‘India at 60’ collage

Collage: RK

Albert Einstein:
“We owe a lot to the Indians, who taught us how to count, without which no worthwhile scientific discovery could have been made!”

Mark Twain:
“India is the cradle of the human race, the birthplace of human speech, the mother of history, the grandmother of legend, and the great grand mother of tradition. Our most valuable and most astrictive materials in the history of man are treasured up in India only!”

Romaine Rolland (French scholar):
“If there is one place on the face of earth where all the dreams of living men have found a home from the very earliest days when man began the dream of existence, it is India!” 

Hu Shih (former Ambassador of China to USA):
“India conquered and dominated China culturally for 20 centuries without ever having to send a single soldier across her border!”

Swami Vivekananda (Indian Philosopher):
“Civilizations have arisen in other parts of the world. In ancient and modern times, wonderful ideas have been carried forward from one race to another…But mark you, my friends, it has been always with the blast of war trumpets and the march of embattled cohorts. Each idea had to be soaked in a deluge of blood….. Each word of power had to be followed by the groans of millions, by the wails of orphans, by the tears of widows. This, many other nations have taught; but India for thousands of years peacefully existed. Here activity prevailed when even Greece did not exist… Even earlier, when history has no record, and tradition dares not peer into the gloom of that intense past, even from until now, ideas after ideas have marched out from her, but every word has been spoken with a blessing behind it and peace before it. We, of all nations of the world, have never been a conquering race, and that blessing is on our head, and therefore we live….!”

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Reading the above quotes really brings tears of joy in me. The beautiful country called Bharatha or India is a crest jewel of the world. Bharatha is like Dharmaraya (Yudhishtira) among the Pandavas, not strong like Bhima or flamboyant like Arjuna, but persevering, wise and dutiful. 

In India, we the people are both the strength and weakness – be it our camaraderie towards foreigners, our resilience at the aftermath of calamities or our nonchalance towards environmental and health reforms. Inspite of this disparity, we continue to strive, and therein lies our uniqueness.

Indians are really very good in Athithi Satkara. A person may ask for a glass of water and be offered a glass of milk. That is the greatness of our people here which shows how broad minded we are. In this harsh world, India is the place where one can find love and affection in plenty.

Ours is certainly a very great nation with inherent potential to be the best. What pulls us down is the selfishness of our people in promoting the kith and kin at the cost of more deserving fellow citizens. Another weakness is our inability to face the truth (of the negative aspects of our society) and our lack of concern for fellow beings who are not as fortunate as we are. Our tendency to take the easy road if not pushed hard enough and a blind devotion to everything ‘Western’ are some of our other negatives.

It has not been possible for Bharatha to grow in an astonishing way because of another reason i.e. Envy. Some people here are too envious of other’s progress. If we give this up and become happy seeing another person’s prosperity, our nation is bound to progress.

All of us know that India is rich in heritage and culture. Let us celebrate our free India’s Sashtiapthapoorthi on August 15, 2007 with all good understandings and in good spirits. We have villages which are the backbones of our beautiful nation and they are to shine well with all brighter colours in the years to come. If the right seeds are sown by our people in the younger minds, we are sure to reap the dividends. The youth must lead the way on the right path of revival of human values in life.

Sarve Jana Sukhino Bhavanthu
(May all live in Peace )

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RwB celebrates India at 60:

• India at Sixty by TS Srinivasa Murthy

• Tricolour Marble Cake and Eggless Tea Cake: Recipe by Bridget White Kumar

• Sare Jahan se Accha, Hindustan Hamara by BR Usha

• Rangoli-16 by Srilakshmi Suresh

• Independence Day by Cuckoo