SINO-INDIA RELATIONSHIP: #BOYCOTTMADEINCHINA
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Or rather the journey we take goes something like this. You got excited! You wanted to do something immediately because you felt passion for your motherland! You wanted to react! You wanted to do the right thing!
With the offices getting the green to start operations across India there was this chance to go back to the ‘normal’ instead of the ‘new normal’. Sitting on the office terrace and having lunch I could easily focus on a few things that in the recent past were a rarity. The sound commotion on the streets of the city and the supported hocking of the busy people moving around to reach their destinations was back. And to what extent is what got me thinking about the topic at hand.
Where did the discussion all start?
With requests pouring in from all around to make china pay - for the ‘Wuhan Virus’. Or was it for the fact the economies around the world were in doldrums thanks to China’s orchestration of unleashing havoc on the world superpowers to be the sole one surviving and propagating. After all they are back in business. So out goes the call #BoycottMadeInChina.
Nearer home, all these world matters did create some fluttered feathers and had many of us wag our tongues. With every passing day it became evident that this reaction was nothing more than a passing fad. Or rather the fleeting army’s fighting general. But the recent excursion the Chinese militia is taking on the LAC on our northern borders with them, has again brought about similar tones - though of a different kind, some may say.
What is the plan for #BoycottMadeInChina?
Kill with the wallet and not the bullet. That's the call. The call is out again to kill the Chinese economy to any extent possible by letting go of its products of any nature. The softer power instead of the iron hand to slay the dragon.
Sounds interesting as it has patriotic overtones though personally a lot many will constitute this as a way to get in the limelight - tough of a fading kind! The call is out requesting / demanding / persuading to let go of anything Chinese.
- Use none of the apps they build.
- Use none of the hardware they build.
- Stop sending money to them by taking these actions.
- Stop the business to propagate in that country.
- Hence bring the totalitarian government to its keens.
- Make it to repent and hence make amends.
So the battle plans are getting ready. The war cry be made #BoycottMadeInChina. Simple. Straight. Yes. Effective? That only time will tell if the citizenry is able to come together to actually make the elephant sit on the dragon in any manner.
How did it come about being such?
Contemplating the above thoughts, the mind tends to give the following Q's. If at all there’s an answer, do kindly enlighten! Firstly, do we think people in India will do this honestly.
- Who is going to let go of Tiktok and similar other apps from the land of the dragon? Will you? Vote:
- These apps are bringing people stardom - attention. Something that is intricate of the human psyche. With the world getting westernized even the New age Indians crave this much more than the previous generations.
- Maybe we also have a genetically/culturally design that keeps us on this path. Just like the Tiktok app or the Helo app are both giving people the chance to express themselves. Be in the limelight! Fact or fiction - the jury remains out on that.
- Secondly some of these apps are not Chinese companies but rather owners may happen to be of china origin which in a way showcases the narrowed prism that these calls are being made out from.
On the other side the core of Indian values has always been to accept the world as one. If the current promotions to boycott anything having Chinese do find takers in any manner - then my friend we are diluting the essence of sanatan dharma - vasudhaiva kutumbakam!
Is there a possible positive?
One more side to the thought: is it a myopic view or a strategic view. Support India made - Yes. Always. Who wouldn’t want to. Back to the placard #BoycottMadeInChina. Each and every one who terms themselves to be an Indian will support that call. The money made here remains here. Following that model China has become what it is. No external stimulus of any kind allowed. Only the nation stands tall. Following this principle since decades the state which holds 1/3rd of humanity within itself has crossed oceans and mountains and deserts and is now well on its way to welcome the age of the dragon again.
On the other side we as Indians are perceiving ourselves to get back to the age of the ‘sone ki chidiya’! Could this incite and excite the current lot of Indians, to make this happen in their own lifetime again. Consumption, after all, is what drives business which in turn the money, which in turn the wealth for supporting all other needs that we want to cater to for ourselves. This can bring about the demand for local goods giving a reason for entrepreneurs to strike a balance for fulfilling the demand from the other side by creating the subsequent supply.
What can we gain out of #BoycottMadeInChina?
Still there remains the doubt that how many such things we have today that we can replace that we are looking to replace because it has an anecdote to china in any manner. Where will one bring all the technological marvels that the factories in china keep producing and creating a demand via normal business logic to develop a need. Few years back one could come across Indian company names in many fields that are now totally overshadowed by China’s direct access to the Indian markets and its consumers.
Will we be in a condition to buy alternative components made in Indian factories and not from China? This is that question that we raise one and many. Answers possibly no one knows. Have you heard of any local produce in the tech field lately that is able to hold onto the onslaught of the dragon’s produce?
All the gadgets one uses in our offices/homes. Our personal utility tech stuff. The laptop/desktop/network components/router/tv and so many such things. What all will we replace and with what? Do we know the alternatives that are India made? That being one question and then the other is of the cost-value analysis. Is the pricing battle being fought at the retail counter getting simpler or rather murkier? With the advent of difficulties of financial kind due to the pandemic, the retail pockets are shrinking and will shrink further. The consumer will want cheaper options.
Are we living a dream or in one?
Where do we see those coming from? The demand is today, the supply may come tomorrow - that my friend will remain static at the current juncture. This may lead to the derailment of all the things that we expect the current call needs to achieve. Each one - take one! That is to say - with each one among us having the choice to choose, we will tend to be the sheep and not the fox.
Anti-predator adaptations are needed. The world is shrinking and looking inwards for a good time now. Not that the current regimes that are running in most of the bigger states in the world order have a role to play, but the trend has been visible for a fair amount of time. People in general have been wanting to safeguard themselves and their known way of life from the effects of ‘globalization’. The ‘industrialization’ changed the world. Made it smaller. Now the cycle seems to be tilted towards being self-reliant for a large number of reasons. With the developed world scurrying together for #BoycottMadeInChina one can understand the interest it brings all across.
The question is how do we let go of these emotive facets, understand the importance that pride in one's nation gives and actually be able to chart a course that one is able to walk on. The journey seems to be going the path of becoming inward. Looking at what one has, what one can create and what one can’t. The answers to the former two make most of us happy as we know the most part of it. However, the answer to the latter brings us to a proposition, a juncture, an inflection point - that can build about the base of the next mile.
Why might this call actually succeed?
This spirit of pride and respect towards one’s own nation, its resources, its positives need to get synergised in some way to the ‘Made in India’ brand that many eyes have been dreaming for some time now. As and when this actually translates into ground truth one can see India being the ‘sone ki chidiya’ again. Being a balance of going global and in the meantime also looking inwards, that is the condition that is awaited.
No more camouflage. No more masquerading. No more apostatic selection. No more nocturnality. A straight and upfront call - #BoycottMadeInChina. We the other 1/3rd of the world have a chance to turn tables. We can. The journey however will bring some great prizes and then there will be times of letting go of some comforts as well. After all, survival in natural selection just doesn't happen by chance - it is fought every ounce of a second. Every breath matters, pumping life giving oxygen to the toned muscles in the body to create energy and cast out the opponent from one's land of occupance.