There's nothing wrong with cricket. There's nothing wrong in cricketers endorsing different products. There's nothing wrong in us not getting the world cup and returning empty handed. Aaah, there I said it and am sure am being lampooned for having said this. But hold on. Why nothing wrong? Because we Indians have still not shrugged our colonial hangover Gandhigiri notwithstanding.
Somewhere deep down we still repect the power an individual can weild. Not an entire nation. Culturally we may be a collective society but aspirationally we always were and remain an individualistic society. We interpret today 'power of one' as the power of 'one' - one man, one woman, one family, one leader, one dynasty or oneself. Unity in diversity was a sugar coated pill forced down the gullible and raw throats of partition torn Indians. But the very same politicians who gave the pill were themselves the victims of power of 'one'. We never were a team. We never could be. It was perhaps never in our genes.
We have always performed as individuals and shone. It was Gandhi and Nehru then, it became Indira, Rajiv and Sonia later. The one team that we thought was a true alliance with a specific role for each person - the NDA - collapsed. The electorate voted for their colonial past. The elected were happy in their present with the power of 'one' status bestowed on them. Everybody was happy. It runs in our history. Single leaders. Mass following.
Did we ever have something like the Boston Tea Party that sparked the American Revolution? Do you recall any one leader in that? Do you recall the Storming of the Bastille which sparked the French Revolution? Any memorable names that come to mind? No. Becasue that was in true sense teamwork. It was a class overthrowing another. Even the Russian Revolution resulted in the peasants overthrowing the czars.
And what do we have? We have the Indian Mutiny. Truly team work. But our need to attach a hero to a movement to give it credence is what makes us what we are today. We want to and seek out names like Rani Laxmibai and Mangal Pandey and valorize them as icons. We never could do a seamless team effort. And when we did it really in the Chauri Chaura incident, Gandhiji suddenly had moral qualms about the 'ethics' of a racial oppression. The struggle for power of 'one' was apparent then, it was apparent also on the president ship of Congress with Subhash Bose. The individual aspiration was too strong for national team spirit to survive. Esprit d'corps is too french for us and most of us do not even know how to pronounce it well, leave aside know its true meaning. It's just not in our genes.
We seem to take the adage - too many cooks spoil the broth - too seriously and wear it on our sleeves. Why else do you think independent India has had almost no successes wherever team work is concerned? Whether it is a political party, a team of sportsmen, corporate offices, group of environmentalists or even the Mandalized doctors, we are a team with no steam. So why blame the poor cricketers? Whoever has shone has been an individual, self motivated, driven and passionate about their goals first and being an Indian and hence playing for the nation happened by happy default later. Examples abound in Sania Mirza, Jyoti Randhawa, Vishwanathan Anand, Narain Karthikeyan, Prakash Padukone in sports, Shiamak Dawar, Amitabh Bachchan, Shahrukh Khan in entertainment, Dhirubhai Ambani and Narayanmoorthy in enterprise and of course the Gandhi dynasty in politics.
So why blame the poor cricketers? They behaved in the most natural way. Whether it was the team itself, or the board, or the selectors, we should have known the story about too many cooks and the broth. Look at what happened to a behemoth of an enterprize, Reliance, when it passed from the first generation to the second. Too many cooks again. Or for that matter most family owned businesses which are now big corporates be they the Birlas or the Bajajs. Or any political alliance.
We are a dichotomous clan. We believe in individual performance. And when the individual is bestowed the power of 'one', we are a team. But bestowing that 'power of one' is itself a struggle. In cricket, a struggle that promises to complete its silver jubilee. The individuals goals are almost always more important than the collective goal.
On the other hand, when collective goal is all what matters, we are a team. As it happened in 1983. There was no single leader. The only leader was the cup. We were self motivated, driven and passionate about cricket. Winning the cup happened by happy default.
very true. i've always maintained that India worships individual achievement.
we may try and jump in someone else's moment of glory and call it a team but it's all about the individual.
which is why we care more about sachin's century than the final match result.
It's all about one.
Posted by: sonaljhuj | November 17, 2009 at 11:57 AM