What does it mean to be an Indian?

So this is my first post friends..
And I am going to dedicate this post to Mera Bharat Mahaan!!!
And in this post I wish to discuss the core of INDIANNESS !!!

So WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO BE AN INDIAN ? OR WHAT IS INDIANNESS?

Call it a psychological concept or a common thread that binds all the billion Indians together or anything you like. But the issue at hand is quite abstruse to grasp.

Right from our childhood we have been taught to identify ourselves. We are taught that we are living things and not non-living things; we are animals and not plants; we are mammals and not ..well.. non-mammals; we are human beings and not chimpanzees.
We are taught to distinguish ourselves and many a times via negativa.

In this respect Indianness is just another identity we all have got right from our birth. For instance, I am from Akola in Maharashtra. When I go to Gujarat I am Maharashtrian. When I go to China, I am an Indian and so on.

BUT Does the concept of indianness end here?
Well, any affirmative answer will be indicative of a superficial thought.

So what else is it?
Before even trying to answer this question it will be of utmost importance to know the origins of the term 'Hindustani'.
Just if don't know- Rivers had names long before land teritories.
From river Sindhu, came Sidh. According to the usages from Greeks and Iranians, came Ind and Hind. Persians used the suffix -stan to refer to a large territories and so the land beyond the Sind or Hind became Hindustan and its inhabitants became Hindus.
Pleasently surprising is the fact that the use of these terms to refer to religious body came much later, after Muslims established themselves in large parts of Hindustan.
According to eminent historian Irfan Habib "the name was not accepted even by the Hindus till the latter half of the fouteenth century being obviously an alien imposition." !!

NOW all these 'Hindustani's have edured many intrusions throughout the history.
(Did you know more than 60% of the history we learn from our textbooks is about wars !??!)
All of which leaving a cultural mark of the intruders' culture. And the Indian civilization assimilated all these into its own culture.

So now we come to the Core. (And as so many brains have tried to define Indianness, I will take my shot)
I think Indianness can be defined from the following concepts, practices or beliefs or it can atleast be distinguished from others valur systems:

• Respect to elders and a web of duties and obligations in family life
• The fact that all of us have a common history i.e. preindependence. I think if British had ruled only the half , say upper half, of India, we would not have formed the nation as it exists today. Only the upper half would have got independence on 15th Jan, 1947 and we would have called THAT India!!
• Our dearness for our Gods and ancient myths
• Joint family structure
• Spicy food
• Our skin colour
• Our festivals and grand rituals
• Unyeilding faith in equity
• Reluctant consent to sex as a necessary activity. The word is still a taboo in many parts of India.
• And finally our ability to endure, absorb (that might be with great tribulations) any change in our psychology, culture, practices and behaviour.

Now THIS is what I think.

But it is worth mentioning that 'It is lot easier to experience Indianness than to define it !'