Among the many admirable traits Indians have, perhaps none defines us better than our propensity for mob violence.
We love being part of violent mobs.
There are enough instances where this has been demonstrated – across the length and breadth of the country. Various pundits have waxed eloquent on this remarkable manifestation of the Indian character. They talk about such probable causes as frustration (either with our lot or the redressal system), a weak and apathetic administration and police force, rabble-rousing politicians and a host of other reasons. I think they all miss the point. We indulge in mob violence because we are like that only.
We are a nation of very timid individuals, but violent mobs. All that shit about Indians, as a nation, being peace-loving and passive is just that – shit. We love the idea of violence, but being smart, we also know that in a violent situation, there is the probability – however small – that we might get hurt ourselves. So, being rational and cerebral and all of that, we seek to minimise that probability. (Thus, we also excel in incidents of individual violence where the threat to us is non-existent. As individuals, we cleverly target all who can’t hit back – women, children, the weak and downtrodden, certain animals…). We endeavour to get that particular variable – the possibility of physical harm to oneself – out of the equation. And the ingenious, inventive and innovative (in these matters) Indian brain hit upon a great concept – mob violence. And we have even managed to give it the respectability of a legitimate form of democratic protest. Wah bhai wah!
The sheer brilliance of the concept is breathtaking. What better way of ensuring zero probability of physical harm to ourselves while indulging in all kinds of violent activities than being part of a mob? In a mob you’re protected. Both from physical harm to yourself, and the other consequent post-violence irritants. Since mob violence has been co-opted into our great democratic tradition, it is today a legitimate expression of the anger of the people, sanctified by years of public and individual apathy.
So whether we want to protest about some cartoons we’ve never seen, or some painting we’ve never looked at, some film we’ve never watched or just some view that we don’t agree with – there is nothing more democratic and equitable (redistribution of wealth and all that!) than a little loot and arson.
Or when we are hurt about the government not including our caste or tribe in the reserved list, we show our displeasure by rioting and destroying public property. Or as members of a political party, we call a bandh and violently enforce it.
Or if, in our never-ending and noble quest to build a crime-free society, we lynch a few alleged thieves – that’s just us taking our civic responsibilities seriously.
Or when we don’t like what’s written in a newspaper we set fire to the newspaper’s office with people inside it. Third-degree burns and death – both powerful and effective means of democratic persuasion. Dead people don’t write negative articles, do they?
In the safety of numbers, these brave Indians go around smashing windshields and stores, burning buses, cars and offices, attacking hapless bystanders and lynching thieves.
In a gleeful, cathartic frenzy, we hit, we lynch, we rape, we loot, we burn, we destroy. And we get away.
We get away on two levels. First, being part of a rampaging mob means our victims pose no physical threat to us. Second, we are always protected against any aftermath by being part of a political, social, religious, caste-based or linguistic group that was expressing a form of democratic protest. We’re a democracy. There’s immunity in numbers in this country.
So let’s continue strengthening the democratic tradition and building a better country by assaulting defenceless people and indulging in a little loot and arson. Let us continue being the brave Indians we are.
Jai Hind.
The Quirky Indian 
July 26, 2008 at 12:05 am
(Sadly) all too true. Well said.
July 26, 2008 at 12:43 pm
Thats why we deserve the moronic politicans.
We redefine Spineless.
Keep writing 🙂
July 26, 2008 at 2:41 pm
true true true. brilliant post. stole words from my mouth though 🙂
July 26, 2008 at 5:24 pm
QI:
This is the kind of double-bind post that really tickles me as an intellectual proposition. 🙂
Those, who come here and agree with you (especially with no qualifying or additional or critical commentary) are doing exactly that – being part of the herd, the mob. Those, who disagree, will be too meek to complain.
What say?
July 26, 2008 at 7:39 pm
@Abhishek – one hears of a new instance of this everyday…..like I said, it’s become institutionalised.
@mystiquedew – thanks! I intend doing just that.
@Che – thanks dude…
@Shefaly – perhaps what I did was articulate what many people already felt, and perhaps no one felt the need to add “critical commentary”. So in this case, it may be uncharitable to accuse anyone of being part of the mob, and even seeing a “mob analogy” in this context may be uncalled for. As many dissenting comments on my other posts testify, there are enough people who disagree with a lot that I have to say, and they certainly don’t shy away from saying it. 🙂 And I’m sure they won’t in this case either!
July 26, 2008 at 8:30 pm
QI:
Chill! 🙂 There is a reason ‘smileys’ were invented but clearly they do not serve their purpose well enough.
At some level, the content of the post almost does not matter (one could, for instance, write about how herd mentalities drive fashion; indeed many have written books about the “wisdom of crowds” etc) but the intellectual irony would still apply. I am sorry that particular, subtle point was almost wasted in being made at all 😦
July 26, 2008 at 8:57 pm
@Shefaly – hmmmmmm. I (finally) see what you were trying to say. Perhaps I am in need of a book along the lines of “How To Pick Up Nuances and Assorted Subtleties And Become A Better Blogger in Just 90 Days!” 🙂
Was the ‘smiley’ an overkill?
Cheers.
July 26, 2008 at 10:10 pm
As if there’s not enough violence around with all these bombs going off all over the place…
On a more realistic note, is there anything that the average Indian can do? Some would say that we could all stand up and vote for the right person, or to make sure that there are enough right persons, we could give up our safe middle class existence, and try to become of these right persons.
But, that kind of thing seems all too impossible to me. Is there anything else that one can do?
😀 Maybe some kind of a brainwash project which starts sending out a message which affects you at the sub-conscious level… Start sending it on the Internet, TV, Radio, Newspaper, Posters… But I guess, for something like this to work, you have got to have a brain (which you will wash)… and it’s quite obvious that those of us who are described in your post, don’t have a brain.
Well, back to the drawing board…
July 27, 2008 at 3:36 am
Hi Quirky Indian –
Whilst I certainly can’t agree or disagree with you about an Indian propensity towards rioting and mob behaviour (from a lack of familiarity with India as a whole), I wonder if Indians are a riotous people ‘by nature’, or perhaps if it’s more a case of fear and indifference – fear of being singled out for not going along with the angry mob, or indifference to the pending threat of violence to a few by many.
If the case is one of fear, then I would think society must do more to prevent mob action (perhaps a more responsive police action?).
If the case is one of indifference, the likes of Elie Wiesel and Martin Luther King, Jr. have spoken eloquently on the dangers of indifference.
(Just why I feel the need or right to weigh in on something of which I know so little, i.e. Indian culture, I am not sure. Perhaps it’s the compelling manner in which you phrase the questions. Thanks for tolerating my involvement in these discussions.)
July 27, 2008 at 10:29 am
Ouch. This post stings! But yes, this is a sad state of decline for a nation whose “mobs” once showed the world a thing or two about non-violent protest.
On a slightly tangential note, (pl. moderate if you think this is off-topic) I must admit to sometimes finding your generalisations a trifle irksome. (vide: We indulge in mob violence because we are like that only. We are a nation of very timid individuals, but violent mobs. All that shit about Indians, as a nation, being peace-loving and passive is just that – shit.) Let me hasten to add I’m not denying that you have a point and I do admire the passion with which you make it. But I have often found that people who indulge in ‘India-bashing’ often choose to ignore two things:
1) the other side of the coin;
2) the fact that we are a nation that’s been independent for less than a century (as opposed to some “advanced”,usually Western, nations, a comparison with whom is usually at the back of their minds).
What we are today is the result of a certain social and political trajectory. And whatever we achieve can only be within that trajectory.
To criticize only the manifestation of a problem without demonstrating awareness of the causative factors (population size,illiteracy, social inequality, etc.) is, to put it charitably, naive. While mobs in India have been known to irrationally burn books and ban films, they have also been known to support worthy causes. (We both live in India. I don’t have to list them, do I?)
July 27, 2008 at 12:29 pm
And lest you take umbrage, QI, at my charge of generalisation, let me explain my understanding of mob violence:
Your mob out on the road is at the bloody end of the chain. To generalize about Indian nature from them is a limited perspective. Mob violence often has political and/or religious sanction in India. It is this sanctioning system that we have to address. This system which has failed to provide a legitimate outlet for anger. This system which has rendered the legal system impotent. This system which is in place because of us – the silent majority. Silent because of fear and/or indiference, as one of your commenters points out. Our fear and indifference puts us, to my mind at least, at the same level as the irate, misguided man/woman who goes out on the road and torches a bus.
And btw, mob violence is human nature, not just Indian nature.
