1857 marked the year when the political soul of a land mass came into existence. When the feeling of being an Indian was not just a cultural one but very much tangible and physical one. In an unprecedented event, rulers of various Indian territories and of different caste, region and religion stood together to fight British. The revolt failed but it left a pervasive feeling of Indianness.
Forth coming decades saw the upsurge of Indian nationals to regain their glory and freedom. Reforms empowered the people of India to relinquish their orthodox attributes and adopt new outlook. Fight on various platforms and by various means was on to redeem sovereignty. Alignments of masses with a new form of revolt, Ahimsa, led the nation to evolve as society which can stand together in spite of rarest of the rare diversity in the demographics. Gandhi ji used to say quite often,
“Hinsa se bahari shatru ko haraya to ja sakta hai parantu hinsa ke marg pe chalkar ek sangathit rashtra ka nirman asambhav hai“
Meaning: Adoption of violent measures may lead to the defeat of enemy but going the way of violence, the formation of a united nation is impossible.
After patient efforts, India got her independence on August 15, 1947. Challenges were new now. Whether it is military conflict with Pakistan or China or Cold war era, whether it is drought crises during Shastri government or Emergency levied by Indra Gandhi’s regime, or international sanctions just for being self-dependent in Nuclear Technology, India has gone through all. Still the Nation is Rising and that too with record pace. Whole cosmos is witnessing the unprecedented growth.
We might be seen as second or third on papers but the point worthy of notice is, everywhere, the country ahead of us is different but it is India which is marking it’s presence among the top in every growth area. Our growth is not limited to one or two tracks but we are leading whether it is economy, standard of living, intellectual or soft power, global diplomacy or defense.
Today, no board meeting or global conference is successful without Indian being discussed. The Asian tiger is pacing towards attainment of its long dreamt goals.This poised journey is marked with celebrations and has Grey areas as well. Rise of Nation is an effort to celebrate the growth story and discuss the grey areas which still remain critical to this unprecedented phenomenon. Every one is invited.
Even the Gods will be Watching!!
March 28, 2007 at 5:19 am
Varun,
Some areas of the nation is rising. But some others are falling back.
March 28, 2007 at 5:44 am
Alex,
Ofcourse there are areas of concern and in my post I have taken note of them. I do not deny the concern or their enormousness. Thus I have written,
“This poised journey is marked with celebrations and has Grey areas as well. Rise of Nation is an effort to celebrate the growth story and discuss the grey areas which still remain critical to this unprecedented phenomenon.”
I hope you got my theme. Thanks for your comment. Keep reading and commenting.
March 28, 2007 at 5:44 am
Good post as it gives a hope about some good days ahead. But i disagree with the 1857 some what. The so called heroes of 1857 say Nana Saheb, Rani Jhansi, Nawab of Awadh, they all fought for their very own motives because the East India Company had done some injustice to them. For me the real heroes were the sepoys of Meerut, Kunwar Singh and Tatya Tope.
This is not the time to do retrospection but to look forward and as far as i see the future of India is quite good but we should not be very proud of that as we are 1/6th of the worlds population so unless we get 1/6th of the share in all the indices of dvelopment we can not have a right to smile.
March 28, 2007 at 6:28 am
The aquisitions overseas by indian companies every second dae , the increasing female literacy rate , the rising standards of living , and this is the best one – the uninterrupted history of of indian democracy since independence with all its bewildering variety , india is definitely rising.
But TOI was not wrong in putting dat we indians are a bit too overexcited abt certain things…. over our tiny bits of success here n dere , over our handful of millionares , over those 3 IT companies , over the myth called ‘the indian programmer ‘ , over cricket… specially wen it comes to advertising the same (Ghosh !! )
Talking abt orthodox ideas .. we still believe adding a ‘k’ here n dere will solve our problems , perhaps kashmir can be given a extra k ……..i hope dat does wonders ! …
March 28, 2007 at 7:43 am
Just highlighted your theme.
March 28, 2007 at 10:27 pm
Neeraj,
Of course the motive of rulers at that time to fight Britishers was not purely Nationalistic and it was also a reaction to the then introduced Doctrine of Lapse. But the case with sepoys in Meerut was not much different either. They too rebelled as result of their dissatisfaction with the practices that they were made to follow, including case of greased cartridges, by East India Company.
Though the revolt was not intended to be nationalistic in true sense, it indeed led to unification of opposition forces against East India Company and eventually led to a National Movement.
Your point, regarding 1/6 th share in everything, is very well taken. But practically it won’t be possible in case of every asset because of geographical and political limitations of our country.
Rishu,
Thanks KRishu !!!
Alex,
And well, you highlighted your blog post as well.
No offenses! these ways are good to mutually popularize your ideas and such practices should be encouraged among bloggers. You are welcome !!
March 29, 2007 at 12:19 am
For a second I it reminded me of that period.. although we hvn’t gone thru that period but still the history is still alive.. despite of all the difficulties we ghot what we wanted and I’m sure our nation will rise surpassing all tough times and the cosmo will witness it…
March 29, 2007 at 8:04 am
Rishu
I would not term it as over excitement but beaming confidence that has embarked Indians to dream high. I agree that the road is still less traveled but now Indian have much needed audacity.
As far as millionaires are concerned the figure is 83,000 (The last report is 5 month old) and 32 Indian billionaires (excluding NRIs) and such numbers do not seem to be handful from any dimension. The big story is not about 3 big IT companies but those numerous small companies which show the spurring enterprenuaral acumen of young Indian demographics.
As far as your comments over the orthodox ideas are concerned, I would again say, thanks KRishu !!
March 29, 2007 at 10:25 am
Varun,
April 4, 2007 at 11:50 am
You have definitely done a lot of homework on “number of millionaires” LOL
Well i wish luck to all the budding enterprenuars of india ..
And i feel proud of all dat india has achieved .
But then lets have a look at the following :
http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/2004/09/30/stories/2004093000120500.htm
P.S This is no debate going on from my side about rise of our nation
April 5, 2007 at 6:34 am
Rishu
Thanks for acknowledging my ‘home work’ !
Thanks for providing us the informative link. I do agree that system needs to be amended for making it more facilitative. But at the same time we need to understand, why had these time taking procedures have been laid.
Our honourable Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh explains the reasons in an interview to famous interviewer Charlie Rose.
India is a federal democratic system. We have different levels of policy making and execution. Like Some issues are taken care of by Central Government, some by State Govt. and other some by local authorities like Municipal Corporation. All these bodies are democratic and share power and functioning. This kind of system is imperative in a country like India for a more democratic and inclusive growth because in such a highly and uniquely diversified region it will be very difficult and may be sometimes unjustified to have a single central decision making body.
But in case of other countries the system is highly centralised because they do not display the exceptional demographic diversity along all verticals and horizontals as it is in the case of India.