Forward: It is perhaps impossible for someone to have grown up in this nation to not be dazzled by its charm. The only more impossible thing could be to not write about it when you know you can!
Here is my take on India – The ancient , the present and the eternal
60 yrs ago in the dawn of history, at the stroke of the midnight’s hour when the world went to sleep one man famously proclaimed the awakening of a civilization. As the news of the ‘land where all the castes of the world were once born and are still alive’ breaking free from a 300 yr long colonial rule filled the air, a few hundred million people sprung up to a new dream. A dream called, India.
Though, it was not all that a dreamy awakening as it is being made to sound. There was more to it. The questions and challenges ahead of infant India were perhaps as profound and glorious as only the rest of her history. The very idea of ‘India’ was too complex to survive. To bring together an ensemble of 500 odd princely states, the people of which worshipped a few million gods in a few thousand different languages under one nation which was also sovereign, socialist, secular, democratic and yet republic was more of a nightmare than a dream. But it was the ingenuity of the men who hatched this grand scheme that turned it from a political nightmare into a dream but yet a near impossible dream.
At this very moment, history also witnessed the emergence of another infant nation. A nation that was formed as a result of the tremendous cosmic activity that took place at the culmination of a bloody revolution in its parent nation at the verge of independence. A nation, less complicated and more viable than its parent. A group of people with a new found sense of unity and long craved autonomy. People bound by a single language and faith. A fairy tale situation just like when the youngest kid of the house got a room all for herself which she could re order in the way she wished while the rest of her large family struggled for coexistence in the rest of the house. All the great challenges that the parent faced at this hour seemed to be this off spring’s boon. Yet, it was not to be the way it was thought to be.
Half a century later as one nation goes on to capture the imagination of the world and inches towards super-power-dom the other is still limping towards democracy at the brink of bankruptcy. A baffling anti climax. A strong statement that history makes to mankind, that still refuses to learn from its mistakes. If you are still unable to reason this remarkable phenomenon that makes history sound like a higher form of science, you are required to get into some analysis.
To start with, the very idea of ‘Pakistan’ was wrong. An idea, that was sowed at the very beginning of the colonial era as the heart of their partisan politics and from then on brewed by several groups of men at different times to meet their own individualistic goals. The lack of a well defined idea laid the foundation for the absolute lack of inspiring leadership, the key to prosperity in a political system. This vacuum paved the path for some opportunistic leaders who made hey when the sun shone but soon died leaving behind a nation without any fundamentals. It is this lack of fundamentals that eventually lead to a nation full of helpless people whose aspirations were deceived by the dreams they were shown and a leadership whose dreams forever deceived the aspirations of its people. Both of these are held together by destiny as a ticking time bomb. But what needs to be understood here is that, the failure of Pakistan is a political one and not a failure of a religion as it is perceived. Pakistan is the consequence of a larger political fallacy in history where Islam was just the pretext.
The building of a great nation could only begin with a dream and visionary leaders and not end there. It required the leaders of independent India to take some difficult decisions and decisive steps that would decide the fate of a little under a billion people for centuries to come.
It required them to be categorical about the orientating of the growth trajectory this civilization turned nation would take. Which way would India go? What India have they imagined and how are they going to get there? If it was going to be a democracy, how would that be squared with the injustice of the caste system, the oppression of the landlords and the in-equality of women? Were the questions that haunted their dream. Even a semblance of inefficiency or lack of sincerity in these men would have catastrophic repercussions for the whole of mankind, not just India. And India was truly fortunate in this respect to have been blessed with ‘a league of extraordinary men’ to accomplish this gargantuan task.
It was truly a remarkable ensemble of great statesmen, exceptional leaders and good men. Jawaharlal Nehru was a prime minister par excellence, if India was a dream, he was the dreamer. A vivacious orator no other leader of independent India has ever since been able to match up to. Sardar Patel, the man who single handedly accomplished the draconian task of turning 500 unruly princely states into one nation and in the process was rechristened as “the iron man of India”. The legendary first home minister of India also set up the administrative back bone of India. The structure that has ever since been holding together this near impossible dream through her unending quest filled with the grandeur of her success and failure and her strive through the good and bad times alike. Dr Ambedkar, the master craftsmen who built into the system of India the most sophisticated judicial mechanism of our times. A mechanism as robust and exhaustive as the system it was built for. The author of the world’s longest constitution, written for the world’s largest democracy. The rebellious law minister of independent India. And to top it all off, the reclusive Maulana Azad. Who symbolized the new democracy’s guarantee that his co-religionists could remain in their homeland in security and dignity. A man who was a far more representative leader of the minorities than the beacon and sausage eating westerner Jinnah, he dismissed the Muslim league’s policy of political division based on religion as manipulative opportunism. The man who went on from being the president of the Indian National Congress during the decisive years before independence to become the first education minister of independent India in the most impressive cabinet ever assembled in Delhi at a time when the nation’s literacy rate was a paltry 18% !
It was in the hands of these men that the orphaned people of India felt safe at a moment they had just lost their father to rightist fanatics. At a time when the resurgent rightist fundamentalism threatened to throw India’s new found democracy out of its guard instable leadership would have spelled doom and might have turned this nation into another lost cause. But, that was not to be.
The tale of the last 60 yrs has been a triumph of this democracy that these men painstakingly installed. It is the hallmark of the institutions these men established. From a sovereign Army to the judiciary, from the not so efficient but effective PSUs to some world renowned educational and research institutes, these are institutions that have stood the test of time. Even more remarkably, institutions that with hold the value system that has been a part of the 10,000 yr epic called India. A civilization with the unique distinction of never invading into a foreign territory in its 10,000 year history and at the same time has been constantly renewing its gene pool by being receptive to new ideas and yet tenaciously holding on to that essential vision, that has been the soul of India.
