I am an NRI student studying for my degree abroad in Singapore. I happened to come across Tattva blog, and I was really pleasantly surprised and encouraged by reading the articles, especially yours, on the subject of Slumdog Millionaire. I am an extremely patriotic person, and I believe completely that it is our Dharma-bound duty to finally lift up our Motherland from the accumulated sorrows of the past 4 centuries. Our generation – the 2000s generation – has the means and ability to make this happen, because, for the first time in 4 centuries, Indians are finally able to be masters of their collective destinies again. I was very encouraged to see that an NRI like you in Boston, halfway across the globe, could be sharing such resonant feelings and aspirations as myself. This gives me confidence that we as Indians indeed do have the combined might to take on the deeply entrenched social scars plaguing our nation.

I have full faith that we will be able to achieve it – bring an end to the mass suffering of 200 million souls – by the end of this century. Of course, I’m not going to be wishful by thinking that we can completely eradicate poverty – that would probably take another century – but we will have the social resources and financial capacity to end widespread suffering and transition from a so-called ‘third-world’ country into a developed nation. We need to.

Indeed, I feel that it is my life’s duty to bring about positive and lasting social change to India on a huge scale. I’m happy to know that there are others who feel the same way as I do.

I loved your article. The issue of the Western world’s biased profiling and typecasting of the Indian image is very relevant (I know it all too well – Having lived most of my life outside India, I’ve had to face down many condescending, even hostile people who simply wanted to stamp Indians down – only I didn’t give them the satisfaction ;) ).
However, the main issue that I would like to briefly touch on is the collective identity of Bharat. You see, it is not possible for us to view India as one large monolithic nation – we are indeed the United States of India – in that the huge diversity and range of cultures, religions and identities that are the discrete components of the subcontinent, somehow coalesce around the central identity and concept of one unified nation. It is important to keep this in mind whenever we see examples of strife or social unrest between different groups/communities, that we all have to highlight the fact that having different languages or religions or cultures does not in fact detract from the idea and ideal of one unified motherland. All the differences and diversity are what make this India. I fully appreciate your point about re-affirming those unique connections to bring Indians back together.

I don’t want to say anymore, but thanks for the article and thanks for your time. And don’t worry. Our Bharat is a strange land. It is the only place in the world where idealism and the TRUTH can seriously bring about a seismic shift and exact social revolution. So let us all keep believing and keep working to remake our ancient land.
Thank you.

Jai Hind!
Parth

In fact, the solutions proposed in terms of working to eradicate poverty, etc is exactly what sangh, sewa international, etc. are doing yet the media maligns them.

While I too enjoyed the feel-good factor where a slum-boy ultimately is able to gain a good life, one point where I would beg to differ is where it is written that “Hindus, Muslims, and Christians have taken turns slaughtering each other during periods of unrest.”

A more detailed look at the history bears out the fact that Hindus have provided far more liberties to minorities than any other people on this planet.

I urge all those who visit Bharat to not just visit relatives, but also to visit our sewa projects and increase our awareness of the various efforts to uplift the downtrodden sections of society.