The Freedom and The Poll

We are approaching the 60th Independence Day celebrations and lots of things are happening – polls, events; a lots of questions asked; a lots of retrospection. I happened to come across one of those polls, done by NDTV, called the ‘India at 60’ poll – some predictable questions and similar answers too.

The categories

1. India's Greatest Icon
None other than Mahatma Gandhi got the highest percentage of votes as India’s greatest icon. His ideals of non-violence and his role in the fight for freedom seems to have given him a place in the minds of most Indians – including those who weren’t around at the same time, thanks to those history lessons.
While other industrialists and politicians received single percentage votes, the only other person to receive two-digit votes was Mother Teresa – another person who advocated non-violence and is remembered for her compassion and, more so, for her works of compassion.

2. India's Greatest Pride
The old and the new – Democracy and the IT industry – feature in the top 5. Unmistakably, and quite rightly so, democracy comes right on top, followed by secularism and IT industry. While, the nation’s pride in its democracy and secularism is not a surprise, the presence of IT industry with the Armed Forces, is quite interesting. Should we say, it is the recognition of our brain power?

3. India's Greatest/Worst Shame
It’s all about money (bribery, dowry) and the divided society (untouchability, poverty, hunger). And, money comes on top – ya, people are more concerned about bribery than about hunger or untouchability. Is it because bribery hits us all while the other two don’t? Is it because, we see ourselves as the victims in the case of bribery? Which is, more than often, not the case with hunger and poverty? Should we be a li’l more concerned about the widening gap between the rich and the poor?

4. One Event that Changed India
IT revolution and Liberalisation hold the court here – together accounting for 69% of the votes. Looks like the IT industry has a good mind share among Indians.

5. India's Greatest Political Blot
The political blots are nothing but a list of riots – looking at the answers, the question could have been about riots and nothing else. Anti Sikh Riots, riots after partition, Babri Masjid, Emergency, and the Gujarat riots – these are the ones featured in the list of political blots. Quite unfortunately, politics is so very mixed up in riots – handling and mis-handling them. At the end of it all, it affects the people and among them, those who have the least.

6. India's Greatest Sportsperson
One more predictable response – Sachin Tendulkar. Given the cricket craze in this country, it isn’t surprising to find Sachin in the top spot.

7. India's Greatest Film
As for movies, Mother India and Sholay are the top two. As I am not one of those regular movie goers and haven’t watched either of these, I’m not the right person to comment on movies.

8. India's Greatest Song
Same goes for the songs as they are also from the movies. After all those patriotic talks about references to Pakistan in our National Anthem, I wonder why the National Anthem or any other patriotic song is not on this list.

9. What Best Describes India Abroad
Brain power is the top most entry – after all those talk about IT revolution, this is not all that surprising. Yoga, Bollywood, Curry and Gurus complete the top 5. No surprises there.

On the whole, not very surprising to see that most Indians (at least, among those who voted) see this country as the knowledge superpower, take pride in that fact, and are worried about giving bribes. By the way, the category that got the highest number of votes was “India's Greatest Political Blot” (Total Sample - 12792 votes)