In these 60 yrs we have grown from being a single party state to a bi-party state politically, have transformed from an under productive granary into the super productive back-office of the world economically and have come a long way from the ages of the doordarshan into being at the epicenter of the information age technologically.
Each of these would have a profound influence on the way “the dream” is weaved in the 21st century and beyond.
To begin with politics, the first 50 yrs of a single party rule was one of the biggest stabilizing factors Independent India had, an asset not many infant nations enjoy. Sparing a few stray events now and then the political history of independent India has been largely devoid of any massive power struggles or political tug-a-wars and this contributed immensely in keeping the focus on the one point agenda of nation building. But 50 yrs of political autonomy could easily deter the efficiency of the most idealistic of systems and so it did. That was the time for the political makeover. And at the turn of this century the history of India took another decisive step towards prosperity by turning into a two party state. Having said that, the nature and political agenda of the second front is also of great significance. A booming capitalistic economy or a teeming cultural democracy cannot be lead by the outdated leftists or the divisive rightist fundamentalists who for some strange reasons have always looked at every national crisis as great political opportunities. And thus was lost the hard earned political change that did not last too long and India soon returned to its political monopoly, but this time with a renewed sense of insecurity which has been the only net gain from all this circus. This is significant in order to keep these political sacred cows on their heels and the foxes away from the ring until a more resilient white tiger arrived.
Economically, we have finally managed to breakout of the communist cocoon and march towards capitalism. But in this process the significance of our communist ways on the slow but definitive growth during our early years cannot be undermined. Especially after just breaking out of the imperial bandwagon to keep the doors wide open for capitalistic intrusions would have been suicidal. And by doing that all that we could have aspired to achieve is some more economic disparity in between our already far apart masses and classes. Yet again India’s strange share of luck steered her away from this catastrophe and we remained a closed self sufficient economy for most of our independent years. But at the end of the cold war years as most nations of the world switched from the ageing communism to the surging capitalism change was inevitable and the only way to move forward.
Like all great civilizations, India has always been conducive to change and growth. This time, it changed from being a predominantly agriculture driven economy to a technology and services driven economy. While this was party time for the treasury which was ticking by a billion every other day and the stock market which was riding on the raging bull it was not exactly the same for the rest of India. This was because, as India moved on from being a 60% agriculture driven economy to the more lucrative services driven economy it failed to carry along with it the over 60% population that was still fundamentally dependent on agriculture for its livelihood. And this is recipe for disaster. Specially given that the rampant corruption and the sieved distribution mechanism would ensure that only a big fat NOTHING reaches these people through the much hyped trickle down approach. Any growth that is non-inclusive is not sustainable, and so is ours. To fix which, we would require to re-visit our ideals and re-think our agendas. We need to start looking for the fortune at the bottom of the pyramid while we are still building on to its top. And the one factor that could drive this is Entrepreneurship.
We need to understand that the current economic buoyancy that we enjoy is completely driven from the outside. It is the FIIs and entry of MNCs that is driving it. While the increased cash inflow has finally managed to turn us into a consumer economy and make us feel seemingly rich, the lion’s share is still enjoyed by our external drivers. Tomorrow in the unlikely event of the Chinese finally managing to learn English or the Filipinos learning to code we would be faithfully returned to our good olden days. This cannot be resolved until there is a truly pan Indian entrepreneurial revolution happening amongst us. Great Indian MNCs need to emerge from fields beyond the IT space. Indian manufacturing, FMCG, retail and financial companies should also go on to capture the world. And at the same time well thought of social entrepreneurship ventures must emerge that could effectively catapult the great Indian lower class to its moment of glory.
This is immensely critical because, as we toil every living day to build larger pyramids we tend to forget the mathematics behind it. You don’t have to be Pythagoras to know that as the pyramid gets bigger the larger gets the base and further away goes the apex. In simple terms, more growth means more disparity and bridging this disparity would be the next big challenge for every nation in this new century. Therefore if Globalization and drilling across was the mood of the last century, “Inclusionization” and drilling down is the need of this century. And we in India have the greatest opportunity to lead the way for this cause.
Lastly, coming to the technology and information revolution. We have for long basked in the glory of the technological advancements made by our ancient fore-fathers. This could only be an inspiration and not a pretext to lazy around in its glory. The need to nurture indigenous innovation has never been as pressing as it is today. Our famed knowledge power houses such as the IITs and IISc have to graduate from their lesser mortal roles of being feeder schools for research institutions abroad to becoming the true home of thought leadership and fundamental research. On the downside of the IT revolution, a generation of engineers have been enticed away from the greater cause they were built for into being self satisfied cronies driven by easy money and opportunity. All this casts a cloud of suspicion on our credentials to claim super-power-dom in the near future. We cannot climb to the apex piggy-backing on opportunities that are ‘offered’ to us by the power houses of today simply because they always have the option to not offer(as Mr Obama keeps reminding us :-). It instead has to be seized from them by redeeming and reinventing ourselves as true mascots of change. Remember, the 19th century Europe and 20th century America seized the world by staying ahead of the curve and not by just managing to drift along with it. We need to redesign the wheel if not re-invent it!
The Europeans expanded the world and its glorious possibilities, the Americans flattened it and it is our turn now to inclusionize and stabilize it. We have with us the unique opportunity to pioneer the science of drilling down the fruits of today into the roots of tomorrow for a less disparate and more inclusive world. And only by doing this will the dream called India reach its pinnacle where the aspirations of its people would determine the mood of the world !!
- An$ar Za!nul
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