The years since India became independent have been some of the most violent and yet, among the most victorious. It is not just about rulers or events or rabble-rousers. It has been about other things that have defined India. It is about people, about humanity, the corporate world, about us…because we define India. We are India…
On an overcast day on August 15, 1947, the Father of the Nation stood by, his work done, his place assumed by the rulers of New India. Overnight, Nehru was the future. The business of nation building and running a nation weighs heavy. Nehru’s idea of the ‘Temples of India’ took shape, building blocks of industry with total state intervention. The new republic had its first larger-than-life demagogue.
Dynastic rule. If a family runs a country for 35 of its first 50 years, there cannot be another definition. Jawaharlal, Indira and Rajiv - three generations of Prime Ministers. The doting father; the watchful daughter; the young enigmatic son showing early signs of the legendary Nehru touch. An intensely private family. The first family.
A new nation has new heroes and heroines. It was in the form of genetic development of high-yielding grain varieties, the Green Revolution. This development probably put an end to famine from natural causes. Between 1970 and 1989 agricultural production in India did grow. Then Rajiv Gandhi inherited the political mantle of his grandfather Jawaharlal Nehru and the leadership of the Congress Party. He came into power as the Prime Minister of India in 1984. Somewhat of an outsider, his first interests being in engineering and aeronautics, he was not impressed with the excuses of the bureaucratic establishment. He said, “A poor country cannot afford to carry on billing the poorest people for its inefficiency and call itself socialist.”
Rajiv called for a tax reform, which cut the income and corporate tax rates. As a result of the lower tax rates tax evasion was reduced and the lower tax rates brought in 40 percent more revenue. He reduced the restrictions on the economy. He modified definitions so that the limitation imposed by "small company" policy were lessened. Some industries were removed from coverage by the MRTP Act. He created "broadbanding" in the matter of licensing. Broadbanding meant that a license for version of a product would serve to allow production of a closely related version of the same product rather than requiring a new license for the new version.
He rewrote India's corporate history. He changed the rules of the game in the industry in an era when the private sector was hampered by the licence regime. He was called the Polyester Prince in a biography that was never printed. He is Dhirubhai Ambani. The man who built an empire. His is no ordinary rags to riches story. His huge success fuelled controversies but they also dwarfed the controversies that surrounded him.
All these were feel-good images for a country desperately in search of post-Independence heroes…proving once again that we make India and we are all Indians.
1991 ushers in the Liberalisation Policy of Manmohan Singh and thus begins privatisation and globalisation – the new era.
After so many years, so many revolutions, and so little change, one develops a sense of social instability. Things begin to happen. TO HELL with whoever’s-in-charge is graffitoed across a prominent building. A stone sails through the someone’s window at night; the street below is empty. Before accepting a policeman’s order or greasing an open palm, a citizen hesitates and stares at the uniform—for that is what he sees, just the uniform, not the man—for two seconds longer than usual. Forms are lost, not remitted. Fines go unpaid. A family wakes in the middle of the night to the smell of smoke: something outside his window, burns. Political prisoners become symbols instead of ciphers, heroes rather than out-casts. Fat, bald men in suits hurry; young, thin ones in leather jackets loiter. Time bends: one side pushes it forward; the other first tries to stop it, then slow it down, then hide from it, then just get out of its way.
The place looks civilised and maritime and, this early in the twenty-first century, pleasantly irrelevant. It is impossible to love India: One either thrives on its grotesque energy or finds it inhuman; one either warms to India’s Teutonic coziness or is bored by it.
2000 - A very exciting time for us…with the ever-changing socio-political-eco scenario; life takes a dynamic 180-degree spin…After the excesses of the 80’s, the nose-dives of the nineties, the dynamic mysticism of the millennium brings a return to fundamental values in modern life. Simplicity, style, all-encompassing philosophies, broader outlooks have been the necessity of every generation. This millennium offers many alternatives, allowing everyone to create their own individual selves. The mood is more contemporary; the classics in our lives can be combined with the psychedelic…after all it is a new era and with every new one comes change, some broader and more radical than the last. New inventions, discoveries, ideas, the scandalous insanities, life itself…
“The tepid morning reeks with the odours of a crowded, rushing humanity, the smells strangely not unpleasant. Kerbsides are being hosed ferociously, steam rising from pavements drying in the sun, and the fragrance of herbs boiling in oil wafted through the narrow streets from carts and concessions screeching for attention. The noises accumulate; they become a series of constant crescendos demanding acceptance and a sale or at least a negotiation. India is the essence of survival; one works furiously or one does not survive. Adam Smith was outdone and outdated; he could never have conceived of such a world. It mocked the disciplines he projected for a free economy; it was madness. It is India!
Now, the Internet spearheads a global communications revolution; fashion designers embrace "ethnic" hues and styles; McDonald's spreads its restaurants across the globe.
Like many countries, India is a country made up of different aspects viz. economical, social, political, civic, religious, etc. But it is the people of India who together open up a new world – a hidden India – a parallel dimension to a dynasty so old and yet so new, lying silent and peaceful yet so aggressive and strong. It is we that make India a living culture that nurtures the essence of the past yet continually updates itself with modern elements. Today it is a living complex. Tomorrow it may become a self-reliant and self-sufficient multi-faceted enterprise. But this can and will happen, if and only if we as Indians, come together to forge on the anvil of life a country – an India – ready for the future, living with and in the present and in touch with the past.
As the millennium races steadily into its sixth year, nations try to destroy each other, there is infighting in countries, but we march ahead with new ideas and old ones as well, with as much élan, exoticism and enigma as mythology and as much funkiness, freaky, futuristic and out there as a werewolf on a full moon night!
We are, after all, Indian. And proud to be so!
*************************
Pas a Pas se va luènh
On an overcast day on August 15, 1947, the Father of the Nation stood by, his work done, his place assumed by the rulers of New India. Overnight, Nehru was the future. The business of nation building and running a nation weighs heavy. Nehru’s idea of the ‘Temples of India’ took shape, building blocks of industry with total state intervention. The new republic had its first larger-than-life demagogue.
Dynastic rule. If a family runs a country for 35 of its first 50 years, there cannot be another definition. Jawaharlal, Indira and Rajiv - three generations of Prime Ministers. The doting father; the watchful daughter; the young enigmatic son showing early signs of the legendary Nehru touch. An intensely private family. The first family.
A new nation has new heroes and heroines. It was in the form of genetic development of high-yielding grain varieties, the Green Revolution. This development probably put an end to famine from natural causes. Between 1970 and 1989 agricultural production in India did grow. Then Rajiv Gandhi inherited the political mantle of his grandfather Jawaharlal Nehru and the leadership of the Congress Party. He came into power as the Prime Minister of India in 1984. Somewhat of an outsider, his first interests being in engineering and aeronautics, he was not impressed with the excuses of the bureaucratic establishment. He said, “A poor country cannot afford to carry on billing the poorest people for its inefficiency and call itself socialist.”
Rajiv called for a tax reform, which cut the income and corporate tax rates. As a result of the lower tax rates tax evasion was reduced and the lower tax rates brought in 40 percent more revenue. He reduced the restrictions on the economy. He modified definitions so that the limitation imposed by "small company" policy were lessened. Some industries were removed from coverage by the MRTP Act. He created "broadbanding" in the matter of licensing. Broadbanding meant that a license for version of a product would serve to allow production of a closely related version of the same product rather than requiring a new license for the new version.
He rewrote India's corporate history. He changed the rules of the game in the industry in an era when the private sector was hampered by the licence regime. He was called the Polyester Prince in a biography that was never printed. He is Dhirubhai Ambani. The man who built an empire. His is no ordinary rags to riches story. His huge success fuelled controversies but they also dwarfed the controversies that surrounded him.
All these were feel-good images for a country desperately in search of post-Independence heroes…proving once again that we make India and we are all Indians.
1991 ushers in the Liberalisation Policy of Manmohan Singh and thus begins privatisation and globalisation – the new era.
After so many years, so many revolutions, and so little change, one develops a sense of social instability. Things begin to happen. TO HELL with whoever’s-in-charge is graffitoed across a prominent building. A stone sails through the someone’s window at night; the street below is empty. Before accepting a policeman’s order or greasing an open palm, a citizen hesitates and stares at the uniform—for that is what he sees, just the uniform, not the man—for two seconds longer than usual. Forms are lost, not remitted. Fines go unpaid. A family wakes in the middle of the night to the smell of smoke: something outside his window, burns. Political prisoners become symbols instead of ciphers, heroes rather than out-casts. Fat, bald men in suits hurry; young, thin ones in leather jackets loiter. Time bends: one side pushes it forward; the other first tries to stop it, then slow it down, then hide from it, then just get out of its way.
The place looks civilised and maritime and, this early in the twenty-first century, pleasantly irrelevant. It is impossible to love India: One either thrives on its grotesque energy or finds it inhuman; one either warms to India’s Teutonic coziness or is bored by it.
2000 - A very exciting time for us…with the ever-changing socio-political-eco scenario; life takes a dynamic 180-degree spin…After the excesses of the 80’s, the nose-dives of the nineties, the dynamic mysticism of the millennium brings a return to fundamental values in modern life. Simplicity, style, all-encompassing philosophies, broader outlooks have been the necessity of every generation. This millennium offers many alternatives, allowing everyone to create their own individual selves. The mood is more contemporary; the classics in our lives can be combined with the psychedelic…after all it is a new era and with every new one comes change, some broader and more radical than the last. New inventions, discoveries, ideas, the scandalous insanities, life itself…
“The tepid morning reeks with the odours of a crowded, rushing humanity, the smells strangely not unpleasant. Kerbsides are being hosed ferociously, steam rising from pavements drying in the sun, and the fragrance of herbs boiling in oil wafted through the narrow streets from carts and concessions screeching for attention. The noises accumulate; they become a series of constant crescendos demanding acceptance and a sale or at least a negotiation. India is the essence of survival; one works furiously or one does not survive. Adam Smith was outdone and outdated; he could never have conceived of such a world. It mocked the disciplines he projected for a free economy; it was madness. It is India!
Now, the Internet spearheads a global communications revolution; fashion designers embrace "ethnic" hues and styles; McDonald's spreads its restaurants across the globe.
Like many countries, India is a country made up of different aspects viz. economical, social, political, civic, religious, etc. But it is the people of India who together open up a new world – a hidden India – a parallel dimension to a dynasty so old and yet so new, lying silent and peaceful yet so aggressive and strong. It is we that make India a living culture that nurtures the essence of the past yet continually updates itself with modern elements. Today it is a living complex. Tomorrow it may become a self-reliant and self-sufficient multi-faceted enterprise. But this can and will happen, if and only if we as Indians, come together to forge on the anvil of life a country – an India – ready for the future, living with and in the present and in touch with the past.
As the millennium races steadily into its sixth year, nations try to destroy each other, there is infighting in countries, but we march ahead with new ideas and old ones as well, with as much élan, exoticism and enigma as mythology and as much funkiness, freaky, futuristic and out there as a werewolf on a full moon night!
We are, after all, Indian. And proud to be so!
*************************
Pas a Pas se va luènh
