A jigsaw puzzle about identity

There is a peculiar Indian trait that is able to distance an individual from his or her immediate surroundings. Therefore, when an Indian complains about the terrible way others drive, he is absolving or distancing himself by creating the Other.

When we lament of how Indians are dirty, or unambitious, or moralistic, or corrupt, or otherwise venal, we are actually talking of the Self vs the Other, where the Self is not typically Indian to the Other's Indianness that is rhetorically seen as the root of the malaise that grips India.

This interjection of Indianness is the premise for Pavan Varma's new book where the diplomat takes leave from the anger of The Great Indian Middle Class to write a feel-good update on Indianness.

As others from Hsieun Tsang to Mark Twain have noted, India, and Indians, confound: for everything that can be said for them, the opposite can be just as true. And so, while Indians are professedly non-violent, there can be no more wretchedness than the indifference with which they view suffering or pain other than their own.

There are, of course, the other absolutes: the largest poor have a middle class greater than the population of most countries, and an increasing number of millionaires and billionaires. For every Andhra farmer contemplating suicide is an entrepreneur who has tasted success.

These and other examples, information that bombards India and Indians constantly in these days of mass communication, is familiar territory. Cocktail conversations begin and end with the Indian ability to achieve but under-perform, to face the greatest odds and survive the greatest deprivation but relinquish success for stability.

Through these pluralisms, how does one get to the heart of the matter, the one, abiding definition of the Indian that is acceptable and invincible?

The answer, Varma tells us, does not exist. There is, he admits, a new identity that is being forged even as this is being written, of a pan-Indian culture that is influenced by wealth and power, by ambition, buying power and technology, by films, global successes and the NRI, but many of these influences have been part of the Indian ethos ever since the perception of India itself, and perhaps even longer.

Varma finds examples from the Vedic texts and later epics and literature that exonerate the building of wealth, where the trader is as important as the protector and the state.

This is where Varma falters for these books written by Brahmins, for Brahmins and the powerful elite of the Kshatriyas, do not percolate to the common folk tales that derive their material from the grassroots level.

Therefore, the Panchtantra fables, for example, that reflect everyday, common concerns, are condemnatory of banias, and adjectives describe them as cunning, wicked, shrewd "" traits that are clearly not desirable.

He has just as little success explaining the conundrum of a society that is seen as non-violent when it is often cruel and strife ridden as it is pacifist. India's pacifism stems from generations and centuries of penury and want, in a land that was often at the cross-roads of everything from migration to invasion.

He raises an important issue, however, pointing out that rebellion became difficult (and is still so) when every Indian is a minority in some manner because of divisions created by religion, caste, sub-caste, profession, habitation, elitism (even the English-speaking are a minority among themselves).

This is also why Indians respect power "" it gives them the notion of the powerful before whom their subservience becomes essential, and who can also be blamed for any crisis. Taking responsibility (or shirking it) is, after all, another characteristic Indian trait.

That these traits are also its strengths is what Varma dwells on at some length, and these will be the anchors around which a new society will develop.

The triumph of Indian democracy, he argues, is that it gives the impoverished or those denied status, some hope "" just enough to maintain status quo, while education has created a workforce that is today leading the IT revolution (he argues that Indians are mathematically inclined, having invented the zero, and therefore have taken to the age of technology like fish to water).

What happens then to the myth of the Indian being other-worldly? "Indians can be incredibly focused about pursuing the concrete benefits of this world," Varma writes. He points out that the pursuit of ambition and power is characteristically Indian, and that spirituality should not be mistaken for lack of social approval towards the pursuit of more worldly pleasures.

Nor need one worry overmuch about inter-religious conflicts that do not have their genesis among the people at the lowest level (where inter-dependability is highest) but are often caused for reasons other than religion.

Varma also makes a cogent argument about an Indian identity where, other than a common religion and culture, there is little familiarity between the food, language or dress. Yet, in an environment that is nurturing (education and job opportunities being common denominators) they find it easier to forge a common identity.

This will surge as technology, entrepreneurship and governance transform India into the world's third largest economy by 2050, along with America and China.

One doesn't need Varma to point to the writing on the wall, but after he has taken pains to put into writing what the urban elite has been discussing over their choice of an evening's spirits, it's time someone penetrated deeper into the complexities of India to unravel the true meaning of Being Indian.

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BEING INDIAN: THE TRUTH ABOUT WHY THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY WILL BE INDIA'S

Pavan K Varma
Penguin/Viking
Price: Rs 325
Page: 238