More Indians than ever before

I was as appalled as some of our ministers who tweeted their outrage when a German magazine recently published a cartoon mocking our population It happened the week we surpassed China and the cartoon in question reportedly showed a train swamped with passengers inside and out As anyone familiar with India knows our trains are nothing like that exaggerated image They are among the most comfortable relaxed modes of transport in the world and the notion that we have no space is ridiculous In fact I canrsquot recall the last time I saw a crowded train in our country so I was glad our ministers attacked that magazine for propagating a lieA part of me realised that those tweets made us seem like a touchy bunch of people of course because foreigners would wonder why our politicians had nothing better to do than attack cartoonists However I believe I understood why they needed to do thisHerersquos my theory Irsquom pretty sure a lot of countries have been nervous about what a world with more Indians will look like and the sooner they understand that we are merely obsessed with everyone getting to know us better the calmer they will be Give us some positive pats on the head talk about how we have such amazing cuisines or something and we will curl over and purr It really is that simpleThis is also why I was happy with that new statistic about our becoming the worldrsquos most populous nation It made me realise what an immense opportunity it offered us to change the way everyoneelse functions If there are more Indians than anyone else on the planet it stands to reason that we may soon be able to set the standards for everyone else to follow beginning with our legendary approach to the truth Everyone knows we are honest to a fault We look at our country and recognise that it is almost flawless which is something the world outside has refused to do for a while This is one of the first things we can address and change when we are a majorityLook at what the world outside says when it mentions India these days They speak of fascism or of how democracy is allegedly shrinking They mention nonissues like our eroding judicial institutions or how our freedom of the press rankings are falling There is a constant stream of negativity and not a word about the great stuff wersquore doing There is no mention of our Vande Bharat trains for instance that run almost five minutes faster than our earlier trains that were essentially useless This sort of constant criticism doesnrsquot reflect the reality of our lives and more of us pushing back on such accusations can boost our profile significantly in the years to comeWhen there are more of us it will also be easier for us to share our best attributes with other nationalities such as our love of cleanliness whenever we go our smoothlyfunctioning bureaucracy our aptitude for editing history textbooks and the skill with which we rename streets buildings and airports every decade or so Itrsquos hard to imagine the world not being able to appreciate these qualities once they understand their benefitsMaybe the government should spend a little more time and energy tracking other offensive cartoons and sending strongly worded tweets about how these are racist and radically at odds with who we are Our ministers have always been vocal after all which is why we have never experienced situations where a foreign power has taken over parts of our land and renamed villages or towns This is the sort of belligerence the world needs to know tooItrsquos important to remember that we have never been the kind of nation that belittles or subjugates smaller groups of people We are not insecure When we are a majority we will behave with grace and equanimity safe in the knowledge that we are not under any threat always happy to accommodate people with alternative points of view It has been one of our greatest strengths for centuries and one of the reasons why the world should welcome our larger numbers with happiness rather than warinessFinally if a foreign country has doubts about what a world with more Indians will be like they can ask a representative of our minority communities Havenrsquot we felt safer here over the past decade than at any other time in our historyWhen he isnrsquot ranting about all things Mumbai Lindsay Pereira can be almost sweet He tweets lindsaypereiraSend your feedback to mailbagmiddaycomThe views expressed in this column are the individualrsquos and donrsquot represent those of the paper