Primacy of India: Potentialities, Problems and Prospects

FROM the time of the historic speech of India's first Prime Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru - acknowledged as the visionary and modern icon of independent India - with the words, "When the world sleeps, India will awake to life and freedom," the day the country gained independence, its potentialities - its diverse population, water resources like rivers, lagoons, lakes, and seas, rich forests, valuable minerals, mountains, glaciers, and multiple cultures - have been adumbrated as precious assets in every conceivable forum, from the political platform to academia and from civil society to the global stage.

- VIVEK PATTANAYAK

While India has made colossal efforts to harness its potential, the prospects have not yet been fully realized. As many wise thinkers have explained, this is largely because of the country's inherent problems.

The geographical subcontinent was a conglomeration of countries, as history shows, until the British made it a single imperial political entity, with its diversities remaining intact. When the colonial power exited, the entity was fractured by religious divisions, creating two separate countries that have remained perpetually hostile to each other since their creation - even on the cricket field.

Imperial Britain also left behind more than five hundred and fifty self-governing monarchical entities that could have become potential new countries. Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, described as the 'Bismarck of India' and also called the 'Iron Man', deftly integrated these entities with independent India, using judicious force where necessary.

Princes who enjoyed the privy purse became a political force, with political and economic philosophies quite different from the main political party that came to power in most provinces and at the Centre.

Three distinct ideologies dominated the country: democratic socialism, Marxist communism, and religious fundamentalism or rightist ideology - often with an inclination towards feudalism and unbridled freedom for private capital to monopolize key sectors like banking, insurance, and air transport.

Hindus, Muslims, and Sikhs each had their own variants of fundamentalism, which found expression in the political spectrum, sometimes erupting in violent upsurges.