hHow should we assess India’s record as an independent country in the 75 years since independence? The most obvious point is that it marked a dramatic departure from the colonial rule of the last 90 years and the century of exploitative colonial occupation that preceded it. After a first rapid decline and then stagnation of nearly two centuries, (to use a specific indicator) with an average life expectancy in 1947 of 32 years, India has emerged with new dynamism, with a sense of purpose to assert its independence. have assimilated, and devoted themselves to, social and economic progress.
Believing critical remarks by Western observers (eg, Selig Harrison in 1960, that India would fall under military rule like Pakistan or simply break up; Or a Winston Churchill so blinded by his imperialism-racism as to say “India is no more a united nation than the equator”), the country has remained united and whole, and to remain democratic after some colonialism. One of the politics of , These are achievements in themselves.
On the economic front, India moved from an early promise of a new dawn to a worrying underperformance, and then achieved a revival as one of the better-performing economies of the past three decades. It is now in a position to become the fastest growing large economy in the near future. This year India will become the fifth largest economy in the world. A decade ago, it didn’t make the top 10.
Internationally, India remain reassuringly status quoist beyond looking for their place in the high table. The country remains one of the non-worrying places on the world map. It is stable and predictable, and is a responsible nuclear force. Despite the unresolved conflicts with the two neighbours, it has positive relations with almost all countries that matter. It has no irredentist ambition, and is usually part of the solution rather than the problem – as is the case with climate change. It is the third largest contributor to world economic growth.
but This is a weak record. Despite the passage of 75 years and the resources of a growing economy, India has failed on three primary fronts: universal schooling up to matriculation level, universal health care with a good public health system, and jobs for all who are looking for them. Huh. To adapt Thoreau, “Most Indians live a life of quiet desperation”.
To these primary failures, one might add two more: the failure to provide universal access to the basics (including clean water and clean air), and the lack of a proper law and order-cum-justice system that does not have two-thirds of the prison terms. The population is classified as “under-trial”. These failures are compounded by the damage to the environment and the increasing water scarcity caused by sustainable agricultural practices. The victims of these failures are almost entirely the lower-class: Dalits and Adivasis, migrants and other workers in the informal sector – in a word, powerless.
Therefore, India has become a deeply unequal and unjust society. These failures have been widely recognized but (for reasons that are not fully analyzed or understood) have not become the focus of immediate and effective action. Therefore, the focus on the widening stripe of the middle class is, in some ways, a turning point—particularly because the middle square is not in the middle, but constitutes the higher quartile, and by some measures an even narrower swirl at the top. Is. Successes, as impressive as they are in a wide variety of areas, are essentially successes of this upper layer – but should not be taken into account on that account.
Meanwhile, the public institutions that give an ornate democracy (that is, a country with popular rule through periodic elections) the nerves of a liberal republic, in the form of control over the executive, have been rotting over the years – from within and outside. have been erased. Legislatures barely function, courts are unpredictable, and participatory local government is financially stifled. Even though the relationship between the state and the markets remains problematic, the relationship between the state and the individual causes greater concern.
The next quarter century may mark India’s rise as a nation that can be fully admired if it addresses its institutional and policy failures, and seeks to reduce its inequalities and address its wrongdoing. focuses on doing. This will indeed make it an Indian century.
By special arrangement with Business Standard
Read also: ‘Poor Ukraine’: sanctions on Russia hurt the West too but that’s why it’s unlikely to back down