LET US NOT GENERALIZE

          We Indians love generalizing & more often than not it steers towards stereotyping. Few examples of regional stereotyping are – All Punjabis are very loud & love doing Bhangra at the drop of a hat (thanks to Bollywood); all Bengalis are very intellectual; all Gujaratis are always money minded; all Marwaris are misers (Kanjus Marwaris); all Kashmiri Muslims are anti Indians; all South Indians love having curd rice daily and many more. The list is huge.

          Well I can see where few of these have originated from. Many of the Gujaratis are businessmen and businessmen have to be money minded. If you are not money minded then you cannot run a very successful business (be it small scale or large scale). Ambanis, Tatas, Birlas, Zuckerbergs, Bezos, Gates all were or are money minded. But not all Gujjus are businessmen & not all Gujjus businessmen are very successful. So they definitely have more attributes than just being money minded. Bengalis are considered serious intellectuals because of few prominent personalities like Rabindranath Tagore, Satyajit Ray, Ritwik Ghatak, etc. who were great poets, writers & film directors. But not all Bengalis are like that. Many Bengalis are fun loving & carefree too. Many Kashmiri Muslims are police personnel in Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) & soldiers and officers in Indian Army and are involved in fighting against armed separatists & militants in the Valley.

          These were regional stereotypes. Similarly we have stereotypes in castes, religions, genders, class, race, political parties & in many other areas. Not just on national level, we in fact like to generalize internationally too. We say China is a bad country. Chinese people are bastards. That’s wrong to say. (The same people who say this have absolutely no problem in buying Chinese goods.) It’s not that I have been to China & am saying this from my personal experience. I don’t need to go to China to prove my point. Ideally we should say Chinese government is bad or wrong as their decisions or policies are wrong or detrimental to India. We share territorial & diplomatic conflict with China. (Although we share great trade relations with them) And these decisions are taken by Chinese government – Communist Party of China (CPC). So let’s blame their government. Let us not generalize this by stating that entire China is bad. Yes many of the Chinese citizens may believe that India is on the wrong side of the conflicts we share, latest being the Doklam standoff but that too I will partly blame on their government as that thought process to Chinese citizens are wrongly fed by the government. All the media outlets are strongly supervised by the Chinese government. Many of them are actually state run & the remaining private ones are under the lens of government.  Reporters Without Borders consistently ranks China very poorly on media freedoms in their annual releases of the Press Freedom Index. In 2018, China is ranked 176 out of 180 nations.

          With Pakistan, yes we share a history of enmity & hatred towards each other because of the riots happened during Partition & the many wars we have fought with each other since independence. So yes they hate us. It is true to a large extent. But still I would like to believe that there are many (or few) Pakistanis who do not hate India & want peace on our borders. Yes it’s quite tough to fathom that. I understand this is not an easy thing to agree on but there are Pakistanis who have friends & relatives living in India. Economically higher strata people fly to India on weddings or other celebrations whereas economically lower strata people travel to India via Samjhauta Express to attend weddings/celebrations or for pilgrimage and healthcare purposes. I am sure many of them return to Pakistan cherishing their wonderful experiences of staying in our country & breaking their stereotypes on India & Indians which they had in their minds prior to their visit here. Yes travelling opens up the mind & helps learning new stuff about other cultures, regions, religions & countries. It’s the Pakistani government & military who are responsible for harboring terrorism against India & for the continuous ceasefire violations at the border. Many of their normal citizens have no role in these. Although we don’t share bilateral cricketing ties currently, but many of the Pakistani cricketers like Wasim Akram, Shoaib Akhtar, Shoaib Malik & others are quite friendly with Indian cricketers.  

          Another country we like to generalize often is America. I have heard so many times people say since my childhood that America is a selfish & a dishonest country. It is said that America is largely responsible for all the crises & militancy & terrorism issues that the Middle East is grappling with. It’s partly true for few countries (especially Iraq) but definitely not for the whole or majority of the Middle East. America invaded Iraq in 2003 on the pretext that Iraq possessed Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMDs) which was never found in Iraq. Also America had unnecessarily dragged itself to Vietnam War & faced heavy consequences for it. The American government was responsible on both the occasions. In fact the American citizens largely condemned the action of American government on both occasions. Actually more than Indians, many Islamic terrorist outfits wrongly generalize America for the above acts. Hence they have killed many innocent American citizens as an act of revenge for the actions of their government.

          Let’s understand one thing guys. All the decisions & policies are taken by a government of a country (whatever kind of government it is – democratic or communist or military or dictatorship) & never by its citizens, which impact millions of people worldwide. Be it any country – India, China, Pakistan or USA, it’s the government who decides. Citizens don’t decide anything except on referendums which happens rarely & that too only in few countries. Yes citizens can only protest the actions or decisions taken by a government. (Not possible in China though).

          Another generalization we Indians do about America is that all the parents kick their children out of their homes soon after they turn 18. According to a website, approximately 70% of American grownups don’t stay with their parents. These include boys & girls varying from 18 to 30 years of age. So first of all, not all youth move out and secondly, certainly not exactly at 18 years of age. And many of them do go back to their parents or bring them in when their parents become too old to take care of themselves. It depends upon various cultural, economical, educational & individual factors. Many of the Indians believe that Americans don’t love their family as much as we Indians do. This is utter bullshit. Love is a universal emotion & it’s pretty same across the world.

          So guys lets be more specific. Let us not generalize as generalization brings unfairness to many people as you are forcefully pulling them into your false context to which they actually have no relation with.