Self depreciation

Today I received a text from my friend, Sonia. It read, "Indians worship goddess Laxmi, but US in the richest country. Indians worship goddess Saraswati, but Japan has the most intelligent people. Indians worship God Vishwakarma, but Germany has the best machines. Indians worship every god, but other countries excel at everything. The fact is India is the country that depends on gods to make them successful".

While I was reading, I received a text from her, "I agree to this". The text and her opinion enraged me. I thought to myself why Indians indulge so much in self depreciation? Why Indians need to believe that other countries are far better than ours and we are far inferior to them? Why Indians take pleasure in seeing the negative side of the story? Why do we Indians see our own progress and decide it is not good? Why do we deliberately ignore the good traits of our nation and focus only on shortcomings? Why we Indians come up with a toxic conclusion that India is not a developing? I never see people from other countries saying bad things about their nation, then why only Indians have to be critical of their own nation?

This was not the only instance. At office meets, friend meet ups, family events, the topic of India's progress comes up and I often get to hear, "India is in a critical state. Desh ka kuch nahi ho sakta". My mind always goes "why? Why we Indians think that we are a lost cause?"

Every time I hear such arguments, my blood boils with anger. In my own lived experience, I have seen the progress myself. I strongly believe that India is moving in a positive direction based on the changes I have seen. Let me share just a few examples:

Ever since my childhood, I have seen numerous terror attacks on my city. But in last few years, there has not been a single attack. I see this as a success of intelligence service. Why is this not a sign of progress?

I came from a lower middle class family. I saw us elevating to upper middle class family. A lot of people share this success story with me, because of the rapid industrialization. Why is that not a progress?

In my childhood, I have seen my mother counting money at the end of the month and worrying how we will cope up. Now we do not see this struggle. We all earn enough to live a comfortable life. How is this not a sign of progress?

I am seeing that each service is improving day by day. Transport is becoming easier and affordable to masses. How is this not a sign of progress?

Most people can afford smartphone and internet. How is that not a sign of progress?

These and countless other examples I can quote based on my own short lived experience and I can see the progress. But of course people who consider themselves to be far more intelligent that the crowd turn a blind eye to this saying they are seeing a 'bigger picture'. But what about you are ignoring the changes at granular level which tell the real story?

I agree that we have room for improvement. We have a long way to go as a nation. Yet whenever I see such self depreciating things, the patriot in me cannot stay quiet.