July 28, 2008 at 10:32 am
@Vaibhav – yes, I suppose it has to be the drawing board…
@Liam – what is scary is how mob violence is accepted as a perfectly acceptable phenomenon. And when the “society” you speak of condones these incidents of violence – always justifying it on some pretext or the other – then where does the question of society preventing it come in?
When people form a community, they soon realise the need for some rules, some order. That is how laws and rules come into being. Of course, there will always be those who disregard the laws. That is when the need for enforcers of the law arises. And this works based on ONE CRITICAL ASPECT – that those who want to uphold the rule of law are still in the majority, and those who want to break it are the minority. When that is reversed, the there’s nothing that the law enforcers can do. And that is what I believe has happened in India.
July 28, 2008 at 10:46 am
@Smoke Screen – I was beginning to wonder if anyone would bring up the points you did. Glad you didn’t disappoint! And as usual, your articulation never ceases to impress. But I still don’t agree.
OK, this is going to be a long one.
Of course I can’t claim that what I write applies to all 1.1 billion of us without exception. It doesn’t. But I’ll still say that it applies to enough of us to make it the ‘norm’ in this country. And that is what my “generalizations” are all about. Whether they are about mob violence, or about driving, or about our shitting habits, the number of people who do so is large enough for it, at an observation level, to be seen as an Indian phenomenon. In addition to the examples mentioned in my post, let’s look at some more recent (within a year or so, give or take a few months) ones – Mumbai, Nasik, Pune, Mumbai again, Jammu, Nandigram, Punjab and Haryana, Darjeeling, Guwahati, Kolkata, Hyderabad. And these are just the ones that readily come to mind. Just look around you if you doubt the veracity of what I say. Whether it’s your street, your neighbourhood, your suburb or your town – I’m willing to wager you’ll find more instances of these “irksome generalizations” than you will of the exceptions. And yes, mob violence is human nature, but when I make it a universal Indian trait (based on a casual perusal of Indian news), I do so because I blog under the name “Quirky Indian”, not “Quirky Global Citizen”! My concerns are more Indian. And, as I’ll touch upon later, perhaps nowhere else is mob violence so readily accepted, in a very matter-of-fact-way, as a perfectly legitimate form of protest. Even someone like you seeks to absolve us by quoting history!
Moving on to the next valid point you made – the other side of the coin. Quite apart from what I just wrote in the preceding paragraph, there’s also the fact that there are more than enough people who only look at the other side of the coin. From their innate confidence in India’s already-achieved superpower status, to their strong belief in India’s destiny as the economic fulcrum (they grudgingly admit China into this picture) of the world, to their conviction that India has arrived and that this is our time and that we are the best – there are enough enthusiastic, self-congratulatory citizens patting themselves on the back for a job well done. These are the people who only see the light, and end up being blinded by it. There are people who would rather see how far we’ve come, and be happy. I would rather see how far we’ve to go, and what’s stopping us from getting there.
The argument about the “social and political trajectory” bit is harder to pin down, because it is such a nebulous thing. Before anyone starts frothing at the mouth, let me hasten to add it does have elements of truth. But to dump everything in the backyard of history is also an equally irksome generalization that I come across all the time in discussions like this. Notwithstanding that, let’s accept for a moment – for the sake of discussion – that argument. Does that line of thinking – less than a century of independence, trajectory – carry the implicit assumption that as time progresses, things will get better?
In which case, how does one explain the fact that instances of mob violence have actually increased in the last few years? Or the fact that in the last few years, our identification with religion, caste, language and region has actually become stronger, not weaker? How is this relevant, you ask? It is, because it makes the demonisation of the “other” that much easier, and consequently, makes it easier to indulge in violence against them. Now, does all this mean that as far as the trajectory (of positivity) mentioned goes, we are past the apogee and are rapidly hurtling down the slope? Democracy in India, in my opinion, has become a caricature of what it should be. It has been corrupted, tainted, mauled and maimed beyond recognition. By us. I am equally at fault. As are you. What you call the “system” is something we’ve created. But one which now will be impossible to change, since it has become a regression-inducing incestuous orgy of fragmented identity politics. And too often have these regressions been justified by arguments quoting the “unique Indian context and the causative forces of history”. I am proud of what we have achieved, but I have a contrarian view of where we’re rapidly headed, and it’s not a good place. Call me naïve, but I somehow think that we stand a better chance of moving ahead if we know what the things are that drag us back. At least a better chance than if we just bury our heads in the sand and blame history for all our failures.
And unfortunately, voices such as mine really don’t make an impact in this mob-dominated travesty of Indian democracy. Our numbers are too insignificant to make any difference. Because our democracy has ensured that we only look at the religion, caste, language of those we elect.
Here are some more specific answers to your second comment (mine in caps):
Your mob out on the road is at the bloody end of the chain. WHO PUT THEM THERE? ISN’T UNIVERSAL ADULT SUFFRAGE A POTENT ENOUGH TOOL TO MOVE THEM UP THE CHAIN? AND IF THEY DON’T IS IT THE FAULT OF THE TOOL, OR THE INDIVIDUAL? THE TOOL HAS WORKED WELL ENOUGH ELSEWHERE. OH, I KNOW – MUST BE THE FAULT OF OUR UNIQUE SOCIAL AND HISTORICAL CONTEXT. To generalize about Indian nature from them is a limited perspective. ALREADY ANSWERED – ENOUGH PEOPLE DO THIS TO MAKE THIS A NORM RATHER THAN A GENERALISATION. Mob violence often has political and/or religious sanction in India. It is this sanctioning system that we have to address. This system which has failed to provide a legitimate outlet for anger. This system which has rendered the legal system impotent. IF ANYTHING, IT IS ONLY THE JUDICIARY THAT HAS TRIED TO MAKE A DIFFERENCE. OUR POLITICIANS HAVE FAILED, AND SEEM TO HAVE OTHER PRIORITIES.WHOSE FAULT IS IT THAT WE HAVE CRIMINALS IN PARLIAMENT? OF CINE-STARS WHO HAVE NEVER ATTENDED A SINGLE DEBATE? AGAIN, IS IT THE FAULT OF THE SYSTEM, OR THE PEOPLE WHO PUT THEM THERE? AND WHEN THE LEGISLATORS (INCLUDING THE CURRENT MEDIA DARLING, MR. CHATTERJEE) WANT TO PUT SHACKLES ON THE JUDICIARY, ISN’T THAT BECAUSE LEGISLATORS SWAGGER BASED ON THE WILL OF THE PEOPLE? AND PEOPLE LIKE YOU APPLAUD. AND FINALLY, EXAMINE RECENT INSTANCES OF MOB VIOLENCE. PLEASE DON’T INSULT THE VICTIMS BY ATTRIBUTING A “CAUSE’ TO THESE INSTANCES – IN MOST CASES THE VIOLENCE WAS SHEER BULLYING, MACHISMO AND A CHANCE TO HIT OUT AND NOT BE AFRAID OF RETALIATION. This system which is in place because of us – the silent majority. WRONG. THIS IS A DEMOCRACY, LAST I HEARD. THE SYSTEM IS IN PLACE BECAUSE OF THE VIOLENT MAJORITY, NOT THE ELECTORALLY INSIGNIFICANT MINORITY. IT IS BECAUSE IT’S THE MAJORITY WE SEE BURNING BUSES. WE ARE THE TIMID SILENT MINORITY WHOSE VOICES ARE RESTRICTED TO NEWSPAPERS AND BLOGS. SAD BUT TRUE. Silent because of fear and/or indifference, as one of your commenters points out. Our fear and indifference puts us, to my mind at least, at the same level as the irate, misguided man/woman who goes out on the road and torches a bus. UNFORTUNATELY, PEOPLE LIKE US ARE NOT INDIFFERENT. WE ARE JUST STATISTICALLY AND NUMERICALLY INSIGNIFICANT IN THIS COUNTRY. AS FAR AS VOTING GOES, WE DON”T COUNT. OF COURSE WE ARE ON THE SAME LEVEL…..WHEN ALL IS SAID AND DONE, WE ARE ALL PART OF THE SAME SORRY LOT.
And btw, mob violence is human nature, not just Indian nature. ABSOLUTELY. BUT THERE’S THE SMALL MATTER OF MY BLOGGING UNDER THE NAME “QUIRKY INDIAN” NOT “QUIRKY HUMAN” OR “QUIRKY SOUTH AFRICAN”. ALSO, IT SEEMS TO BE ONLY INDIA WHICH HAS MANAGED TO POSITION ITS MOB VIOLENCE SO WELL WITHIN ITS DEMOCRATIC TRADITIONS….ALMOST AS IF IT’S AS INDIAN AS SHITTING IN THE STREETS. SURE, THERE MAY BE “CAUSATIVE HISTORICAL FORCES” AT WORK HERE….BUT THIS IS THE DEFINING IMAGE OF INDIA……A MOB LYNCHING THIEVES AND THEN, AFTER WORK WELL DONE, SHITTING IN THE STREETS.
July 28, 2008 at 11:53 am
QI:
First off, I apologize for the caustic tone of my comments. Nothing personal was intended. Some things just make the red mist descend for me.(I alone am responsible for that, of course.) But to respond to what seems like a post in itself, I think you’ve entirely missed my point. So here goes.
1. I am not quoting history to absolve us of anything; nor do I ascribe to the self-congratulatory mode of the “India shining” variety.(I do, however, have little patience with an ahistorical perspective.) I fail to see how you’ve arrived at these conclusions.
2. Let me make my point with a more current example: the blasts. This horror has been going on for well over 5 years now. And what do we see in response ?
-Knee-jerk reactions. (Terrorists! Anti-national! Traitors! Inhuman! Muslim? And more such meaningless typecasting.)
-Symptomatic solutions. (Revive POTA. Empower the police. More stringent anti-terror laws. All of which can very easily become weapons of abuse, as you have also written about in an earlier post.)
Where are the people who will stop shouting about the problem and start looking at the politico-socio-economic causes? As long as we keep indulging in posturing, typecasting lip-service about the violence itself, we will never get down to grappling with it. What we need is voices engaging in the debate over why this horror is happening at all. Such voices will never be forthcoming from the nincompoops at the helm. Let at least the educated among us do so.That is my point about mob violence, too.
We owe it to all those struggling to understand why this is happening at all. To that little boy who’s lost his father and brother and is battling for life in a hospital bed at Ahmedabad. To the loved ones of those vegetable vendors killed by the blasts.
What I’m asking for is deeper comprehension of the issue, beyond the “Oh they are like this only’ variety.
There must be something terribly wrong with my communication skills if you didn’t see this.
Ciao.
July 28, 2008 at 1:11 pm
@Smoke Screen –
You know, I almost decided to reply to your original comments with a post, but decided against it. And what a long comment it turned out to be. And no worries, no offence taken.
OK, here we go again:
One. You mentioned the “other side of the coin”, i.e., the good things about India….to which I replied there are enough and more such people out there, who only see the other side. And I believe we shouldn’t sweep the less flattering aspects under the carpet, so I focus on those. Which you objected to in your comment. That is how I came to that conclusion.
Two. It sure seemed to me that you sought to counter my point about the Indian tendency towards violence by talking about how it is actually not the fault of those who indulge in the violence – it is the fault of the causative forces of history. If that doesn’t absolve the goons on the street, I don’t know what does.
Three. This post was never about the blasts, or POTA, or terrorism. This post was about our tendency to take to the streets at the drop of a hat – and in each of the instances given, both in the post and the post masquerading as a comment, the issues were definitely not life and death issues (no pun intended). I mean, who burns people alive because a newspaper favours one brother over another in a matter of dynastic succession? And what historical context will you bring in that will make this less of a crime? What social theory will you quote to mask the fact that it was a display of nothing if not our propensity for violence, and blatant disregard for the law, both of which I talked about. And both of which I maintain are intrinsic to us Indians. Which is why I say we are like this only.
And finally, there’s nothing wrong with your communication skills. It’s entirely my shortcoming if I fail to see any validity in your arguments. I guess that’s because I am like that only, and not because there’s a larger historical context at work here. 😉
Cheers!
July 28, 2008 at 2:12 pm
QI:
Nothing justifies violence. I think it is quite unfair to ‘read’ my stand as suggesting that I’m quoting ‘history’ or ‘political/social theory’ to justify violence. I’m pretty sure you know that’s not what I meant.
The reference to history was only to remind you that you cannot typecast Indians as “like this only.” It was not a justification or a denial of any sort. The truth is a compendium of both ‘types’ not either one. That’s what I was asking you to recognize.
As for social theory – I did not quote any, did I? What I asked was, who are your targets? The puppets? Or the ones holding the strings? There are social and politcal contexts to riots and mobs going berserk. That does not amount to saying it justifies the violence.
Anyways, let it be. I doubt very much that we can see each other’s point of view.
July 28, 2008 at 2:35 pm
@Smoke Screen-
My apologies if you think I have been harsh or unfair. And while you, personally, may not use this stand to justify violence, I, too, am pretty sure you know that this stand has been used time and again to condone and explain violence.
We see and hear about enough Indians doing this sort of stuff to actually classify this as a norm. And social and political contexts, in the final analysis, are overshadowed by the individual’s desire to do violence, and his smug knowledge that he will be safe from any repercussions. Finally, it is about the man on the street, and as he bashes another human’s head in, perhaps it’s time to recognize that while the contexts may provide him immunity and kudos, it was finally HIS decision to go out there and take a life.
I have enjoyed this discussion with you, but as you rightly pointed out, this is going nowhere. So, until the next disagreement, peace!
July 30, 2008 at 8:16 am
Don’t agree with your reasoning entirely… sure, we’re violent inside – but then so is the rest of the human species. As Freud said, generations of natural selection has left us a huge dollop of aggressive genes.
I think the reason we have so much mob violence in India is because we know we can get away with it. We know that either a political mai-baap will bail us out; or the bogged-down court will ignore us; or the police will turn a blind eye; or blah blah blah endless possibilities.
July 30, 2008 at 8:57 am
Quirky Indian, I am definitely going to have to update my Netflix preferences…because I do not know these movies!!! (Although, based on what I’ve read here, I’m not sure that’s a bad thing). I can add the semi-brain dead feedback that I saw the new X Files movie this weekend…and it was beyond revolting. If there’s one thing I don’t need in my “entertainment” it’s human monstrosity. Give me aliens, Big Foot, and the Loch Ness Monster any day. Human atrocities are far too realistic and plausible to be entertainment!
As for Smoke Screen’s comment, my brother has a theory that all humans are violent fighters by nature (survival of the fittest, etc.). I tend to be more of an optimist (or is that delusional?), but I suppose it’s possible…
July 30, 2008 at 12:38 pm
@Anuja – the closest analogy I can give is that of motive vs. opportunity in crime. Sure, Indian democracy has ensured ample opportunity for mob-violence, as you yourself have pointed out….but the opportunity in itself is of little value without the motive – in this case the intrinsic tendency towards violence. There’s a lovely Urdu word that captures what I was trying to say – fitrat.
@Wideawakeinwonderland – Thanks for the comment. That’s a point that many readers have made. I suppose both sides feel very strongly about their respective points of view….really don’t see a meeting of minds on this one!
August 1, 2008 at 2:59 pm
Wow! This post is a real interesting eye opener.
September 26, 2008 at 6:05 pm
[…] Here are two recent demonstrations from the vast reservoirs of our bounty. Oscar Fernandes – Union Labour Minister – practically justified the murder, by disgruntled ex-workers, of the CEO of a company in Noida, adding for good measure that this should serve as a warning to managements. He later apologised. (On a separate note, this, sadly, was yet another vindication of my theory that Indians love mob violence.) […]
February 21, 2009 at 8:17 pm
yes,we love the idea of violence..even those who think that they are otherwise sane individuals….(maybe this is a diff point,but when I read of Gujarat and all that took place in gory detail I was just dumbstruck…the sane ones,the people who got o work with you and me are also capable of killing someone??)
it is the Jekyll and Hyde personality I think…psychologists would have a field day with us..as a country and all tha we are..
good post hard hitting though found the scenario it paints to be so hopeless …maybe I still dont want to accept the truth…I know we are like this…but I can argue for the other side..
*confused*and Hopeful
February 22, 2009 at 10:25 am
Here from Bones’ blog. I think we are not just violent but also uncivilised.
You sarcasm conveys it perfectly!
And we have a massive inferiority complex which makes us compare our glorious past with the world today, we live with excuses and in denial.
If we don’t even acknowledge a problem how do we even begin to deal with it?
I fear we have always been violent – we have a history of coups d’etats, of brothers killing each other, plunder by outsiders and plunder by our own brethren. If the law is respected even now we have some hope otherwise we are doomed. I blogged about similar issues too,
http://lifeofanindianhomemaker.blogspot.com/2008/12/i-am-proud-of-india-today-not-india-of.html