Nationalistic fervor, nightmare scenario

[Guest guest]

By Dr Bal Ram Singh

Bal Ram Singh, director of the Center for Indic Studies at the

University of Massachusetts Dartmouth, may be reached at

bsingh.

 

Dear Friends and Colleagues,

 

My recent opinion on what may be the current trends in Indian

political and cultural theater.

 

Bal Ram

 

http://www.indianewengland.com/news/2005/02/14/Opinion/Nationalistic.F

ervor.In.India.Would.Ensure.Nightmare.Scenario-862486.shtml

India New England - Opinion

Issue: 2/14/05

 

 

Nationalistic fervor in India would ensure nightmare scenario

By Bal Ram Singh

 

The danger alarms are being raised throughout the world - those of

cultural, religious and linguistic annihilation of nations and

tribes; those of clashing civilizations; and those of natural and

environmental exploitation.

 

And President Bush's inaugural diktat to enforce his brand of freedom

and liberty in the world has now started ringing the alarm bells of

imperialism.

 

India, the only surviving ancient civilization in the world, which

could bring some effective alternatives to the table, is itself under

siege from inside and out.

 

>From smoldering Bihar to eccentric Tamil Nadu, from a puppet prime

minister to corrupt communists, from deranged BJP to paralyzed VHP,

and from Benny Hinn's healing sessions to Bible-touting evangelists

pimping for tsunami victims, one sees India's populace is dazed by

the spectacular gaze of its own imbecile leaders - be them political,

religious, social, or intellectual.

 

There is a clarion call for Indians to equip themselves with

organizations, arms, and ideologies to defeat nefarious forces in

legal, political, and armed battles.

 

However, I am not sure if any of the groups will ever be able to

mount a challenge to perpetrators of the blatant power game

dangerously being dared in India. The whole situation should be

looked at differently, in my opinion. The best way to make my point

is through a dream (or nightmare!) I have foreseen.

 

In my dream I saw the past, about 250 years, when India was a

democratic country, and Lalu Prasad Yadav its prime minister. I saw

that all the ministers were required to take special lessons in

Lalutalk, and the rest of the country was speaking Bhojpuri. India

was linguistically united with Lalu its leader, who always walked

with a lathi in his hand.

 

Lalu in his true nationalistic fervor refused go outside the country;

the business with foreign countries was carried out through meetings

in India. Sports were big in the country - wrestling, khokho, gatka,

bana, kabaddi, surr, sherdandi. Mattha, dahi, dhoodh, ghi were in

surplus. No one was hungry, no one sad.

 

One day the prime minister's office came to know of a world-level

sports competition being held in Barcelona, Spain. Lalu, being a

fervently nationalistic leader, decided to send its best national

sports team, which happened to be the Kabaddi team, not realizing at

all that the world-level competition was for soccer.

 

In Barcelona, the Indian team, speaking and understanding only

Bhojpuri along with its coach, entered the soccer field for its first

game against Italy. Referees spoke only Spanish (which was more

popular than English those days it seemed).

 

Of course, the Indian team did not understand a thing the referees

were trying to say, and no one understood them. Finally, the referees

were able to convince 11 of the Indian players to stand on one side

of the field, and the game began.

 

The Indian team, never having seen soccer, thought that in foreign

countries the soccer ball was used to assist the Kabaddi game they

knew in India. As soon as the Italian center forward moved with the

ball toward the goal, the Indian players surrounded him and wrestled

him down to the ground.

 

The referees pulled out the Indian player who had grabbed the Italian

center forward's leg first. Of course, the Indian players, not

realizing what was going on, went along, and started playing again

with only 10 players. They thought their teammate got out on some

technical foul. They repeated their kabaddi tricks in grabbing

Italian players and pushing them down to ground, each time

disqualifying one of their own players. Soon, the whole Indian team

was off the field.

 

The Indian team and its coach had no clue what had happened, not

knowing the game of soccer and not understanding the language. They

could not even gauge the extent of their defeat. They realized they

badly lost that tournament when they found out the Italians were the

second-worst team participating, as they could not advance beyond the

second round.

 

On their return, Prime Minister Lalu Yadav gave the team a warm

welcome and huge pep talk on how India believes in sportsmanship and

hard work. He increased team's diet budget, and gave them more

incentives so they would perform better the following year.

 

The team was sent to the world soccer tournament again, performed

similarly, and returned back. The players felt dejected and started

losing interest in sports.

 

Not deterred, Lalu kept sending his kabaddi team to the world soccer

tournament, who kept losing their games badly. Ultimately, sportsmen

in the country became so demoralized that no one wanted to play any

sports anymore.

 

The whole country became demoralized, and became target of world

scorn. It lost its glory and morale. Lalu contacted the Spanish

government and asked them to send experts to teach Indians to play

sports again.

 

The Spanish government sent its army and diplomats to manage Indian

sports, and eventually took over India.

 

After I woke up, I was sweating profusely. It took me an hour to get

in my normal demeanor. It took the whole of my tea time to realize

what had gone wrong with India of my dreams.

 

The Indian kabaddi team, even though with better athletes, kept

losing badly when it played a soccer game with kabaddi rules.

 

Not knowing the language and the rules left them looking like fools,

year after year, ultimately leading to the loss of country's

independence in India's effort to learn someone else's game.

 

There are calls within the Indian populace to lace themselves with

tricks of fear, exclusivism, selfishness, and dividism. However, I

think we may lose our independence (a.k.a. Indian values and

traditions) in the process.

 

 

 

Bal Ram Singh, director of the Center for Indic Studies at the

University of Massachusetts Dartmouth, may be reached at

bsingh.

 

 

 

Bal Ram Singh, Ph.D., Center for Indic Studies

University of Massachusetts Dartmouth

285 Old Westport Road

Dartmouth, MA 02747

 

Phone: 508-999-8588

Fax: 508-999-8451

Email: bsingh

 

Internet address: http://www.umassd.edu/indic