The terrible hypocrisy in our society has been troubling me - and the newspapers are full of it - how people who mouth all kinds of wonderful ideals, in real life do just the opposite; the awful corruption in India shining; the attitude of chalta hai, and the we-are-like-this-only line that we sprout to cover up intolerable and unacceptable botch-ups, the evil power of 'khadi-clad' politicians over the people they are meant to serve; the impotency of the judicial system meant to protect its citizens; the carelessness with which we trample on those who are less fortunate/of a different caste or creed/who speak a different language/who belong to a different region, all the while talking about 'Indianess'. And there does not seem to be a respite...
I'd read about multiple identities somewhere, cannot remember...the article said that Indians have multiple identities. We have the identity of the region where we are born (therefore we learn to speak the local language, and maybe even identify with the local culture), the region to which we actually belong (therefore we speak our mother tongue, and identify with our own specific culture), caste, sub-caste, creed, social position... have I left out any? If we belong to that minuscule class of English-speaking Indians (who therefore cannot help being slightly westernized, or are clearly West-philes), then that is another identity we have.
So, does our national talent for hypocrisy have something to do with our multiple identities? Multiple identities would presuppose multiple personalities. How do all these reconcile with each other? Guess this is where the whole problem of who we really are lies. Maybe, too, this is why we are so good at faffing - we have to somehow or the other bring about some kind of synchronization between all the confusion of personalities inside of us! Of course there are those who scrupulously lead their own lives free from hypocrisy, in spite of the multiple identities, but they are very much in the minority. And, like all minorities these suffer...
Once again, we see that it is the common man who is the most grounded, and who is not generally confused. He has the identity of his culture through his mother tongue. He may have a little Hindi (picked up from Bollywood) which he needs for practical reasons of business. He is the one who gives our country whatever stability it has.
Could this then be the reason that Westerners come across as more whole, more sincere, maybe even more naive, than us? because they have only the one identity they are born with and into? The identity that comes from one culture as expressed in their mother tongue...Here again, what we see is that if they do speak in English, it is only for reasons of pragmatism.