‘The Indian Hypocrisy’

“All the world’s a stage, and all the men and women, merely players.”

While these lines from Shakespeare undoubtedly bring out the harsh reality of the world we live in, there isn’t any place like our homeland which it holds true for. The only catch being, that while the whole world spins into different acts, we Indians, are happy performing the same play under different names. We are averse to change and reluctant to confess the same.

Mahatma Gandhi once said, “Be the change you wish to see in the world” and it was with such teachings of the Father of our nation that we started our glorious journey to become a great nation. Today, some 60 odd years, billion births and countless strides towards ‘being among the best’ later, we come to face the biggest question presented to us – Have we really progressed?

Never have women been more insecure about roaming the streets even in daylight. Corruption is at such a high, that a party can win an election on merely promising to do away with the same. Education doesn’t guarantee employment and employment doesn’t guarantee equal rights for all sexes. Diversity lurks in the shadow of discrimination while the whole nation rides on the bandwagon of the deceived.

François de La Rochefoucauld once quoted, “Hypocrisy is a tribute that vice pays to virtue”. We Indians talk of being progressive, but the recent racial attacks on African Nationals prove that we haven’t even grown above racism, something our forefathers fought to get rid of. The current state of hypocrisy in the society is such that while we talk about women safety, we fail to educate the males about the same. On the other hand, the women propagate feminism while not letting go of any privilege of being a woman. We claim a waterbody to be divine, yet wait for stringent laws to come into force before we stop exploiting the same. One doesn’t need to think much to come up with a million things we preach diligently and practice hardly.

It is this hypocrisy which is keeping us from realising what we really are, from comprehending the repercussions of our actions, from seeing through the lies that we’re fed and from being among the promising nations, to one of the best.

As Oscar Wilde might put it, “I hope you’ve not been leading a double life, pretending to be wicked and being good all the time.” Maybe we could all benefit from being a little earnest right now.