India’s success formula endures: Let’s not falter at this stage

Impoverished by colonial surplus extraction, the Indian landmass had been reduced from one of the richest places on earth to one of the poorest. India’s political leadership had to craft an economic policy informed by the nation’s capital scarcity, an abundance of untrained labour and widespread incidence of crushing poverty. 

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Leading members of the private sector also advocated—through the Bombay Plan—that the state bear the primary task of building the nation’s core economic structure, which could then become a durable platform for private sector entrepreneurship.

The march of time has shown how the broad idea of India has held firm through famines, droughts, pandemics, global economic crises, wars waged by bitter neighbours and provocations by imperious superpowers, not  to mention rifts within the country.

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As India celebrates 78 years of independence, new challenges again cast a shadow on our doorstep. Democracy-deficient neighbours have drawn their scimitar to put ‘a thousand cuts’ of terror back in oblique play to weaken the Indian republic. 

Our neighbour across the Himalayas, a rising force to reckon with, shows little patience for democratic methods and might try to dominate the Indo-Pacific. A reliable partner of the past, Russia, is a weakened power and our painstakingly forged friendship with the US is under threat from a reckless White House bent on wrecking global trade  and old alliances. 

Suspicion of US motives has a  long history. It hardened in the 1960s after the Lyndon Johnson administration reneged on its promise of aid after India devalued the rupee on its demand. It grew acute after Richard Nixon sent warships to the Bay of Bengal in 1971 to support a Pakistani general’s unjust war. And now, President Donald Trump is not only feting Pakistan’s military leaders again, but also trying to browbeat India on trade with punitive tariffs.

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We have been in tight spots before and emerged unscathed every time. New Delhi’s policy of strategic autonomy, a logical successor of non-alignment during the Cold War, has served the nation well. It is perhaps time to recalibrate this stance to consolidate the time-tested formula of even-handed relations and Panchsheel—or five principles. 

In the 35 years since our economy was opened up, India has been a global exemplar of economic growth and  poverty reduction. One of the reasons was the visible growth of a middle-class that spent and saved. External trade headwinds should push  us to become more competitive, even as we reinforce our policy framework to fortify domestic growth. 

Two factors call for special attention. First, multitudes still need access to meaningful education, reliable healthcare and robust sources of income. Second, India Inc must be convinced to invest at home, not overseas, for which corporate investors need to be assured of their investments paying back. We must not allow all-round upward mobility to  falter as a generator of growth. As India’s first prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru said in his Tryst with Destiny speech, the “future is not one of ease or resting but of incessant striving…"