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

SONAL MANSINGH, Odissi dancer, 20th century Draupadi
Odissi dancer, 20th century Draupadi As I grow older, the resolve within me is becoming stronger, that perhaps it has taken the punya (good deeds) of seven births to be born an Indian. And I would want at least seven more births in this land, because I still don't know what it is. Yet it is a fantastic, mystical core. The core that we call Indianness -- that which distinguishes us from the Japanese, the Chinese, the Pakistanis, everyone else -- is still intact. Just like the kernel, even while the exterior shell keeps changing in shape and colour.
I find this very encouraging. Nothing is lost in India. So many came and went, so many got digested, amalgamated, without even a burp. The entity called India is still here within ourselves. The elements, the remnants, and hidden streams of consciousness of thoughts, of traditions, of belief. It is all here, not lost.

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