What it Means to be an Indian

For some, the thoughts come easily, dripping with patriotism or pure venom. For others, it needs hours of conversation for the words and feelings, usually buried deep or hardly ever considered, to surface. INDIA TODAY presents frank, unguarded thoughts of some of the best known -- and some totally unknown -- people across the nation who make up the fabric of India. After 50 years of Independence, this is the voice of India, a reflection of who we are. It shows how far we have come. And how far we need to go.

Interview by KALLI PURIE
Photograph by BANDEEP SINGH

INDER KUMAR GUJRAL, Prime Minister
Pride in your country is something you needn't express everyday, but it is there. Pride is abstract, it isn't a mantra you can get up every morning and recite. I don't agree that our young generation don't have it. I think it is there in the twinkle in their eyes, in the pride in their work.

The fact is that 50 years ago my family slept on the railway platform, and today I am prime minister. This is a combination of the Punjabi ethos of robust optimism and the Indian ethos of accommodation, adjustment and assimilation.

For me, Indianness is summed up in the fact that in 1947 we imported a sewing needle, now we make everything from a sewing needle to a satellite. Jo socha na tha, vo aaj socha to hai. Jo dekha na tha, vo aaj dekha to hai.

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