Dream, India

These five elements represent the basic constituents of Indian identity according to the founding fathers and mothers of our republic. They are obviously rather general in nature, and their meaning and interpretation are subject to change. This is, in fact, what has happened. Secularism, for example, has come to be defined not as indifference to religions but equal respect for them. Social justice has increasingly come to be defined narrowly as reduction of poverty rather than equality. India8217;s plural identity has come to be defined not in a creative and interactionist manner as the founding fathers had hoped, but rather as an attempt to freeze existing differences and protect them against change.

It is in this context that I want to look at the current situation and the way in which it is shaping India8217;s definition of its identity. During the last few years it has come to be widely held that India8217;s salvation lies in its economic development. It is believed that this will reduce poverty through the trickle down effect, integrate the country in the global economy, make it a major economic and political power in the next 10 to 15 years, and give it the status and recognition that it deserves and has long desired. We have made the economy the centre of our national endeavour, and pursued the goal of economic development with great vigour. We have chalked up just over eight per cent growth. If this were be continued, and there is no reason why it should not be, our GDP would double every 10 years. Major Indian companies are competing successfully at home and abroad with long established multinationals. They are buying up foreign companies and making huge investments abroad. Hardly anyone would have thought a few years ago that India will emerge one day as the second largest investor in Britain. India, for long a recipient foreign aid, is now emerging as a donor country.

All this is a matter of pleasure and pride. It shows what Indians can do if they put their mind to it. Naturally I delight in it, and hope that the country will keep up its current rate of growth. There are, however, several danger signals. If we ignore them in our current euphoric mood, we will store up trouble in future. In my experience middle class Indians are so convinced of India8217;s relentless onward march and so obsessed with becoming a great economic power that they do not wish to listen to those issuing a note of warning. This is deeply worrying because it shows that we have closed our minds to the unpleasant reality and are unprepared to deal with future danger.

I want to highlight three important dangers. First, our economic growth is not matched by similar progress in other areas of our national life, especially the political. The economy does not function in a vacuum, and it requires robust political institutions to deal with its unforeseen consequences. Sadly, our political institutions are in a state of decay. Our political parties are fragmented and personalised, and regional parties exercise undue national influence. Political parties have no other purpose than to stay in power, which they do by pandering to narrow caste, communal and other interests, even when this has calamitous consequences for the country in the long run. As a result, they provide no coherent vision of where they want to take the country. Our Parliament is no longer a place for big national debates, and not surprisingly many important decisions get taken behind its back. Our judiciary is excellent at the highest level, but that cannot be said about the lower levels. People have little faith in the impartiality of civil servants and the police. As a result of all this, our political system is losing its moral legitimacy in the eyes of ordinary citizens. To shore up the erosion of legitimacy, it is increasingly forced to rely on its ability to buy off discontent and pamper the middle classes. Since India has limited resources and cannot achieve either objective for long, it risks creating a crisis of political legitimacy in years to come. Loyalty bought by economic means is inherently fragile, and cannot sustain national unity.

Second, in a knowledge-based economy, India needs world-class educational and research institutions. As of now, it does not have more than half a dozen. Our universities are in decline, which is why the middle classes prefer to send their children abroad at a considerable cost. We do, of course, have IITs and IIMs, and they provide excellent education. However, only a few of them are known for their research, which is why our IIT students prefer to go abroad for further training after graduation. So far as blue sky research and expanding the frontiers of knowledge is concerned, India comes rather low in the international league tables. I know that the government is acutely aware of this, but as of now it has not come up with a coherent educational policy. Our students are second to none in the world and reach great heights when settled abroad. There is no reason why we cannot provide an excellent institutional environment in the country.

Third, even so far as our economic growth is concerned, it leaves much to be desired. It is barely a few years old. It began not as a result of a conscious national policy as in the case of China, but rather as a desperate response to the foreign exchange crisis of the early 1990s and the increasing global pressure. While the growth has reduced the overall level of poverty, an unacceptably large number of Indians remain desperately poor. The official statistics put the number at around 27 per cent, which is 270 million people. If we define poverty widely to include not just consumption of a certain number of calories but satisfaction of basic needs, and estimate poverty in terms of those earning less than two dollars a day, nearly 65 per cent of our people are poor. This is a shameful record after 60 years of independence.

To be concluded

The writer is a Labour member of the House of Lords and professor of political philosophy at the University of Westminster