Will India’s Leadership Take Responsibility for Its Actions?
India may jeopardize its vision of becoming a world power if it continues to marginalize a significant section of its population.
“Let there be oneness in your resolutions, hearts and minds; let the determination to live with mutual cooperation be firm in you all”.
- RigVeda, Mandala-10, Sukta-191, Mantra-4
India is a lucky nation. Its sages have given them a strong guiding principle many centuries ago, an example of which is cited above. This is a privilege enjoyed by only few nations of the world. But that was an India of diversity and tolerance. Brihadisvara Temple in Thanjavur incorporates statues of not only several Hindu deities but also that of a meditating Buddha.
In October 2018, Indian Prime Minister Mr. Narendra Modi unveiled a colossal statue of its leading statesman and independence activist Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel (1875–1950) in Gujarat. “We are doing everything possible to turn Sardar Patel’s vision into a reality and ensure a good-quality life for our fellow Indians,” Modi tweeted after unveiling this 182 m statue. Patel is seen as a symbol of the unity of India, emphasized by the recent introduction of National Unity Day on 31 October, Patel’s birthday.
But merely erecting a colossal statue may not absolve modern India from its legacy to a great leader such as Patel. And obligations to its Constitution.
Two of my colleagues were posted to our Bengaluru office and it took months for them to find an accommodation, because they are ‘non-veg’. In Assam the recent updating of the National Register of Citizens (NRC) in the first pass dropped almost four million persons from the list. Among those left out, there are several defense officers, politicians, a former Chief Minister, and even the kin of a former president of India! In the second pass, however, the number dropped to 1.9 million but the pattern remained unchanged.
A report published by McKinsey in 2018 suggested that just a 10% increase in women’s workforce participation could add $770 billion to India’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP). This gives an idea of the cost of exclusion of workforce from national economic activities. We don’t have to look to anywhere else; Kerala has already shown the way. In 1957 it was one of the poorest states in India; now it is one of the richest, most educated and healthiest as well.
The Stakes Are Much Higher
The stakes of marginalizing a section of the population could be far reaching, and catastrophic, especially in today’s world of interconnected societies. Throughout the history of mankind, great nations usually followed some sort of openness and inclusiveness in their policy. And their downfall usually coincided with loss of such policies. A notable example of this is the fall of the Arabs in the Iberian Peninsula, when they were wiped out by the Conquistadors of Spain during the 15th century.
Violent nationalism and religious intolerance in one country are likely to stoke up similar environment of hatred and intolerance in other countries as well, with no apparent connection with the source country. Neil Thompson writes in The Diplomat, different extremist outfits have long lumped together disparate groups of people with only weak ties in order to suggest a global alliance against the extremists’ own favored in-group (“Terrorism in Asia: The Global Village Effect”, August 01, 2018.
Jeremy Douglas writes in the Diplomat on November 2, 2018 in his piece “Transnational Threats in Southeast Asia”, that the world is now witnessing some significant downsides that accompany globalization, such as the migration of terrorist fighters and transnational organized crime. Douglas refers to Southeast Asia, but the same is applicable to all other regions of the world.
Pew Research Center published a report called “Global Restrictions on Religion” in 2017. It lists India as one having very high social hostilities involving religion. In 2014 it ranked 7th in the list, in 2015, it rose to 4th, overtaking even Pakistan, behind only Syria, Nigeria and Iraq.
A recent report by UNDP, Preventing Violent Extremism, 2016, lists five major factors contributing to increase in violent extremism, three of which are economic exclusion, political exclusion and perception of injustice. Injustice, inequality and exclusion exists in every society, but when the state machinery applies them in a systematic manner against one or more selected groups, the results could be devastating. India’s leaders may decide not to follow an inclusive policy, ignoring the wisdom bestowed on them by the sages many centuries ago, but the price to be paid may be way too high, even jeopardizing its vision to become a great power. But will its leadership care to listen?
(This story is updated in October 2019 with some minor modifications.)
