Why the tiger bows to the Eagle that flies above?

Let me begin by making a mention of Hatim Katharia, a soldier of Indian origin working with the U.S army... Sorry, who had worked with the U.S army. Hatim Katharia lost his life in a rocket attack when he was sent to Iraq. Most of you must be thinking as to why I am pulling out pages from dilapidated history books where the name of Hatim Katharia is lost in a blur of words.

Hold on! This incident has many subtexts about which I will throw some light upon as you continue reading this article... which I'm sure you all will do ( Please do! )

Let me give a brief, but substantial background of Hatim Katharia.

At the end of August of the year 2004, Indian newspapers came up with the headlines reporting the death of Hatim Katharia. In November 2003, there was a mention of Uday Singh who had lost his life in the battle zone. The media also piled upon Lt. Neil Prakash, heaps of adulation for receiving the silver star. We now come across our first subtext. The death of Army specialists Hatim Katharia, Uday Singh, and the honour of Lt. Neil Prakash represents the very best of India's secular traditions at a time when some countries specialise in exporting Jihad.

Hatim came from a middle class Bohra Muslim family in Dahod in Gujrat. After doing a bachelor's in Software Specialisation, he went to the U.S to get his masters. He worked for sometime as a gas station attendant at Fort Worth near Dallas and then decided to enlist himself in the U.S army hoping a stint in the army would help him fund his Scholarship. He signed up in 2004 and was soon assigned to a battalion in Iraq where he met his end. This brings us to the second and the most important subtext.

What led the learned software engineer, who surely would not have been left unemployed, unlike the hundreds of unskilled workers who reside in every nook and corner of our country, to emigrate to the U.S and voluntarily join the U.S army? What is the psychology of a young educated youth to to make himself party to a war that lacks a sane justification? What made him take part in a battle against people in a far away land who did not even threaten India?

I cannot but wonder how an educated middle class youth can get so desperate to get a degree from a U.S university, get himself enlisted in the Army and then help a nation plunder another one.

The reactions of Hatim's relatives, as published in the newspapers, is quite revealing :
Says his mother, who conducted tuition to fund her son's U.S trip -

"His ambitions took him to the U.S, then to the Army and then... but he died a martyr's death."

Here we stumble across a third confusing subtext - the concept of Martyrdom!

The Muslim family consider their son to be a 'shaheed'. How do the Iraqi insurgents who killed this co-religionist describe him? How are the Iraqi suicide bombers addressed by their near and dear ones? The Americans, or their Hypocritical politicians rather, have invented a word 'collateral danger' to describe this situation. Do the Muslims have a similar word in Islamic terms?

In the same newspaper, Hatim's cousin said : "We are proud of Hatim". Why does the Indian Middle class experience a sense of pride by associating themselves to a superpower - the superpower being the United States now? Is it the status attached to the title 'U.S return'? Or is it a sense of shame they feel when they reveal to the outside world that they are from India??!!

The remark made by Hatim's cousin is reminiscent of the loyalist rhetoric of Indian Parents when their children died in the fields of Burma, serving "His MAJESTY" during the second world war. If his cousin is proud of Hatim's sacrifice for the U.S army, then there are thousands and thousands of Indians who have sacrificed their accents to please their foreign clients in well-lit cubicles of Call centres. What about the ones who desperately try to ape the values and the culture of their boss working abroad?

We are nothing but the reflection on the mirrors owned by people who classify themselves to be the citizens of a superpower. We are pleased to see them, rosy though the reflections may seem, but they are ephemeral as a dew drop on a dry leaf. The person changes, but the reflection still remains the same. For heaven's sake, stand up for yourself once!!

While Hatim's mother was giving these interviews, there was another woman in another part of the world, by name Cindy Sheehan, the mother of a 24 year old American soldier who too lost his life like many other fellow comrades for a cause that only besmirches their names for being associated with it, a cause even god can't justify! George 'War' Bush's 'war' crimes cannot go unaccounted for!! He is answerable not only to many Mothers in the United States who wonder : "Why did my son die?", but also to the countless around the world, more notably in Iraq and Afghanistan, upon whose lives his famous "Texan wisdom" has wreaked irreparable damage. ( Where are the WMD's, Where's Osama, Why is Taliban coming back even stronger now?? And more importantly, where are the answers?? )

Quoting the 2000 U.S census, there were some 450 India born people serving the U.S army. These numbers have increased significantly, and who knows, another Hatim may be enrolling himself as you are reading this article.

Let us delve into the fourth subtext. Half of the Indian students who go to the U.S to study never get back. One out of every 20 established doctor in the United States of America is an Indian. Even if some do get back, their loyalties, at least the majority, lie in the coffers of Uncle Sam. The way the U.S recruits people for the army is appalling. They have been notorious for 'Outsourcing' their military operations. In the 1960's, when engaged in a war against Vietnam, the U.S army, in a move to bring down the high casualty rates of its soldiers, recruited local Vietnamese soldiers to fight ( Sounds familiar!, doesn't it? ) The American Government termed this as 'Changing the colour of the Corpses', shocking, ain't it?

Are we mere puppets in the hands of a few wealthy nations? We, the very same people who carelessly litter our streets back home in India, are ready to shamelessly clean up the streets in America as sweepers! Our society stands on a foundation that derives it's strengths from hypocrisy, greed, individualism and a cut throat competition to go one-up on your neighbour at any costs. We then have the cheek to comment -

"Our country will never develop!"

Isn't that just opprobrious. It is the norms of our society that results in such baseless emigration. It's time we changed it. The erosion of ideological values in our country shape these motives. Hatim wasn't a victim of the Iraq war, but of our system.

- Pavan Pal Sharma

The author is a very good friend of mine at College, and I'm very happy to present my readers with the opportunity to read a very thought provoking write-up from him... A very articulate person, but unfortunately, he does not have a blog! ( And no intentions to start one either the last time I asked him )