Forbes think India will be having maximum number of billionaires in the world by 2015( The present ranking is fifth).Well, there are rich men in India and we don't lack resources. If we talk in terms of Gini coefficiants then we have much better equality in distribution of wealth in comparison to many other countries. There is no inadequacy of intellect.Still destitution is very much prevalent.
Walk through the streets of Chandhni Chowk, you can't escape from the fact that India is terribly poor. These dusty narrow lanes in the capital city of the country that claims to have a magnificient past dating back to 2000 B.C does point to the fact that there is something wrong.
Analysers have often tried to put the entire brunt on the Britishers.
Quoting Shashi Tharoor, former UN Undersecretary-General and author, in his book The Great Indian Novel, "...the British killed the Indian artisan, they created the Indian landless laborer, they exported our full employment and they invented our poverty."
But if that is true, the situation should have improved considerably in 63 years. But poverty is still omnipresent.
May be the real cause lies in the fact that we lack any plan for sustainable development.Winston Churchill had mocked India saying that Indians are people who live without food for years and spend the entire savings on the day of wedding. Well , Churchill was never a great man but what he observed is distressingly true.
We need to be proud and for that purpose we need to read history. This pride provides us necessary optimism to develop. But presently the demagogues are exploiting our pride to divert pool of money into highly leaky channels. The decision to host the Common wealth games is just one such move.
Hitler had referred in his autobiography "Mein Kamph" that democracy is the system of governance that will inject corruption into every strata of society.I think he has a point. The leaders in the shaky seats make it a point to get the best in the least time.
The solution could be in three ways. The first and foremost is to educate. I belong to Kerala which has a literacy rate of 99%. Education brings an outlook in the minds of people that saves them from exploitation. Its true Kerala has been lately haunted and stagnated by excessive labour consciousness. Yet life is much better. The second area of thrust should be from the side of public . The common man should be able to
have a proper idea to channelize wealth. We need to get rid of bourgeoise wedding ceremonies and excessive investment on items of glamour , zeal , energy , spirit whatever they are called. The IPL could be one such event.
The third and most important requirement is to dump and get away from " what can I do" sort of attitude. Take an optimistic view and always empathize the nation with oneself because after all the country belongs to you as much as it belongs to the Prime Minister.
You did not analyse the comments made by Shashi Singh on the Gini Coefficient of Post-War Antartica and the desperate state of Indian Water Ducks which are struggling because of the price rise and increased fuel cost. Many of them have had to cancel their vacation plans and there are rumors that a few really big ducks might have to put off their bourgeois wedding plans.
ReplyDeleteHitler in his book, Mein Kamph(My Stick!) which was an adult novel featuring Marxian-Freudism and German Girls suggested that the solution to the problems that faced India lay in asking the educated people of kerala to go abroad and rob american banks.
Singing the national anthem in the bathroom and carrying a picture of the Prime Minister in our pockets are also supposed to help. According to Das, Haiti solved it's economic troubles by singing "We shall overcome..." during their Common Wealth Games.
Btw, I have also read Tinkle and Nietzche, just felt like mentioning...
That was just the right comment I had expected from the phenomenon called Selfish Arrogant Boastful Urchin acronymed SABU...
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