China, up close

A recent visit to China was an eye-popping experience. All my stereotypes were adequately dented. As old barrack style flats become passe and commercially savvy residential apartments are up for sale, as bicycles are replaced by posh-looking cars, as more and more youngsters speak English, the new China seems poised to be only a step away from any western city. The new China is euphoric about the changes. No one has good things to say about the Cultural Revolution or the iron curtain that hung on their lives until as recently as the 1980s. More importantly, the new ecstatic China seems pleasantly conscious of the responsibility demanded by modernity. The suaveness with which new China operates makes it tempting to assume that it has grafted the norms of modernity on to disciplined, communist-sponsored regimented habits. Everyone follows rules on the modernised motorways. Nobody disturbs public order by mindless honking or shrieking into their mobile phones; tall buildings have fire drills, hotel staff are professional.

For some of us in India, for whom mainstream Left political parties offer hope of both physical security and liberal freedom of thought, it was jarring to hear of the atrocities of the Cultural Revolution spearheaded by Mao Zedong. But it was more of an eye-opener to get to know about the rampant corruption that marred the revolutionary reforms of the past, and which continues to rivet the pace of present modernisation as well. Thus, for instance, a licence obtained at a high fee is required to keep a dog as a pet. But few bother to get one. They find it more convenient to pay a little to inspectors rather than the full fee. The same is true of migration licences, or anything else.

Today most Chinese universities are flush with funds for research. This is boom time for social science research, which had practically dried since the late 1940s. Mao8217;s completion of the revolution meant that the state did not feel the need to either understand the past any further, nor collect information and knowledge for future progress.

Academics are the happiest lot in China as they are being encouraged to research and cull out details to harness the new economic orientation to a better understanding of the ground reality 8212; the hopes of people and their long-standing disillusionment. Academic tolerance and long-roped interdisciplinary research are the buzzwords in academic circuits. Posh-looking university campuses are abuzz with fresh life as they host foreign scholars with a myriad viewpoints. This is the new China 8212; the stuff dreams are made of. Some lessons here for our education ministry which seems to be handing our academics to dogmatic Marxists who, if allowed a free rein, may reduce our institutions to pre-reforms China!

The writer is a history professor at the Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi