India 3.0: The Rise of a Billion People

240 Pages·2019·1.59 MB·English

by  Arun Tiwari

INDIA 3.0
The Rise of a Billion People
Arun Tiwari
To
Dr A.P.J. Abdul Kalam
I have seen India while sitting on his shoulder
Contents
Foreword
Introduction
I: REBOOTING INDIA
1. For whom the bells toll
2. The fence eating the crop
3. Existential debts
4. It’s all business, stupid!
5. Is abundance possible?
II: SIEGE WITHIN
6. A wounded civilization
7. India 1.0
8. India 2.0
9. Indians today
10. Present-day India
III: LEAD INDIA
11. Kalam’s India
12. Enlightened citizens
13. Facing the truth
14. Creative mind, integrated self
15. Convergence of technologies
16. Energy independence
17. Proactive security
18. Leading the world
Footnotes
About the Book
About the Author
Praise for the book
Copyright
Foreword
ANYONE SEEKING to understand modern India faces four basic sets of
questions. First, he needs to know how the country came to be what it was
at Independence, an unmistakable watershed in its long history. This involves
answering questions such as what internal and external factors led to its
subjection for long periods to foreign rule, and with what short-term and long-
term consequences. Second, he needs to know the range of alternatives that was
open to India at Independence, what choices it made then and later, and with
what results. Third, the student of India would want to understand the country
in the context of other countries, and assess in a comparative context whether
India’s choices were wise or ill-conceived. Finally, he would need to know how
India should modernize itself and how it could go about creating a stable, secure,
just and democratic society.
Few books on India deal with all four sets of questions and most of them remain
narrowly historical, comparative or prescriptive in their approaches. Mr Tiwari’s
book differs from them in dealing extensively with all four. He writes about the
establishment and consolidation of British rule in India, post-Independence
Indian politics, how other countries in similar situations have dealt with their
problems, and offers a set of valuable prescriptions. In each case he sets out his
views clearly and forcefully and backs them up with carefully marshalled
evidence. Even when he fails to convince his reader, he forces the latter to think
hard and give his reasons for disagreement.
Having worked with Dr Abdul Kalam form any years, his prescriptions for
India’s malaise is broadly similar. He urges radical changes at many levels in
several areas such as education, environment, governance, citizenship, health
care and globalization. His suggestions are based on valuable insights, and show
what India would achieve if it applied to all aspects of its collective life the same
degree of dedication it has brought to areas such as information technology,
space research, pharmaceutics and biotechnology, where its achievements are
widely noticed and admired. Dr Tiwari’s book makes an important contribution
to the understanding of India and deserves to be widely read and discussed.
Lord Bhikhu Parekh
Introduction
WHILE FORECASTING national change, one generally considers the history of
a nation and its major turning points. In history, a series of events occur
that could have had varied outcomes. Depending on how things turn out, the
future development of countries and their people are changed for the better or
for the worse. Nothing in history is predetermined and that extends to national
political trajectories too. What would have happened if the British had never
come to India, or say, by 1810 or so, a loose confederacy of Sikh, Maratha and
the Deccan rulers managed to kick out the British, the French and the
Portuguese? Or had Mir Jafar, the commander-in-chief of the Siraj-ud-Daulah’s
army, refused to betray his nawab? Or Cyril John Radcliffe had applied mind and
method over a period of time and not divided Bengal and Punjab in five weeks
that included ‘a bout of dysentery that kept him constantly on the trot’?
The European Union is already crumbling, in spite of having a great vision,
resources and people, with economic crises in Greece, Cyprus, Spain and
Portugal. Five million Syrians have been rooted out of their homeland as
refugees and an equal number displaced within their own country; but no
superpower or international organization can do anything to resolve the
situation. A country can walk out of an international treaty because of a change
in its leadership. Socialism has failed, capitalism has failed, and globalization has
failed. It is a fact that even China’s future development is uncertain, regardless of
the power and wealth it has created for its people.
In India, while one prime minister suspended elections and civil liberties in
1975, another had to order the pawning of sixty-seven tonnes of gold to tide over
a balance-of-payments crisis in 1991. Yet another prime minister helplessly
presided over scam after scam by his government. A sense of superiority, rooted
in our ancient history and some emotionally charged description of Indian
people in literature, does generate a patriotic fervour but does not match with the
present condition of Indian nation – still struggling with a national vision of a
developed country and a harmonious society. The yardstick to measure these are