Should Indian Killer Instincts
Remain Killed?

Global village. Distances matter little now. Given the internet time and soon distances shall surely not matter. Geography has indeed become the history. But the history has not really become the ‘history’ in that sense! It is still playing the inspirational and the motivational role shaping the Indian culture and is supposed to keep playing a role for the posterity.

Coming to the “killer instinct”, the subject of this article, time and again we have let the enemy off the hook at the last minute whether in the sports field or in war. We may still believe strongly in the Olympic principles, 'participating is important, winning is not’. People like Virat Kohli would be an exception here. It is high time we stop debating whether we Indians have the killer instinct or not and accept that we do not have this.

Now let us find the reason for it we can, and eliminate these, again if we can. One such scope is apparent to me in the role models we have been having and the morals of the stories that have been narrated down the generations. Role models stand for definite ideals and we do have a tendency to get influenced by these models, especially as we hear/ read about these in our younger, impressionable years. Allow me to take up the case of the Rajput king Prithviraj Chauhan for this article. For God's sake, it is only an idea for discussion and the author has no intention whatsoever to hurt feelings of any section of the society.

First, permit me to digress a bit . It was a small event  that made me think on this subject. Many years back I was invited as a chief guest for the Independence Day ceremony of one of the schools. It was a good show by over enthusiastic and eager students.

One of the items presented by a girls was a poem with a central idea “Jao Pakistan tujhe ek bar aur maaf kiya, aab idhar kabhi nazar mat dalana” (go away Pakistan, we pardon you once more , never ever look this side again.)

This had a train of thought moving .Why our young children are still speaking the language of forgiving? Why not about total annihilation, over killing the enemy? Possibly forgiving and forgetting comes rather naturally to us. If yes, is it because we worship historical characters who forgave their enemies?

And the reasons could be these wrong role models that are been set up for us, Prithviraj one among them.

Before preceding further, a bit on the ethics. Do we have the authority to judge the personalities from the history books on the limited information available and erase their names from the books if we feel they are not spreading the right message? Let this be decided by those who are controlling the society. I should be entitled to exercise my freedom of expression.

Now, the brief story of  Prithviraj Chauhan. Mohammad Ghauri invaded the country 16 times, as it told in the history. That he was defeated by Chauhan 15 times and pardoned. Now whether caught physically and released or was not perused while withdrawing after the defeat is not known. Pardoned 15 times that is for sure. Ghauri got lucky 16th time, defeated Chauhan and plundered the nation. It was read somewhere that the victors had ‘free for all’ for a week and they went on rampage, raping women around, killing and  looting whatever they could lay their hands on.

It further says that Prithviraj was blinded by Ghauri and also that still he managed to kill Ghauri through his uncanny skills of archery. But that is not the issue, issue is of his rights, authority of subjecting his innocent subjects to massacre. Is the king not paid (literally “Lagaan” style) for protecting his subjects ? Okay, this king may have failed in his duties. He may not have been pardoning because he wanted to go down in to the history as a great magnanimous king. But are we putting that king on a pedestal? Why we are teaching our children about his megalomaniac king? I personally feel that the king was virtually blind on all 15 occasions; it was only physical blindness which he had to suffer on the 16th occasion. Either we should erase the name of this king or he should be taught in the history as a brave but not-so-wise king who lived in his fool’s paradise. You might ask me as to why am I suggesting this? Because it does percolate in our psyche and makes us hesitant killing an enemy even if he is lying down at our mercy? Almost what was portrayed in “Border” movie when the young lieutenant, Akshay Khanna, is dumb with terror when he is expected to kill the defeated enemy lying on the ground at his mercy? That’s why I suggest this change.

How many times have we heard that our sportsmen do not have the killer instinct, the killing spirit that is required to do liver the final knockout punch? As an example take Vijay Amrutraj. When he emerged as the junior champion at Wimbledon, the tennis pundits claims that the three players were the ABC of the modern tennis then (Amrutraj, Borg and Connors and mind you, IN THAT ORDER). See results achieved now. Borg won Wimbledon 5 times and become a living legend;  Connors is widely accepted as one of the greatest players of all time. And look what did Amrutraj achieve. One Volvo tournament and many “Best Gentleman player of the Tournament” awards! Being a gentleman is good but if it is at the cost of your profession, it may not be accepted. The bottom line is to win. If it means not being gentlemanly, just too bad! Don’t the Australians sledge openly to win?

A nation must also indulge in a SWOT (Strength, Weakness, Opportunity and Threats) analysis like an individuals is supposed to. The Chinese understand that they are not getting their due place in the international business thanks to the lack of spoken English ability. That’s why, they have invited thousands of English teachers in their country to get over this weakness. Many of the teachers shall be from India. Should we not import Martial Arts teachers from them for reviving the dormant killing in us? And the ‘killing spirit may come with them not the way it happens in India now - 

Only ‘Killing Spirit’ seen in most parts of our country is this - the ‘Desi Daru’!

Reincarnation of the long dead killer instinct is what is the need of the hour.

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