Opinion Why India is misunderstood abroad

The second decision is about preventing the National Overseas Scholarship recipients from seeking a scholarship to study subjects that they can better learn here. As it is, preventing brain drain has been, for decades, one of our national concerns. In addition, it is a mockery of our own educational institutions to allow Indian scholarship holders to go abroad and learn about Indian society and culture. It is like students from Saudi Arabia going to the US to study Islam. One can understand Indian scholarship holders going abroad for higher learning in subjects like technology or specialised branches of science, as we may not have such institutions here. But to send our own scholars abroad to study the society and culture of India amounts to a self-invited downgrading of our own institutions. This was allowed in total disregard of its negative impact on not just our institutions but also on our collective sense of self-respect and confidence. Through a logical step, the government has now prevented this.

This also calls for an analysis of the challenge of tackling the misperceptions that India has been facing since Independence. Why do people abroad misperceive India? Why does there remain some lack of understanding about India globally? While there may be a variety of reasons for this, three things are fundamental to the issue. First is the penchant for self-flagellation that has long gripped our intelligentsia. Second is our uncalled-for shyness in asserting our national identity, causing an immeasurable shortfall in our sense of belonging, and third is our collective failure in making global opinion-makers and journalists understand India in the proper perspective.

Self-flagellation has become a habit with a large section of our intellectuals, media persons, creative writers and also filmmakers. True, like many other countries, India too has been facing issues like caste-based social discrimination, gender inequality and injustice, as also abject poverty and economic disparities. Also, there is nothing wrong with depicting a realistic picture through not just seminar papers and newspaper articles but through films as well. However, factual portrayal also demands talking about the positive transformations and ongoing efforts to that end. Those who have written column after column on Dalit issues can’t see how the Dalit Indian Chamber of Commerce and Industry ( DICCI) has brought about a remarkable change in the lives of hundreds of Dalit youths by promoting entrepreneurship. Even to tackle the challenge of freeing manual scavengers from their hazardous tasks, DICCI has done some remarkable work that has sadly gone unnoticed by the Indian and foreign media. No matter how huge a transformation is taking place, the “misperception marketing” by some continues.

The origin of this habit of indulging in self-flagellation lies in our hesitation to assert our national identity, leading to a total lack of a sense of pride. Worse is the perverse mindset that makes not taking pride synonymous with being liberal, open-minded and progressive. This is a crass “woke” approach, to say the least.

One aspect of this issue is the clever trap laid by intellectuals, think tanks, universities and journals abroad, many of whom seem to issue a certificate of acceptance only to those who take pleasure in assailing their own country, especially when abroad. Those who get trapped, knowingly or otherwise, return wearing the badge of progressivism on their sleeves. It is not a mere coincidence that only those films that deal with the negative aspects of Indian society are generally considered for awards in global film festivals.

It is true that patriotism is not jingoism. But then, self-flagellation too can’t be equated with being liberal and progressive.

This column first appeared in the print edition on March 8, 2022 under the title ‘Misperception marketing’. The writer is MP, Rajya Sabha and former national vice-president of the BJP