PURUJEET PARIDA
We have the right values enshrined in our constitutional ethos, we just need to act according to those principles, even in the face of populist, demagogic demands that threaten to rock the boat of a stable, thriving democracy
The end of World War II witnessed the devastation wrought by two of the biggest weapons of mass destruction ever used in warfare. The decimation of the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki may have brought the hostilities to an end but it could not repair the damage done to the proud empires of Europe. The Age of America and USSR was beginning, highlighted by the heightened state of war-like tension known as the Cold war. The British, busy re-building a wrecked London, could not keep up the well-oiled oppression machinery that sucked the juice out of the Indian subcontinent for more than two centuries. They had made several political promises to ensure the support of Indian troops and supplies during the 6 year long war and they could not again find a shameless, toothless way to do lip-service to those promises – as they had done at the end of World War I.
So they sent a new Governor General – Lord Mountbatten – to transition the crown jewel of the British Empire into a functioning democracy. The political will of India was wielded by leaders elected on controversial religiously segregated constituencies which put them at loggerheads with each other.
The Congress and the Muslim league, both believed themselves to be answerable to the religious majority of the constituencies that elected them and could not (or would not) compromise on the approach to governance in the fledgling nation. This is how a methodology of divide and conquer, which had worked so well for the British, in keeping the diverse elements of Indian revolutionaries and freedom fighters separate, came to sound the death knell for a unified India.
In his haste to wash British hands of the “communal problems of the subcontinent”, Lord Mountbatten authorised a quickfire border-drawing scheme by a British expert. This expert worked on maps and not the field, dicing up the North west and the East of India like property and not the lives and living of the people who lived there. Finally, with only a few months’ notice, the British, who had mounted a systematic decades long campaign to create an Indian empire in the 1700s and had sustained it through systematic cruelty and systemic apathy for nearly two centuries, left India in a rush, like criminals fleeing a crime scene.
The elegance and humanity of Gandhiji’s non-violent method of achieving Independence had succeeded but at an unprecedented cost of millions of Punjabi and Bengali lives – Indian lives.
We have come far from the blood soaked origins of our tryst with destiny. We have fought against the co-inheritors of our shared colonial past and our poker-faced neighbours to the north and in the second decade of a new millennium, we stand poised to re-write our destiny as a superpower in our own right. It is high time we stop looking backward at the injustices of history and start looking forward to the future that our patriots fought and died for.
As we stand today, demanding our rightful place as the largest democracy and one of the largest markets of the modern age, we have to expect an attack on our core national tenets.
In the last year alone, we have taken Pakistan to the International Court for Arbitration over the case of an Indian citizen summarily sentenced to death. The truth about his past may never really be disclosed to the public, but the lengths to which India is willing to go this time, to defend the life of one of its citizens is certainly the first time in decades.
In the past, India has been largely tolerant of Chinese overtures on the other side of the Himalayas. This has led to a controversial position on Tibet, on Siachen and on Chinese support to Pakistan. This year, India has stuck to its guns in staying away from One Belt One Road – the mammoth Chinese plan to build road and rail networks throughout Eurasia. This may seem to be a superficial opposition to the principle that OBOR consists of several sovereignty challenging initiatives including the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor but it is the first time since the Non-Aligned Movement that India is taking a position contrary to expectations of political analysts and in far excess of its historical ambit of global diplomacy.
In the past, India has been too concerned (and rightly so) about internal affairs to be perceived almost as a lightweight in international affairs. We have relied on statements rather than actions in expressing dissent. This is slowly changing as India is flexing its muscles to find non-military ways of exerting geo-political influence, even at the danger of antagonising a giant competitive power like China.
Even as we celebrate our 70th independence day, India is facing off with China in Doklam, where the Chinese have been trying to build a road, dangerously close to Bhutan and Sikkim. As we grow more aware of our place in this world, as we develop more allies through stronger trade practices, as we realise we have a long way to go to achieve Chinese levels of prosperity and military might, we are demonstrating to the world that we will not cower based on threat of violence and that we are unafraid to re-evaluate even past decisions where we see our national interest.
The threats from abroad are the not the only challenges being faced by India. The principle of secular democracy that our Constitution holds in such high regard is in danger of being shaken by the actions and reactions of both foreigners and our countrymen. Multiple forces threaten to roil the status quo as we shake our lethargy to stride forwards in the eyes of the world.
We have to manage the growing threat of China, as it buys off our neighbours with its largesse while undermining the strategic role of India in the subcontinent. Our military might needs to be self-sufficient and sufficiently advanced to play a deterrent role in the nefarious plans of colluding neighbours. Our trade deficit needs to swing in our favour and we have to forge strong new ties with our international partners to create a global interest for the well-being of our nation.
We have the right values enshrined in our constitutional ethos, we just need to act according to those principles, even in the face of populist, demagogic demands that threaten to rock the boat of a stable, thriving democracy. From the 70th year of our Independence to the platinum jubilee of our tryst with destiny, we have to plan and execute the most important five year plan in our history, in order to emerge on the other side as a nation that exceeds the expectations of not only previous generations but also the generations to come.
That would be a worthy promise to be declared proudly from the battlements of the Red Fort, beneath the Tricolour.
