INDIA – SEEKING COHERENCE

An old piece, written at the height of the economic boom of 2007. Reproduced unedited.

(update – needed a bit of cleaning up for ‘coherence’ – done now !)

India – Seeking Coherence

16th September 2007

For those like the fool attempting to control the storm, every new day throws up a fresh set of reasons to lose hope in this nation of people we are born into. There are too many joyous proclamations of our impending greatness, and far too many peddlers of the dream of a new resurgence, for these to hold any real significance. Yet there are also moments of belief – few and fleeting – so heartening, that one wishes to record them, to piece together a truer picture of our future. And hopefully illuminate paths for those like oneself, drawn into the gloom of despair and bewilderment at a nation going wrong. Writing this is thus, imperative.

GLOBALIZATION’S TERROR

What is undeniable today is that it is globalization that is changing us. Now that we have had more than a fifteen years of integrating with the world economy, there is some sense of how the nation is able to deal with the same. A persistent fear of the ‘free’ market within India has been the danger of perpetuating deep structural inequalities that exist in Indian society. The medieval caste system in India is living proof of how cultural and mental mindsets are deeply affected by reinforced societal tradition – in this case, of imbibing in various designated groups, particular ways of life, designating all groups with a ‘place’ with respect to all others. And this structure is hierarchical, and restrictive. Centuries of conditioned mindsets, belief, and self-image are not erased simply by words: “You are Free”. The ‘free’ economy is not entering into a society of ‘free’ individuals, but one with rigid social constructs.

The Western tradition is consistently about a responsible, yet dominant position of man over nature. By separating himself from his surrounding, Western man has been engaged in ‘harnessing’, ‘conquering’ the natural world, by conscious will and a rational understanding of the physical world. And herein lie the fears of Marxists and their like.
After a fifty year interval in a four hundred year period of being dominated, saying “India is Free” is not enough. Globalization is merely a perpetuation of powers that exist, and India will have a lot to lose, and little to gain from it.

This is not very true. And one primary reason of why we need not fear too much this time, is because of our politics.

Democratic politics has worked for us in a perverse, yet effective way. Our politics is almost always motivated by gain, self-interest and characterized by a lack of ideology. It therefore sees a brazen shifting of sides, groupings, affiliations and every interest colludes, conspires and undermines the other in a tumultuous ever-changing heap. It is a game of opportunities, and every one who has set foot into any of the nation’s cities knows its rules. For every politician trying to grab land for a developer, there are three others enticing those affected into groups, with promises of securing their benefit, and in the swinging of sides and bargains, the tides of power keep shifting. There is no absolute power, and none is unchanging. It is a symptom of most of India, as democracy makes deeper roots, the more fuzzy do issues of power become.

In the end, everyone who has learned to be a bastard learns to get his interests secured. And that is the tragedy of our change. It is the cocky, gutkha chewing youth, with a cell phone, open shirt, coloured vest, and white sports shoes who gets the best for himself – not his gentle father, so entwined with the land that the roots of the trees seem to show in his veins, and his step indistinguishable from the light stepping of animals through the land. The only aspect that distinguishes the two is ironically, a formal education. So as our cities spread, as they communicate to the land, we have increasing outcrops of white shirted smart Ali’s who are very difficult to be taken for a ride, but who would love to try doing that to whomever they please.

So yes, we will survive this ‘onslaught’. But sadly, we can never hope of being a great nation. Great nations may only be mythic, but all nations that have aspired for, and touched the flame of greatness at moments in history have always had mythic goals. No goal of a people that have transformed has been anything less than magnificent in its scope. We cannot be content with scraping together a few dollars by sweeping the corners of a materially magnificent West. Where must our targets lie? How do we be? We need to set our charts right, fly against the wind, learn and also invent, do and also think – to move as a slow powerful wave that does not go out for lack of fuel, does not stop at one place, never loses rhythm, that never destroys in haste, but which carries huge ideas, commitments and practices to newer shores; one that accepts at will, but does not lose a sense of itself, erodes what it must, slowly but surely, with a few moments of rage, but always at peace – a nation to sway the world, and when needed, sweep it off its feet.

TRUE VALUE ENTERPRISE

The current spurt of wealth in this country is the inevitability of contact with materially prosperous economies. There is a reason why beggars congregate to railway platforms in big cities. Out of the sheer magnitude of wealth passing around, even a fraction falling into his bowl far outweighs a days laboured begging at the village chowk. And with the mighty US of A trembling at the industrious China, the leaking tap leaks some more in India’s favour, as we go into raptures of regaining our place in the world.

