PM Narendra Modi with world leaders at an informal Brics meeting in ChinaFor India to have a phenomenal line-up of cultural ambassadors and from time immemorial is not a surprise. After all, India is the oldest existing civilisation and home to some of the most ancient structures, cities and scriptures that have stood the test of time.
This, despite the onslaught of myriad civilisations that attacked India, plundered the nation over and over again even converted its people into religions by marauders who furthered their agenda with violence.
Today, following US Secretary of State Antony Blinken saying the United States is monitoring cases of increased human rights abuses by Indian government, police and prison officials, India’s External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar’s repartee that human rights issues were not discussed in bilateral dialogue, hinted that “interests, lobbies and vote banks” had driven the US position, pointed to human rights violations in the US itself, and claimed that India would not be reticent about the issue.
Jaishankar also flagged the issue of a recent case, when two Indian-American Sikh men were assaulted in an alleged hate crime in New York.
Lobbies drive US views
He added that ‘people are entitled to their views about us. But we are equally entitled to have views about their views and about the interests and lobbies and vote-banks that drive that. Whenever there is a discussion, we will not be reticent about speaking out.’
Blinken’s comment is believed to be driven by the Democratic administration’s need to cater to its “domestic constituency” which include a set of progressive lawmakers, Muslim groups and human rights organisations. The minister said India also had views about the human rights situation, including in the US. “We take up human rights issues when they arise in this country, especially when it pertains to our community. We had a case yesterday. That’s really where we stand on that matter.” And, the minister, in a clean sweep, summed up what the reality was all about.
India’s view has been bolstered on global platforms since generations. Right from the time Swami Vivekananda delivered his ground-breaking speech in the United States to the 1893 World’s Parliament of Religions in which he introduced Hinduism to America and called for religious tolerance and an end to fanaticism.
Swami Vivekananda said: I am proud to belong to a religion which has taught the world both tolerance and universal acceptance. We believe not only in universal toleration, but we accept all religions as true. I am proud to belong to a nation which has sheltered the persecuted and the refugees of all religions and all nations of the earth. I am proud to tell you that we have gathered in our bosom the purest remnant of the Israelites, who came to Southern India and took refuge with us in the very year in which their holy temple was shattered to pieces by Roman tyranny. I am proud to belong to the religion which has sheltered and is still fostering the remnant of the grand Zoroastrian nation. I will quote to you, brethren, a few lines from a hymn which I remember to have repeated from my earliest boyhood, which is every day repeated by millions of human beings: “As the different streams having their sources in different paths which men take through different tendencies, various though they appear, crooked or straight, all lead to Thee.”
India provides safe haven
For centuries, India has provided safe refuge to anyone who came to her shores: Right from the Parsis who arrived on the coast of Gujarat following persecution from Muslims in Persia to the Jews and minorities across the nation, including the Sentinelese tribes within her own land.
It may be recalled that despite the law being clear on the issue of the Sentinelese being left untouched by mainland and its people to help them retain their existence, it was a US-based Christian missionary John Allen Chau’s illegal attempts to make contact with the world’s oldest isolated tribe that led to his death.
The US-based Christian missionary group’s attempts to break the law of the land across the world in general and India, in particular, was the gravest act of Human Rights violation but conveniently and predictably glossed over.
In 2021, India, the world’s largest recipient of remittances, received USD 87 billion with the United States being the biggest source, accounting for over 20 per cent of these funds, according to the World Bank. India is followed by China, Mexico, the Philippines, and Egypt, said the World Bank report and, the remittances are projected to grow three per cent in 2022 to USD 89.6 billion, reflecting a drop in overall migrant stock, as a large proportion of returnees from the Arab countries await return, it said.
“Flows to India are expected to reach USD 87 billion, a gain of 4.6 per cent with the severity of COVID-19 caseloads and deaths during the second quarter (well above the global average) playing a prominent role in drawing altruistic flows (including for the purchase of oxygen tanks) to the country,” the World Bank report stated. The contributions from Indians across the world to their nation of birth speak volumes of their allegiance and affinity for India.
Modi is India`s best brand ambassadorModi India’s best ambassador
Look at the overwhelming reaction when it comes to the visit of India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The number of Indians who throng in millions to reach out to hear, talk and interact with the PM says it all. Right from PM Modi’s visit during President Trump’s tenure to his visits to UK and China, the reactions of OCIs and NRIs were commendable.
Indians across borders continue to spread the culture and mien of India through arts, dance, literature and, more recently and visibly, engagements across Social Media platforms like Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and others which have only provided opportunities for Indians to network with the India and all that’s Indian.
Why, a film like The Kashmir Files while being flayed for its controversial content has gone on to bind Indians like never before. The narrative that’s generated to hurt, insult and damage India’s image over the years by select academia and sections of the media is now being called out, the perpetrators identified openly.
Under the guise of being politically correct, the Hindi film industry is been flayed openly for its pseudo-secular stance and its hatred. Little wonder then that cinematic wonders like South India’s RRR engulfed the Hindi film industry which has been masquerading as the self-styled leader of cinema in India.
Indians bold to say truth
For the first time, bold movies representative of the public’s change in stance and need, are being created across India and data on similar lines generated in media platforms by independent creators. The means of production have now been made available to all and sundry. Anyone with a voice has the means to now amplify it.
While the harm that is being perpetrated through Social Media and by a few select motivated groups needs to be controlled, it’s the ease of access and the freedom to generate, avail and process information that provides a platform to the weakest across India.
Most across the world have little by way of culture to amplify while Indians, within India and overseas, now armed with a sense of pride for their native own, are speaking out in their own tongues, relating tales of yore, of foreign oppressions and assaults…and fighting back. India is on the rise and there’s little anyone can do to stop her. Not now and not for a long time, at least!