Follow the pack

On the 3rd of April 2011 the Indian Team won the ICC cricket world cup. The entire country burst into celebration. People are yelling "We rule the world" (I guess that sad chap did not read the Wikileaks. We are being ruled by the Americans in a completely indirect way) That is when I began thinking why this victory means so much to the people while the laurels won by Indian athletes in other avenues are mostly over looked.

Vishwanathan Anand has been one of the most consistent sportsman for India.The last time he played a major chess trophy there was not even a broadcast leave alone a celebration for his victory. People might argue that his victories dont evoke the sense of national pride as it is just one mans achievement (it can be argued that the cricket world cup is the achievement of 11 men and nothing more). Okay then lets look into another game which involves the effort of a team : Hockey. Some might point out that the hockey team hardly ever wins. Well that was how cricket was in India 10 years back. We lost a match to Zimbawe a couple of world cups back. Even when the hockey team won a major tournament (the Azlan Shah trophy) I dont remember people celebrating. In fact hardly anyone knew that the hockey team won. Those players dint get their fair share of recognition.

If it is said that we support cricketers because the BCCI is stinking rich and the tournaments carry a heavy purse with it thats the case with the Tennis tournaments as well. I dont see many people cheering the Davis cup teams. I might be wrong here but I think we as a nation celebrate cricket (and only cricket) because of a mob mentality. People just want to join the band wagon of "The Men in Blue" supporters.

These tendencies can be found in many other events. For example the elections. We dont want to vote for an independent candidate because we think most other wont vote for that person thus we should not as well. This I think is another example of our mob mentality. Another glaring example is the way we watch movies. Producers are willing to invest even upto 200 crores for movies in which Rajni acts (even though the story line sucks big time) is because they know we will watch that movie. We do watch that because "everyone" watches it.

Is it possible that we as Indians possess only a collective identity and totally lack an individual line of thought??? i dont think so. We have produced some of the most remarkable people who have helped to shape the world with their very unique ideas, but I think a good many people in this country suffer from the "follow the pack" syndrome.....