Round The
World
New Delhi, 29 January 2021
Imagining India
A WORLD POWER?
By Dr. D.K Giri
(Prof, International Relations, JIMMC)
Experts and observes
have pontificated in the recent past about India emerging as a super power in
the 21st century. The pandemic and the slower economic growth
preceding it had doused such discussions. The forecast by IMF on Wednesday that
India’s growth in 2021-22 will be 11.5 per cent should revive that hope of
India joining the high table with big powers in the world. At the same time,
what happened yesterday, the solemn occasion of Republic Day, shows India’s obstacles
to becoming a big power. Let us look at the promise and performance of Indian
politics, economy, society and defence which should constitute the pillars of a
super power.
A super power is
defined by matured politics, a harmonious society, a robust economy and a
strong defence structure. These sectors put together help a country exercise dominant
influence in international politics. The degree of dominance determines the
power status of a country. The United States with the biggest economy;
strongest military with unrivalled dominance in the international security has
been rated as a super power. The former Soviet Union which matched America’s
military capability was the other super power at the time when military was the
measure of a country’s strength. Now military power has been backed by economic
strength which determines the influence of the country. That is how China has
substituted a truncated Soviet Union as the second big power in the world.
In the wake of this
highly disruptive pandemic gripping the world, pharmaceuticals will add another
element of power to a particular country. In that sense, India could emerge
into the reckoning as it has produced two vaccines in record time and has begun
to supply these to other countries. Along with pharma sector, the capacity for innovation
in technology would prove to be a cutting-edge in power parity of the
countries. India with its depth of soft power and ingenuity for innovation
could compete for world power status. However, the other necessary ingredients
have to be in place for catapulting countries up the power ladder. It is in order that we assess such
ingredients in India’s journey towards that aspiration.
Indian society has
been traditional with strong ethos of pluralism, as well as synthesis. There
have been historic, culturally inherent inequalities which are often
euphemistically called diversities. But such inequalities get eroded by the
process of modernisation, industrialisation backed by education. India has the largest education system next
only to that of China and the US. There are, as per the latest available figures,
17937 institutions, 348 universities, and 17625 colleges. India produces huge
number of doctors, engineers and software professionals who serve in and
outside the country with distinction.
The downside, however,
is when a society gets polarised; it becomes weaker as we saw it happen in the
US in the last four years. Polarisation pays immediate electoral dividends for
the champion of the majority segment, but in the long term, it causes cuts cracks
in the society. America is talking about healing the wounds, and filling up the
cracks.
The slogan and
strategy embraced by the new President of America Joe Biden is unity. He used the
word ‘unity’ at least 20 times in his inaugural speech on 20 January. How
realistic is this approach? In a democracy, dissent is respected and diversity
is celebrated. Unity of ideas, initiatives and ideologies is not good for democracy.
At least we do a shade better; we call it ‘unity in diversity’. No doubt, we want
unity in adhering to laws, protecting the individual space institutional integrity
and defending our country from external aggression etc.
On politics, we are a
democracy in structure but not totally in functions. But we are better than
many in the world. The danger is when politics polarises the society,
suppresses dissent, and represses the dissenters. We may experience contest and
conflicts in politics, that is natural in a democracy, but if we crush the Opposition
and behave like one party rule in China, we are on a slippery slope. Dialogue
is an indispensable act in a democracy which enlivens politics by eliminating
ill-will between losers and winners in a contest of ideas and policies.
Seen in the context
of a dialogic and deliberative democracy, we are faltering when certain
segments of people protest against certain decisions of the government-- CAA
and the recent laws on the farmers. We try to defame, demonise and discredit the
protesters. The consequence is ugly and violent incidents like we witnessed on
Republic Day which left one farmer dead, many policemen injured some
critically. The measure of a country’s strength lies in how well it manages its
internal contradictions and conflicts which erupt from time to time.
The economy is the
new measure of a country’s strength. Any social disharmony or political
instability affects the growth of the economy. If we are focussed on the
economy, our political and social squabbles will reduce. We have perhaps given
up the ambition of becoming a 5 trillion economy by 2024 as promised by the Prime
Minister. In the past, India’s economy never grew beyond 3 per cent which Prof.
Raj Krishna put in a lighter vein as the “Hindu rate of growth”. With the
resurgence of’ Hindu nationalism’, we witness a dip in our economic growth that
had touched 9 per cent under the UPA government. The present government has to
buck up; make the economy, jobs and equitable development its top priority if
they have to contain and compete with China, let alone aspire to be super
power.
In defence sector, we
are the second largest army in the world. Our army is highly professional
battle-ready. If anything, it has been let down by dithering politicians in the
past. There are enough studies to show how the army has been let down in 1947,
1962 and 1965 and even 1971. Be that as it may, having the best army alone does
not confer the status of a big power unless it is involved in international
operations in providing security etc, like US army in the Middle East or
Afghanistan. In order to be able to do so, we need to have a strong economy to
support those operations.
The bottom-line
therefore is to have a combination of economic strength, social capital, technological
capacities and depth of defence in order to emerge a big power. We have the
ingredients but we need to put them in right place. To do so again, we need to
have radical shift in our thinking as a country. What do we want to be as a country?
Vasudhaiva kutumbakam, the world is
one family sounds too good to be true. We have lots of such native wisdoms, we
export far more Gurus than any country does. But we fail to realise that power
legitimises wisdom. There are more people learning American technology and
Chinese culture than people studying Hindi and Indian traditions.
David Schwartz in his
Magic of Thinking Big says “You are
what you think you are”. It means we have to start thinking as a big power, our
behaviour would change accordingly and we would become a big power. We will be
exemplars for other counties, we will not burn buses, destroy public property, disrespect
women and dishonour national symbols. Let us sink this in our minds.----INFA
(Copyright, India
News & Feature Alliances)
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