10 Simple Reasons Why I Love My Country India

10 Simple Reasons Why I Love My Country India

Indians may have forgotten all other things that Mahatma Gandhi taught them. But they strictly follow his philosophy of civil disobedience.

By Rakesh Raman

I’m a small man and I live in a big country called India. During my school days, I was always told that India is great. But despite my constant quest during those days, I could never know why India is great.

My quest continued. Now, after all these years, I’ve realized that my country is great, indeed. Why? Here are the 10 reasons:

1. Production Capacity: With nearly 1.4 billion people produced here, India contributes more than one-seventh to the world’s total populace. In this race, my country has already left arch rival China also behind. Will you believe me if I say there are more people here than the number of insects? 

And most people also live like insects – in open air, without a floor underneath and without a ceiling on their heads. And in this production race, India continues to show remarkable growth.

2. Patience: I’ve learnt a lot here. Among other virtues, I’ve learnt to be patient, to be tolerant. For instance, I live in India’s capital New Delhi. And I never complain when I don’t get electricity for hours almost everyday and when I don’t get drinking water in my home. 

And without any difficulty, I can cross the pits, which are called roads here. But I confess I’m not as tolerant as my friends in other smaller towns and villages which exist like uninhabited jungles.

3. Efficiency: How can you say it’s a slow country? I’ve experienced everything working extremely fast in our offices. You can get anything (legal or illegal) done in minutes, as the government officers are so helpful. 

But you need to cooperate with them by paying them the right amount of bribe, which can vary from a cup of tea to millions of dollars depending on your work.

4. Faith: India is a country of Gods. Others may say that God is one, but we have dozens of Gods here – in almost every corner of the country. Most of them keep long hair and wear saffron clothes. And like herds, millions of people run after them as devotees. 

And if some of the Gods have more experience in terms of number of years as a God, they can rope in even the Prime Minister, the President, big businessmen, politicians, and even sportsmen who start behaving like tamed pigs in front of such Gods.

5. Management Skills: Indians have the best management skills that others may like to emulate. And the right example to evaluate these skills is the movie market. In terms of producing the number of movies in a year, India’s Bollywood can beat even Hollywood. 

You may be thinking that thousands of people must be managing such a huge movie market. No. You’ll be surprised to know that just a handful of traditional families have been controlling the entire Bollywood for years. And they’ve pledged to do so in future also.

6. Generosity: We Indians do not believe in embarrassing others by defeating them in any arena. That’s why we always prefer to stay as laggards in all conceivable fields including business, technology, entertainment, sports, and others. 

Yes, cricket is a totally different ballgame. In this game, we can lead others and win even the World Cup – provided the matches are fixed in our favour and not more than six real cricket-playing countries should participate in the tournament.

7. Richness: Some may think India is a poor country. But my country’s richness is known all over the world. Look at this: Here, one rich man can have a 27-storey house worth billion of dollars – a sort of record. 

That’s a separate issue if there are millions of others who have no place at all to live and many die every year in extreme winter cold or summer heat on the open roads. Let’s not mix the two facts.

8. Equality: Other countries may need leaders or something; here we’re all equal. We don’t have any leaders in the entire country. It seems some supernatural power is running our country. 

Even the people at the topmost positions don’t have any role in managing the country’s affairs. They simply come to their offices in the morning and go back in the evening. So all are equal – from a peon to a PM.

9. Gandhian Beliefs: Indians may have forgotten all other things that Mahatma Gandhi taught them. But they strictly follow his philosophy of civil disobedience. They can strike work even at the least provocation without thinking about the result. 

There are dozens of demonstrations on roads almost everyday in different parts of India. Mahatma Gandhi must be smiling from the heavens looking at his ‘true followers.’

10. Forgiving: We, in India, never have a vindictive attitude and allow even the cruelest criminals to become rulers in the country. How? Look at the data: At least one-fourth of the 540-odd Indian Parliament members are involved in all sorts of criminal activities, including human trafficking, immigration rackets, embezzlement, rapes, murders, and even massacres. 

We forgive them. After committing crimes, these politicians become bigger heroes and they can even become top-level ministers or even the prime minister.

These are the reasons that always inspire me to salute India. Please don’t stop me. I want to be proud of my country.

By Rakesh Raman, who is a national award-winning journalist and social activist. He is the founder of the humanitarian organization RMN Foundation which is working in diverse areas to help the disadvantaged and distressed people in the society.