What is India’s “tryst with destiny”?
Independent India was born when Jawaharlal Nehru unfurled the country’s tricolour flag and addressed the Indian Constituent Assembly in Parliament at the midnight hour on 15 August 1947. India had won its independence after a long and remarkably peaceful struggle for freedom led by Mahatma Gandhi.
Gandhi had a vision of a country not divided into fragments by religious and communal walls. He envisioned a country in which every Indian, whether rich or poor, would hold their head high in dignity. India’s “tryst with destiny” was to provide “poorna swaraj” to all its citizens
The country’s democratic Constitution granted political freedom to every Indian, man or woman, rich or poor, whatever their religions. It created the world’s largest democracy. Sadly, some 75 years later, political liberties and freedoms of speech are being curbed in India.
Social equality amongst castes has not been achieved. Lower caste citizens continue to live in great indignity. Lower caste poor women live in abject poverty in India’s villages. They are amongst the most oppressed humans on the planet.
The number of billionaires in India increased from 102 to 166 between 2020 and 2022, the COVID years when work on the ground was disrupted by lockdowns, and interruptions of supply chains within and across national borders. However, digital flows of money were not affected. Therefore, profit continued to be made by investors and speculators in financial markets. A very large part of the wealth of billionaires is in the form of financial instruments. Therefore, their personal wealth creation was not affected by COVID.
While the number of Indian billionaires increased during the pandemic, the majority of Indian citizens suffered from increased economic insecurity. Hundreds of millions of Indians lost their incomes when the country locked down during the pandemic. They struggled to find shelter, food, and even drinking water for their families.
Clearly, we have a long road ahead of us still to fulfil the destiny our founding fathers had envisioned for the nation.
India at 75 is a time to reflect. A time to reflect on what is going on in the world around us; what is going on within us; and what changes we must make in our ideas of progress to create a country in which all Indians’ minds are without fear: a country in which all Indians, whatever their caste or religion, will hold their heads high by 2047 when India will be 100.
The idea of a free democratic India was a beacon of hope for a shattered world in 1947. The so-called “enlightened” nations of Europe had plunged the world into two horrific World Wars within 50 years. Into which they had dragged the countries they had colonised, who were “the white man’s burden”, they had been enlightening, they said, while enslaving their people, and exploiting their lands and natural resources.
World War I was a contest for territorial rights amongst the enlightened Europeans. After which new political forces rose within Europe that challenged ideas of liberalism and free markets: communist movements in Russia; and fascist movements in Italy and Germany. World War II was described by the Allies as a defence of liberal democracy against forces of fascism and oppression. The war ended with the US showing off the power of its nuclear technology to exterminate hundreds of thousands of innocent civilians in Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
When the global hot war ended, it morphed into a long Cold War led by the US against communism. The West and the Soviet Union competed to develop weapons of mass destruction. The Cold War ended with the collapse of the Soviet Union. Now another cold war has begun. The US, and China and Russia, are racing against each other to develop digital weapons, and in applying financial and trade weapons to harm each other. The collateral damages of their war are harming the most vulnerable people in the world the most.
Sadly, the same leaders who must cooperate to solve global problems are once again dividing the world and arm-twisting other countries to take their sides. India finds itself, once again, in the difficult position of being a bridge between East and West, as it was after its independence in 1947. And once again it hopes to be a source of a new Enlightenment. However, to be a light for the rest, India must first clear up the fogs within itself. This is the historic task India’s leaders must accomplish between India at 75 and India at100 (between 2022 and 2047).
When the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, political scientist Francis Fukuyama prematurely declared the “end of history”. He believed that capitalism and democracy – the Washington Consensus – had finally prevailed over socialism and totalitarianism.
History has returned. Ideological conflict between democracy and capitalism has not ended. In fact the two ideologies are conflicting within the Western victors of the old Cold War. Civil society movements are speaking in the West on behalf of people left behind by the “free market” of private enterprise. Other voices on “the Left” demand a larger role for governments in providing public services and social security. And others speak for the protection of the natural environment. Meanwhile the Right advocates for lower taxes, less regulation, and more freedom for capital to roam the world.
The fundamental conflict between the core principles of capitalism and democracy – i.e. between the rights of owners of capital on one hand, and the rights of all humans on the other – continues. It is a conflict between political conservatives and political progressives. Between conservatives, who want to retain their power to fix the rules of the game from which they have benefited, and progressives who want to change the rules for the benefit of those left behind.
Democracy and capitalism are founded on different conceptions of fundamental rights. Capitalism’s foundation is property rights. Democracy’s is human rights. Capitalist institutions run on the principle that whosoever owns something has the right to use it as he wishes, and also that whosoever owns more of a shared resource must have a greater say in how that resource is used. Therefore, whoever owns more shares in a corporation has a larger vote than those who own fewer shares.
On the other hand, ownership of property does not matter while assigning voting rights in democratic institutions. Because, in democracy, every living person, whether she has a billion dollars of wealth, or no dollars at all, has an equal vote in the governance of the collective human enterprise.
The clash between capitalism and democracy is a clash of fundamental principles for good governance of societies. When appliances designed to run on AC power are plugged into sockets providing DC power, there will be blow-outs. Similarly, when institutions of governance designed to run on fundamentally different principles are plugged into each other, something will blow up.
Fundamental contradictions between the principles of capitalism and democracy are causing violent conflicts amongst nations and within nations. To create an equitable, sustainable, and more harmonious world in the 21st century, institutions of democracy and capitalism must evolve, from the shape in which they have been locked in with the so-called “Washington Consensus”.
Humanity must find new solutions to many societal, economic, and environmental challenges in a hurry. They are listed in the 17 Sustainable Development Goals16, all governments have signed up for. Institutions are vehicles designed by humans to realize their collective aspirations. Institutions of capitalism, as well as institutions of democracy, must be reformed to solve the existential crises of increasing inequalities and rapid climate change that are threatening all humanity.
Excerpted with permission from Reimagining India’s Economy: The Road to a More Equitable Society, Arun Maira, Speaking Tiger Books.
