Describing India, whether to another citizen or an outsider, would be a singular task. There are salient facts, and there is a chain of consequence. Hence, beginning with Her Past would be the appropriate course, no matter how dead it may remain.
Half a millennium ago, India was, if not anything else, extremely vital. Let the analogy stand of a human body, full of life. Consequently, colonialism by the Turks, and then the British, could be compared to quite a vicious visceral disease. When she got over the worst, and began recuperation after our Independence, she was still on life support. The disease had left her organs fighting each other, and the amputation of some of her extremities. But she had put her decisive foot out of the grave.
If we were to take a "Midnight's child" into consideration, he/she would age 67 years this day. This fact, juxtaposed with the current Indian scenario, has significant implications, Take the fact that this new born country, with an educated minority for government, managed to effectively govern the "hundred warring states" under a constitution that they had created, and had begun taking active parts in global affairs by the 70's. Additionally, yet unrelated, the introduction of Information Technology at the turn of the Millennium had India touted to become a Superpower, with China by her side (in pursuit, or support, only Time may tell.) To have accomplished so much within the passing of a generation since Independence is, relatively, or as a stand-alone case, quite a laudable achievement.
Nonetheless, it is only as a citizen among 'the billion' that one realizes exactly how much of the country's potential dissipates in its everyday life. We, Her citizens, are like little dipoles in a magnet, oriented every which way. We live in such fast-motion every moment, not knowing that for every person moving speedily in a particular direction, there will (with near certainty) be a number 'x' opposing them simply because they move in the exact opposite direction. The net result is the sheer physical sum of just an average magnetic field around the electromagnet that is India today. In a word, the situation may be described as "semi-random chaos".
Blaming, complaining, postmortems and 'big-pictures' are of no assistance in changing the scenario in our favour. All the people of India truly need is a unifying force that knocks the ethical orientation of the diverse society in one direction; towards progress. Such a force may have risen in the figure of our new Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, only Time may tell. But you can take away a fact: we are done patting ourselves on the back for our "recovery" we make. Our blood's pumping, our mind's on the cusp of waking up, and it won't be very long before we open our eyes, get off the bed, and begin sprinting again, full of vitality.
Half a millennium ago, India was, if not anything else, extremely vital. Let the analogy stand of a human body, full of life. Consequently, colonialism by the Turks, and then the British, could be compared to quite a vicious visceral disease. When she got over the worst, and began recuperation after our Independence, she was still on life support. The disease had left her organs fighting each other, and the amputation of some of her extremities. But she had put her decisive foot out of the grave.
If we were to take a "Midnight's child" into consideration, he/she would age 67 years this day. This fact, juxtaposed with the current Indian scenario, has significant implications, Take the fact that this new born country, with an educated minority for government, managed to effectively govern the "hundred warring states" under a constitution that they had created, and had begun taking active parts in global affairs by the 70's. Additionally, yet unrelated, the introduction of Information Technology at the turn of the Millennium had India touted to become a Superpower, with China by her side (in pursuit, or support, only Time may tell.) To have accomplished so much within the passing of a generation since Independence is, relatively, or as a stand-alone case, quite a laudable achievement.
Nonetheless, it is only as a citizen among 'the billion' that one realizes exactly how much of the country's potential dissipates in its everyday life. We, Her citizens, are like little dipoles in a magnet, oriented every which way. We live in such fast-motion every moment, not knowing that for every person moving speedily in a particular direction, there will (with near certainty) be a number 'x' opposing them simply because they move in the exact opposite direction. The net result is the sheer physical sum of just an average magnetic field around the electromagnet that is India today. In a word, the situation may be described as "semi-random chaos".
Blaming, complaining, postmortems and 'big-pictures' are of no assistance in changing the scenario in our favour. All the people of India truly need is a unifying force that knocks the ethical orientation of the diverse society in one direction; towards progress. Such a force may have risen in the figure of our new Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, only Time may tell. But you can take away a fact: we are done patting ourselves on the back for our "recovery" we make. Our blood's pumping, our mind's on the cusp of waking up, and it won't be very long before we open our eyes, get off the bed, and begin sprinting again, full of vitality.
