How despicable my countrymen are!”. I came across this outburst from Mahatma Gandhi while reading the book titled “Gandhi & Churchill” by Arthur Herman. This angry statement found in his diary came as a result of his experience with a group of poor Indian immigrants to South Africa. They were aboard a ship, and some in the group were relieving themselves on deck. Gandhi felt that such disgusting and unhygienic behaviour (which was all too common among Indians back then) gave the whites of South Africa a legitimate reason to dislike Indians. So, he went to the deck and urged everyone to clean up the filth around them. The Mahatma encouraged them to follow the Western rules of personal hygiene and courtesy while courageously resisting the unreasonable and arbitrary laws aimed at them.
I remembered the quote with which I began during my evening walk in the residential township where I live. For a few blocks, including a shopping complex, one couldn’t ignore the unbearable stench of garbage. Yet everyone was roaming around as they usually did. Women were talking amongst themselves in the adjacent park, people were greeting their friends and acquaintances on the footpath, and I was casually performing my routine walk. It was as if we all had become comfortable with the foul odour. Further embarrassment came with the realization that our township is still much better than many other localities in our country, in terms of hygiene and cleanliness.
Mahatma Gandhi was courageous enough to admit that many Indians didn’t respect the rules of cleanliness. Unfortunately, there is a growing tendency among some of us to ignore this basic fact. “Look at this filthy street in Paris….look how prevalent open defecation is in San Francisco”. These are the things one often gets to read on social media or hear from friends and relatives whenever the topic of India’s image as a dirty country is brought up. Love for one’s country is understandable and should be encouraged, for we have all consumed the salt of this land. However, if this love blinds us to our deficiencies and allows the conditions in this country to deteriorate, then it is not love at all. It is a lack of courage, and it is this lack of courage within us all that prevents us from confronting such issues.
Today, the air quality in many major cities of India has become harmful to human health. According to the sixth World Air Quality Report, 83 of the 100 most polluted cities in the world are found in India. What about the streets? It is said that if we accumulate paan spits from the states of Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, and Odisha, we will fill about 105 Olympic-sized swimming pools each year. Now, the Government has taken laudable steps to construct toilets all across the nation under the Swachh Bharat Mission over the last ten years. Yet, there still exists a segment of the country practising open defection (15% of India’s population, as per a 2021 report by the World Health Organization and UNICEF). To an extent, the blame for all this lies with the administration. But, if we wish to be honest, a major reason for the situation we find ourselves in is that “We The People” just aren’t interested in making our country clean and hygienic. We spend a lot of time and money to ensure our homes look immaculate, but we are strangely apathetic to how the world outside our homes looks. A change in attitude is necessary.
I want to end this article by reminding everyone that Mahatma Gandhi tackled the notion head-on that Indians like him were devoid of courage, and bravely faced every challenge on his path. He proved that he was a man of courage. Do we have the courage to strive for cleanliness in our country? I hope so.