Tuesday, December 05, 2006

Void of Belief



This is addendum to what I had written sometime back - ‘50 years of independence; 15 years of freedom’. Here is an ‘extenso-thought’ to it.
While India’s economic boom is filling many coffers - FDIs are up, we have a booming stock market, all the sectors of economy are showing vibrant growth, salaries are up (highest growth in whole of Asia!) and a lot more good is coming our way, there is another impact of this economic boom that is less talked about.
As a country, we have seen the demise of mainstream nationalism long time back -ask anyone other than the retired folk about nationalism or the national issues facing the country and chances are you’d draw a blank.
As a nation we can only vaguely remember Gandhain values as a distinct national philosophy.
Today, we as citizens are totally disjoint from each other for want of a shared belief. It would be difficult to answer if someone asked what is the contemporary concept of being an Indian?
As Peter Shwartz has mentioned in his work “Inevitable Surprises”, as a society we have been living with a void of belief.
India’s economic boom has filled this void to a large extent. This is especially true for the bigger urban centers where the fruits of economic boom can be seen and even tasted. As a nation a large part of our present day population is happy, hopeful and heading to the future with a belief that tomorrow would be better and there is a lot that can be done.
This is in sharp contrast to middle class India’s erstwhile ‘fear of future’ mindset. Our collective mental programming of yore was typified by an attitude that considered tomorrow a synonym for uncertainty.
India’s economic boom is a great example of the social impact of economic status of a nation.
May this new belief move from strength to strength and may the economy outperform the belief!

No comments: