THE only ‘Made in India’ product, we should be proud of sending abroad, and worth exporting is the product of peace and non-violence that was taught by Gandhiji and that won us our freedom. Otherwise, the very concept of making something that foreign powers have innovated just makes us worker ants.
And why would they want to make something in our country instead of doing it on their own, except that our labour is cheaper than what they pay for their workers. Which makes us a sort of old colonial slave labour force. Yes, think about it. We as a people have the brains to create and innovate as good or even better than those who live abroad, and to be told, “Here, this is the design, just produce!” is an insult.
For many years I drove a Tata Estate car. It was the costliest car in the market, but not the best car in the country, but even as I drove it, I was proud the design was Indian. One day, while in Spain, I saw the Tata Safari, and shouted, “That car is Indian!” Can we shout the same way when we see an iPhone that was made in India? No, we can’t because it was never designed by us.
What a huge nation we are, and why is it we still can’t make something that becomes a world beater? First, we need to stop thinking of ourselves as the world’s cheap labour force. We need to stop being used as a slave plantation, and start thinking bigger. Look at Japan, South Korea and China, all countries who are Asian, how is it, they are designing, producing, and exporting their products? Because they are able to innovate.
Something that is stopping us from innovating, is our weakness in imagining, questioning, and thinking. The British left us with an educational system that made us a country of clerks to serve them better, and our politicians after that have made us worse. They don’t want thinkers, because just like the British felt, our politicians realise that a thinking Indian can’t be fooled by them anymore. And fooled we have been year after year after year.
The same Indian, going abroad, and studying there, becomes a world beater. Not here. Even as these elections draw to a close, and we elect a new set of representatives to sit in Parliament, let us shout ourselves hoarse to have a ‘thinking’ educational system for our children.
We have been worker ants too long. We have seen how a simple man in khadi cloth exported his idea throughout the world, and with him in mind, and knowing we can do it, we need to throw away our worker uniforms, and don the suits of those who create, design and innovate. Stop being worker ants, and start being the boss..!
—bobsbanter@gmail.com
