Happy 60th independence day!! Tomorrow is the day we got rid of foreign rulers and became independent. We ruled our own country (??), called it democracy. We tried to become self sufficient through starting industries to manufacture goods for us though we followed our ex-rulers in legal, educational, irrigation, etc.. in so many others ways.
But is India truly independent today, especially after globalization?
Our stock markets respond to those in NY. We dread at the thought of FIIs leaving our stock market (Quit India , indeed!!) Our services industry depends on other countries for clients. Not many of the industries which were started right after independence are still truly Indian. They are importing materials, they have been acquired by foreign companies, most company boards have a non-Indian director. No part of our life is left untouched by the very 'foreigners' our ancestors struggled to get rid of. They burnt foreign goods, while we embrace imports.
And we are proud of our situation now. We are called 'emerging economy'. We are now looking at conquering the foreign shores. Indians are settling abroad, Indian food, clothes,.. are popular abroad, Indian companies are setting up shop abroad and acquiring foreign companies , getting listed on other stock exchanges, etc. The world looks at us while we grow. We have indeed come a long way from 1947 !
Jhanda uncha rahe hamara...
At least, this time round, you may want to take "pride" that this foreignization is being driven by highly educated Indians such as IIM grads unlike the foreigners in the 18th century :). Personally though, I don't think it is a bad thing - if we are capable enough, we will win on the global stage; the only thing that we now need to focus on is in terms of getting the advanced countries to level the playing field.
ReplyDeleteI cannot understand why you feel so bad about our progress in the first part of your blog.
ReplyDelete1."We ruled our own country (??), called it democracy. "
- We are the world's largest functioning democracy. Democracy has survived for over 60 years (with only a brief break) whereas it has failed in most Asian and African countries. We believe in our democratic process to be fair than what Americans do about their's. Of course there are limitations, but thats characteristic of democracy whether here or anywhere in the world.
2."But is India truly independent today,..Our services industry depends on other countries for clients. Not many of the industries which were started right after independence are still truly Indian."
- Independence do not mean putting a boundary around you. Independence means a right to decide our own destiny. We have foreign clients..but we have rightfully earned them. We have developed world class software industry from scratch. We have our own indigeneous car. We make our own satellites. We carry satellites of other countries to space. We have the worlds largest grassroot integrated refinery plant. the list is long..we are the handful of countries in the world to make a supercomputer.....
3."No part of our life is left untouched by the very 'foreigners' our ancestors struggled to get rid of. They burnt foreign goods, while we embrace imports."
-when our freedom fighters boycotted foreign goods, they they flourished by killing our industries. today we compete with imports on an equal footing. We buyout foreign companies!! if you are mentioning the (apparent) growing craze of westernisation, thats part of the changing times and globalisation process. doesn't independence means a freedom to choose..
Of course there are issues like women's rights, right to education, right to nutritious food etc. that still needs to addressed completely. but these cannot negate what we have achieved in the last sixty years rather they can only spur us to act on these issues faster.