Indians were till the last few decades of the last century, a contented lot – even in the arms and grip of poverty and misery. In spite of all scarcities, the Indians were quite a happy and satisfied people.

However, the scathing hand of the West has turned turtle the basic Indian psyche of happiness in scarcity, and, the same poor yet contented to have turned into an unhappy, rich, and neo-rich people.

The contentment of the Indian may still be found but surprisingly so, in some of the backward areas where the poverty and scarcity still exist. However, by and large the happy and contented Indian has been converted into a by and large totally unhappy and greedy individual.

This change in the Indian psyche has a lot to do with the raid of Western culture, added to the decoction of Indian’s prosperity. Friends, have you ever heard of prosperity being bad – never – yet, in India this prosperity is playing a sort of a havoc in the society, and on the individual.

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It is making the society non existent – the prosperous individual living in a glass house – from where he likes to see poverty and unhappiness all around. This individual is encaged comfortably in his world of affluence and never condescends to help anyone in distress.

This very prosperity of a few is responsible for the yawning gap between the rich and the poor, the prosperous and the not so prosperous, and the happy and the unhappy. This is the background which has played a prominent role in forming the Indian psyche.

The same Indian who, a few decades back was all helpful, who liked to see others around him happy, is now busy only in his own personal growth, the others around being of no significance to him. This sea change is the clear result of Western attitudes that have attacked our social fabric.

The Indian who was once upon a time filial and affectionate and social, has become a plain self grooming individual – he means nothing to anyone, and no one means anything to him.

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Today, as long as the Indian individual is happy and content he believes all is well with everyone – and if it is not, it is no concern of his. This being the basic psyche of the present day Indian, who is prosperous – culminates in the growth of hatred for the well off, within the hearts of, not so well off.

The second category of individuals – the ones who are not so well off, have in turn, developed a hatred for anyone who is well off. Thus, in a country where, once, the rich helped the poor to grow, and, the poor blessed the rich for their benevolence, the new psyche is one of hatred and disbelief on both sides.

Another very important tilt in the Indian psyche is that, the country where once the slogan was of patriotism and Indian-ness, now the slogan is Westernisation.

Anything coming from the West is acceptable to the modern Indian. The psyche being that, all that is Western is good and perfect. We seem to have completely lost the sense of sorting out the good of the West and good of the East. We have just one belief that all that is Western is good, or, at least better than all that is Indian.

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A glaring example of this frame of the Indian mind is when we talk of Indian textiles and Indian woollens. For we act according to the belief that, as long as these items were Indian, they were not worth purchasing but, as soon as they cross the Seven Seas and get the label of the West, the same items become absolutely exemplary.

This is the typical Indian psyche as seen to-day in this country. All that is Indian first cannot. Yes, just cannot be good unless it touches the Western Shores – and then comes back to us with a foreign brand label. What a psyche of a typical slave.

This typical and basic psyche of the modern Indian shows itself in all that he does, talk and act. Our customs, our culture, our dress code, all need to be changed not because they are seriously flawed but, for the simple reason that they are purely Indian.

This being our attitude towards all that we do and say is obviously not a healthy and happy attitude. This is not the psyche of a country which has the oldest culture in the world – it is the psyche of a culture that is continuously enslaved to foreign contacts.

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Let us hope and wait and watch as to when, after suffering all the traumas of the Western attitude, when we would return to all that was Indian.