Let us suffer from no delusion. The textile mill boom of the 1860s brought similar hope to Indian industry. Besides offering cheap labour and minor geographical advantage, there was no real value that was being created then. And while situational advantages are transient, real value advantages stay. What Japan offered the world by mastering the age of Production was what few other nations could achieve. This is what India needs to aim at. There is no real value being brought by sending our intelligent young engineers to maintain computer networks around the world. There are other countries that will do the same soon enough – cost and locational advantages will even out. What is of importance is to ask the question ‘What real value are we creating?’ Ask this at a national level, and work at the answers.

The first thrust area is obviously Information Technology. It privileges no one, and is the most democratic of all technologies we have seen so far, in that it values knowledge over goods. We can master the Information Age only if we value innovation, research, new thinking, independent development, and imbibe a fearless pursuit of new ideas, new processes, and new technologies.

The second is an Agro-Based Industry. As a primarily agrarian nation, we have centuries-old traditions of working with the land. There can be no excuses gfor developing a professional, sound, reliable and well developed agro-based industry that again assigns value to efficiency but also creates new value in products that are healthy, varied and constantly undergoing development.

The third is Clean Energy. This would most likely need to assume a form of diversified, decentralized, smaller products and projects with emphasis on sustainability, adaptability and innovation. This area is yet untapped, and offers huge potential in domestic and international markets for enterprises that are truly modern, and having real value.

EMBEDDED CULTURE

Sport and art are two precise barometers of the moral and cultural development of a nation. Indian cricket must then be our most embarrassing expose – a mascot for everything that is wrong with our inner selves. Bereft of self-belief, playing not to win but as actors on a stage to entertain, a karmic acceptance of their inferiority, and absolute inner instability and lack of courage are what we root for every time we throw ourselves behind our blue boys. There are few mass phenomena that we may be heartened to speak of as an assertion of a new developing culture.
Somewhere deep and quiet though, is a silent amassing of strength. The popularity and spread of yoga must be seen as one of the most important cultural phenomena of modern urban India. An inner strength and spiritual understanding of the world is one of our greatest strengths, and using the medium of yoga in its modern form to penetrate deep into our spiritual self while clarifying and not confusing our material existence is truly a revolutionary moment.

This should then act as the much needed shot in the arm for those advocating an interpretation of traditional systems of instruction into current curricula. Keeping this out of standard curricula for fear of missing out on modernity is like the West shunning technology or rational thought, for fear of missing out of spirituality in their schools. Traditions are meant to be built upon, not kept aside or forgotten. They are the invisible mountains that we stand on each day, from where we begin our journeys, and where we must leave behind our newer learnings for future generations. An education that builds inner strength is the only guarantee of a truly ‘free’ people that may act independently, not swept by the tides of external forces, or content – waiting for the dribbling of the tap to quench their thirsts.

LEADERS, OTHERS, AND ME

An important observation in the world of business is that employers that treat their employees with dignity are the ones who are able to charge a higher premium for work executed by them. Bestowing dignity is a cumulative, unending process that reaps rich dividends. For various reasons, we have wreaked havoc on our living spaces – especially our cities, with de-humanised standards of living for a vast majority of us. This is only counterproductive to ourselves. To allow ourselves to accept standards of living, working and interacting that lower standards of dignity for ourselves, or of others is counterproductive. Societies with dignity accorded to every individual is automatically seen and responded to as a developed society. The dignity of all forms of labour that has been fought for and achieved in the West is one of its greatest achievements. It does not take much for us to start expecting a dignity of conduct and living for others and for ourselves.
Most of India has grown used to accepting a certain societal position accorded to them, and with that, an acceptance, though grudging, of the ‘higher’ powers – of richer classes, the powerful, leaders. Often in this acceptance lies a submission to the lack of dignity to oneself, and the lack of individual importance as a human being. The vast inequalities that exist are only a result of our acceptance of the inevitability of a top-down human society, where a few are leaders, and the rest mere followers. This is what capitalism can exploit and accentuate. Only when certain rights are made inalienable and strictly enforceable, when certain standards of living are strictly benchmarked, when a collective will that accepts the dignity of every human being arises, can true freedom and opportunity exist in this nation. A nation with a passive state is as good as having no state at all. For a top down system is a inevitability, and a truly developed state would not hold great pride in its unequal social system. At the cornerstone of our endeavours, we need to build, support, nurture and cherish a state such as that , to become a nation that is developed not partially, but completely. Not for a few, but for all. Not just developed materially, but intellectually, spiritually, culturally and socially. This is the India we need to believe in.