India - The land of denial

About 90 years ago, an American tourist named Katherine Mayo wrote a scathing attack on the contemporary Indian scenes and what she understood to be Indian attitudes about important socio-economic questions. The book, called " Mother India ", pulled no punches in its denunciation of Indian attitude to women's health, untouchability etc. The reaction was swift, and equally scathing. Gandhi described her book as a " drain inspector's report ". The Mahatma lost no time in berating her for focussing on the country's seedy aspects. Lala Lajpat Rai was equally acerbic in his denunciations of the American tourist, basically stating that this is a writer that looks for mud, and wallows in it when she finds it.

About 90 years have passed since Miss Mayo wrote her criticism of Indian society. Somewhere between 300 million and 500 million Indians live in dire poverty in 2010. Millions of children die from preventable causes every year. Caste distinctions and caste-based exploitation are still realities in India. What would the Mahatma say if he saw today's India ? In many ways, the " drain " that the Mahatma referred to so sarcastically has become more pervasive and more ubiquitious.

How do you explain away such gargantuan failures ? By pointing to a few successful software firms and a few billionaires ? And dismissing the travails of the country's majority as a case of " drains ", as Gandhi did 90 years ago ? No matter what the merits of Miss Mayo's book, or of the counter-attack against her, today, in 2010, the " drain " is a living reality and it stinks. It stinks even more than it did 90 years ago because we live in the 21st century.