March 10, 2009

Elections in India: Is it time?

Posted in Kamal's Kolum at 10:45 am by Kamal

India used to be a great nation.  Considered once among the earliest “modern” civilizations known to humankind, India boasted a rich culture and heritage with significant advances in astronomy, mathematics, medicine, spirituality, literature, and education, to name just a few.  The people who developed this civilization had to be brilliant, creative, and innovative to establish what they did; and all this happened as early as 2000 B.C. or earlier. 

Then, suddenly something went wrong.  The descendents of those “brilliant thinkers” decided to stop this free thinking, acknowledged the brilliance of their ancestry, and decided to simply follow them instead.  We went from a nation of innovators and creative thinkers, to a nation where the average individual would prefer to follow the “righteous path” set by our “knowledgeable elders” rather than think on their own.  This led way to deteriorating moral and ethical values on issues such as the caste system, dowry, Sati, etc, and we eventually turned into a society routed in superstition and ancient beliefs that were not always validated by scientific logic.

I look at India today; a nation of over one billion people, or one sixth the global population, who hold less than 2 percent of the global wealth (of course we count out the Mittals, Ambani’s, and the Tatas).  If you are proud of being an Indian, you are most probably boasting about our ancient culture rather than our grandfathers/great-grandfathers setting up factories, businesses, or discovering new drugs to treat major illnesses.  What happened to our nation of great thinkers — where did all those creative thinkers go? 

I hope the new elections will bring forth some fresh and bold ideas to move our country forward.  I know that the glory of ancient India will be restored at some point, because if we did this 4-5 thousand years ago, we could certainly do it again.  I only hope that it will happen during my lifetime.

2 Comments »

  1. Dr. J. Rajagopalarao said,

    March 17, 2009 at 2:10 pm

    We may not contemplate progress as defined by the West, but we need to progress by all means. In this context, the present article is thought-provoking while also being clear in message. we need to commend the author for the valuable analysis and also follow it up.
    Rajagopalarao

  2. Sudhir said,

    March 18, 2009 at 6:56 pm

    Hi Kamal,
    Great to see you active on the blog circuit. Wonderful comments about India. One comment though. Scientifically, it might seem that prosperity and population are directly related. In case of overpopulation, natural catastrophes such as food/water and space shortages lead to gruesome wars that would keep the numbers in check. But what’s confusing is that population in India is growing despite all the above problems. I don’t know if any of the population theorists have given an explanation to this.


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