Make in India or Made in India
I received a mail from my brother with the clipping “unbelievable but
true: showing the amazing feat of a 6’2” Yogi in US- not of Indian origin-
squeezing himself into a 15.7x 16.9x20.9” container. (you can access this video
at https://www.facebook.com/
Bemused by our cleverness to see
the linked-in membership of pride and lament ( as seen in the comments about
the Yogi), I went out for my morning walk. I saw half a dozen young men
crouched on their knees waiting for the coach’s rasping cry: “Get set ready, move
on your hands and knees”. They crawled about fifty metres on all fours with their
bruised knees and bent bodies and in that posture they resembled our
pre-historic ancestors. True to my Indian genes, on behalf of the homo-sapiens,
I lamented that our race has forgotten the skills of our great grand ancestors though
I swelled with pride that we know now to walk on our feet and not crawl on our
hands and knees.
This is what we learnt from our freedom struggle- no crawling before
the British, but walking on our feet hand in hand with fellow citizens of the
land. We have stayed together as Indians for the last sixty seven years and
have not crawled before the mighty Chinese after the 1962 war or before Nixon’s
threat during the Bangladesh war. Nor have we crouched in fear after the 26/11
terrorism or before the current looming ISIS threat to destroy us. Post independence,
we have thrown out the shackles of being an underdeveloped nation to become a
developing nation and today we are in a position to invite the Chinese and the Japanese
to set up their units to manufacture(make) in India.
But the moot question is whether the Japanese and Chinese products will
have a tag “Made in India” or “Made in India by China/Japan”. If we want to
stand incredibly tall on our feet, should not we encourage quality products
made in India by India? For all the praise our industrialists are showering on
our Prime Minister, why can’t they make large scale investments that will
restrict foreign investments? We have a large number of the world’s richest men
amongst us and we do not have to beg others to set up shops here. We have
forgotten how we allowed the English to start as traders and ended with ceding
our nation to their rule? Even today we have a craze for products made outside
India. This is because our local products compromise on quality. Instead of
being a developed nation and exporting “made in India” products, aren’t we
stopping short with the slogan “make in India”? This is not an attempt to cavil
at our PM’s lofty idea to invite foreigners to set up “make in India” companies
but an ambitious desire that we learn to be on our feet and not crawl before
the foreign investors whose interest in India is far from being altruistic. They
are quick to accept our generosity in terms of land given at cheap rate, availability
of cheap labour and use of our natural resources. If US, UK
and Europe were able to set up their indigenous infrastructure, availing of cheap
labour from India and from other underdeveloped nations, can’t we use our own ‘cheap’
labour to make products in India and raise them to international quality and
standard?
The picture sent on the video clip is not of an Indian yogi, but that
of a foreigner. We seem to follow our native philosophy that exhorts us to give
and not ‘take’. Not only we give our yoga, our Gita, our ancient wisdom as well
as our modern ‘cheap’ labour to the world outside, we never take the lessons
from them how to stand on our feet with majesty, dignity and self esteem!
Do we want “Make in India” by Chinese and Japanese or do we want “Made in India” by Indians?
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