A miracle

India’s transformation from a dirty hellhole of starving millions to a confident nation feeding 141 crore flag-waving citizens, and still exporting foodgrains and missiles, is nothing short of a modern-day miracle. India was not supposed to be a success story. The Bengal famine of 1943, Jinnah’s Direct Action Day on August 16, 1946, the Partition, the first war just two months after Independence, the subsequent wars, the drought-flood cycles of starvation, internal dissensions fuelled by hostile neighbours, and religious secessionism conceived by mighty powers were all sure geopolitical factors designed to defeat the India project or the idea of India. Yet, confronting each and every one of these factors, India survived — or rather thrived, some might say. Sure, if India is set to beat its former colonial master in terms of GDP to become the fifth largest economy in the world in 2023, it ought to be thriving.

India’s rise from the ashes of the scorched earth left by the retreating Empire has been magical because unlike the other two shining stars in the top six — China and Japan — India was always left to fend for itself. The post-World War II economic marvel in Japan, South Korea and China can only be attributed to American capital, technology and hand-holding. When the Nixon-Mao meeting and the subsequent economic opening-up under Deng were taking place, China was no better than India. Xi’s chest-thumping nationalism owes a lot to Nixon and his successors who made American investors create the world’s biggest manufacturing hub in China. Compare that with India: Even the 1991 economic liberalisation only forced India to become the world’s biggest market, losing whatever little manufacturing capabilities it earlier had. And the less said about capital or technology from the West, the better.

Most Indians are too young to understand what it took to get here, or how hard the journey has been these past 75 years. A democracy, by its very own defining characteristics, allows all sorts of competing ideas and influencers from within and outside to shape, mould or even distort itself. The centrifugal tendencies of the Indian federal system or the vestiges of Britain’s Plan Balkan were energised and facilitated by the world powers, which continue to legitimise religious secessionism in India. For instance, the founding of the Islamic secessionist Hurriyat Conference of Jammu & Kashmir was guided by US diplomat Robin L Raphel from her office in the US embassy some 30 years ago; and the UK brazenly hosted the religious secessionist Khalistan referendum in London even in 2021 (well, the West did not seem to have offered similar freedoms of speech to Osama bin Laden or Ayman al-Zawahiri).

The Western legitimisation of religious secessionism has obviously had a great impact on domestic politics. The insecurities triggered by religious secessionist militancy have been channelised into the consolidation of religious nationalism among a deeply nationalistic citizenry. For Indians, different in their food, language, dress or every other habit that matters, nationalism is the factor that binds them the most. If Gandhian nationalism could challenge and bring down the Empire, it could also help India survive as a society in search of equitable life, fighting its own demons of untouchability and communalism. But now, this inclusive nationalism has got metamorphosed into an exclusivist Hindu nationalism, turning its minorities into the ‘other’. Whatever be the cause, from within or outside, the othering of about 15 per cent of a large population cannot augur well for an emerging economy and an aspiring regional power.

The rise of India’s Dalits from slavery to modest empowerment and the relative prosperity of its villages achieved in 75 years is testimony to the success of the peaceful, constitutional revolution that Gandhi and all the founding fathers promised to a yet-to-be-born society. One can only wish that in the din of the incessant drumbeats about a glorious, ancient civilisation, young India would not forget its ageless youth icon Bhagat Singh and his comrades. The anti-imperialist idealism that created the new India has brought it this far, and again idealism should serve as the springboard and fuel for the next big leap. For India to rise, it needs peaceful and prosperous coexistence of all communities and a fair and equitable distribution of its resources. It is in our imperfection that we find inspiration to make our lives better. India is still a work in progress, with imperfections galore; and it badly needs friends, particularly from the West, in its march towards a better morrow.

Let us hope to do better for ourselves. Happy Independence Day!

Join Whatsapp Channel of The Tribune for latest updates.