been
the victim of as many invasions and conquests as India. The Huns,
Scythians, Parthians, Greeks, Mongols ... all simply marched into the
country, pillaged and ransacked it. We did not give any cause for invasions,
as we attacked no one. The invaders came simply because we could not defend
ourselves,. What prevented us from defending ourselves against foreign
invaders?
As a consequence of our cowardice and failure to defend ourselves, invaders
marched in at will and marched out with booty and tens of thousands of
Indian slaves. The poor, underfed vegetarians from the plains were driven
ruthlessly over the mountains of Afghanistan, where they died "like flies".
The mountains themselves came to be known as the Hindu Kush range, which
does not mean 'Hindu happy'; it means 'Hindu killer' in the local language.
Geographically, the country was by far the most defensible against the
battle technology available in those days. The Himalayas form a hug bulwark
towards the north. No invader crossed the Himalayas into India, until China
in 1961. The eastern borders with Burma are rugged , forested hills. No
invader came from the East till the Japanese conquered Kohima during World
War II. The South has a vast ocean around it. No invader entered from the
sea till Afonso Albuquerque conquered Goa in 1510.
All previous invasions into the country were overland from the West. There
were just two routes of entry: the Bolan Pass and the Khyber Pass, which is
about 134 km long and, in places, just three meters wide. However, it never
occurred to our countrymen to fortify these two passes and permanently block
access into the country.
In this context, I am reminded of the designer advertisements being released
by the Indian Army inviting youngsters to join the army. They are couched in
the language that practically seems to suggest that the Indian Army is a
five star hotel with all sorts of facilities for those who join it. But,
despite such enticing advertisements, the army is short of as many as 14,000
army officers. Can you beat that?
I have seen how when the Government of Goa announced vacancies for posts of
police sub inspectors (PSIs), thousands of Goans apply. Some are known to
have paid up to Rs. 15 lakh to be selected. I understand that shortly,
another batch of sub inspectors is to be recruited, and the asking price has
reportedly touched Rs. 25 lakh. Mark my words, there will be hundreds
seeking to pull strings and willing to pay the amount needed to be selected.
But none of these applicants for PSIs would go anywhere near an army
selection camp, where they would be gladly and freely selected. hat's our
patriotism.
I often wonder about the Sangh Parivar, which day in and night out talks of
patriotism. The RSS itself claims a membership of over 2.5 crore cadre, who
dress in khaki and are frequently seen marching in military formation. The
Bajrang Dal, Sri. Ram Sena and the Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP) have
tough-looking volunteers who unleashed their 'patriotism' in Gujarat,
Karnataka and, not very long ago, at Fontainhas, in Panjim. So, presumably,
the Sangh Parivar is full of young energetic countrymen willing to defend
the country's honour.
That being so, why does the RSS and its sister organizations not hold caps
of its 'patriotic' sevaks and call upon the army to select from its cadre?
The army should easily be able to enroll 14,000 officers from among the 2.5
crore swayam-sevaks. It is time that the Sangh Parivar cadres display their
patriotism on the Indo-Pak border!
Our self-belief in our greatness is unfounded, and is the cause of our
downfall. We do not become great through self-proclamation. The rest of the
world has to acknowledge our greatness. No one does so.
There is not a single field of human endeavour where we are anywhere near
the top. There is not a single field of human endeavour where we are not
near the bottom.
Until the middle of the 19th century, the Japanese were as insular as
Indians. They closed their ports to foreign trade.When western nations
demanded the right to trade, the Japanese Emperor refused to concede. The
western nations bombarded Japanese ports and, within a few days, the
Japanese Navy was routed. Japan conceded all demands and opened its ports.
But, unlike us, the Japanese did not take the defeat lying down. They
accepted that the West was more advanced. They sent their scientists and
traders all over the world, acquired western technology, improved upon it
and were soon able to compete with and beat the West at its own game. The
Japanese became the first Asian nation to defeat a European power when it
knocked the stuffing out of the Russian Navy in 1904-05.
Less than four decades later, the American fleet was destroyed at Pearl
Harbour. Even though they lost that war, the Japanese have since emerged as
the second-largest economy on Earth. They have also improved physically. The
average height of a 21 year-old Japanese has increased by 20 cms post World
War II. This increase is jokingly called 'hamburger height', since it is
attributed to their change to American food habits.
We are still lost, since we refuse to acknowledge our weaknesses and correct
them, as the Japanese have done. We have to admit that we are a cesspool of
superstition, corruption, dishonesty and deceit. We have stagnated, and
failed to evolve and advance. Our contribution to civilization is zero; no
pun intended. We have become the 'Coelacanth' of civilization. We are not
great. We have to strive to be great.
COMMENTS
Thank you for this rather excellent write-up Adv. Radharao Gracias ( Radha
as we would like to call you). You have given much cause to the RSS cadres
to torment themselves. But the Indian army is out of bounds to the RSS. Did
you know that? It is believed that the first question that is asked after
ascertaining whether one is a Hindu, is : 'Are you RSS?' . If the answer is
'yes', then one never gets selected even if one is physically one hundred
per cent fit. The Indian Army has decided, it is believed, that the RSS
brains are hollow but filled with a load of religious patriotic s**t. Show
them a Mosque or a Church or a Pagoda or whatever, anything which looks
unlike a Hindu Temple, and the RSS mind, trained and brainwashed will want
to demolish it. If 14,000 RSS cadres get into the army as officers, then
every Pakistani Mosque will be a Temple. Likewise all the churches and
Mosques in entire India, more so in Goa will fly the saffron flag including
the Bom Jesu Basilica over-night. :-))
It is believed that Japanese invented the transistor and took over the
western electronic technology for a bumpy ride. Yes, India is at 1.2 billion
mark and we are nowhere in the FIFA world cup ring. Today, the Japanese have
defeated Denmark in the second round and sent them home, packing. In Goa,
the Nigerians have taken over the football industry. What a shame.
I was once in Italy during the Olympics and we used to watch the athletics
etc on every street where crowds used to collect glued to the shop TVs. That
particular day it was 400 meters hits and one Singh was the last to touch
the finish line. One Italian saw us couple of guys, came to us and said.
India?? - When acknowledged, he said " You one billion and come last? Shame!
" How could we tell him that the one who came last was not Milka Singh??
I am happy to have learnt India's history and also the geography through
this write-up. Also, I must admit that I have used the word 'chauvinism'
plenty a times without actually knowing the history behind the word. Once
again thank you Radha.
Also, BTW we note that you consider Eduardo Faleira as the Chauvinist P*G
:-)) You may be just right. But we would say 'an accomplished one' at that.
And as I am on the topic of this article written by you, let me say that I
might have to apologize to you for having listened to others that you said
'so and so' about Goa Su-Raj Party on the Prudent telecast debate a few days
ago. Today I got in touch with Sandesh Prabhudesai ( the host of the debate)
and when I asked him how he allowed Radha to say derogatory things about
GSRP, he was defiant that nothing of that sort has been said, that in fact
Radha praised GSRP. He has advised me to revisit the telecast on coming
Sunday to see for myself. I have told him that I could not digest what I
heard from others about Radha saying what he is supposed to have said, and
therefore the outburst from my end. I will have to cool down until Sunday,
then. Come to think of it, I was bent on sending Radha a lawyer's notice,
therefore my call to Sandesh to get a CD of the telecast.
Cheers
floriano
goasuraj
9890470896
www.goasu-raj.org
