The Solitary Indian

The August 22nd Times of India had an article by Anil Dharker about the  setting up  of a Symphony Orchestra of India, in which Zubin Mehta expresses his view as to why  Western classic music has not flourished in India. He feels that is because "We have another great stream !Hindustani and Carnatic music have such deep roots in our country that, perhaps, we didn't feel the need to look at any other musical tradition." He goes on to contrast the difference between Western and Indian classical music. "In the former a large group of individuals come together to form a cohesive whole ( say a symphony orchestra) and individual brilliance submerge itself in collective excellence ..... Contrast that with Indian music where individuality is supreme. ... Instead there is the soloist alone..."

This pretty much sums up the  Indian psyche. The  Indian sportsmen or sportswomen,  who have done well in world championships are individual athletes, whether it is in the form of shooting, wrestling, boxing, badminton, tennis, golf, chess, billiards and so on. Yes I know some of you will argue, what about cricket ? Apart from Dhoni or Tendulkar who might put the team before self, Sehwag, Yuvraj could not care less when  they go out to bat.

Also one often gets asked  as to why Indians excel as managers both  domestically and internationally, but yet we cannot build our infrastructure or institutions to speed up our economic growth.It appears that when the individual  manager is judged on his performance,you perform well, but when you are part of the monolithic government and there is no evaluation of  your performance, both positive or negative, the worst comes out.

You reluctantly  have to come to the conclusion that in India we put ourselves first before the country, or team  and this shows in our attitude and behavior in the street, in government and politics. While individuality is to be admired, there has to be a balance between self and the greater good in being disciplined or following the rules. This has to be inculcated at the school level - only then will we change.






.