One of the many reasons why self-proclaimed Viswaguru India is ranked #134 on the UNDP’s Human Development Index and #126 on the World Happiness Report, 2024 of Oxford University, and way down in the bottom rung of every other index, is that it is a nation without heroes. There is no shortage of domestic critics of even Mahatma Gandhi who wrested India’s freedom from almost two centuries of humiliating foreign rule. Today the Mahatma is remembered twice a year — October 2 (birth date) and January 31 (date of assassination).

In 1984, Satyen (‘Sam’) Pitroda kickstarted the process of revolutionising India’s dilapidated and obsolete telecom system by establishing C-DoT (Centre for Development of Telematics). C-DoT devised a nationwide automatic switching system which spared citizens the time, money and frustration of having to book inter-city trunk calls through hassled operators. That invention sparked the start of India’s telecom revolution which has culminated in the multiplication of telephones in India from 5 million in 2001 to 1 billion currently. After that, Pitroda chaired the country’s first National Knowledge Commission. However, after the rout of the Congress party in the general elections of 2014 and 2019, this octogenarian returned to the US and was appointed chairman of the Indian Overseas Congress.

In early May, Pitroda was sacked from this position. His transgression? In a media interview to elaborate India’s unity-in-diversity boast, he observed that the country comprises citizens of several ethnicities. “People in the East look Chinese, people in the West look like Arabs, people in the North like, maybe, white and people in the South look like Africans.” This innocuous observation sparked outrage back home in India. Especially the African simile.

After several centuries of Central Asian and later British rule, and thanks to Bollywood cinema and foreign multinationals hawking skin-lightening creams, the population has swallowed the ‘white is beautiful’ myth hook, line and sinker. As a result, no Indian is comfortable in her own skin, a national inferiority complex. Although forced to ride off into the sunset, there’s no gainsaying that Pitroda — a rags-to-riches millionaire who has made outsize contribution to the Indian economy — is a national hero. Don’t hesitate to tell it like it is again, Sam.

Also read: Can Sam Pitroda spark India’s overdue knowledge revolution