It is said that at one time it was a rich land, prosperous, a centre of education and excellence. But what is it today? A country ruled by people who have no ability to govern, a country whose intelligentsia is unable to create fresh ideas, a country in which art is second hand, a country in which greed and corruption is everywhere.
The British, when they left India in 1947, feared that India would not be able to govern itself. Their fears were not unfounded. Indian politicians had no sustainable vision for their country. They were blinded by their sudden ascent to power. Due to a feudal mindset built over centuries, India was not ready for democracy so suddenly. People did not know what they wanted. The leaders were equally confused. Our constitution was borrowed from a thousand different places and still had to be re-interpreted and amended almost a hundred times.
The initial policies were geared toward a socialist state, with the government undertaking responsibilities in almost all fields: from production of bread and soap to management of railways and the airspace. There were few Indians capable of managing, with sagacity and a vision for the future, the resources and people of such a vast country. Deliberately, incompetent people, from the weaker sections of society, were installed in positions of power. The vast population voted again and again for politicians who were merely famous, with no proven ability to govern the country. The royalty in various parts of the country was elected by the people as their representatives.
There was probably no way it could have been prevented. The British left in a huff, leaving India to deal with a starved economy, large scale riots and maladministration. It was not a time where people could have exercised patience and prudence. They had implicit faith in leaders like Nehru and Patel. And the leaders thought they were doing the best they could.
They, however, made quite a few mistakes.
The feudal structure of the bureaucracy, well-suited to the British rule, was left unchanged. Rapid industrialization was started. Corruption was tolerated at the highest levels. Instead of addressing the basic needs of the people, such as decent food, water and health; money was poured into the urban-industrial region. Dams were built, chemical factories came into existence, oil wells were dug up, ...
No thought was paid to environmental concerns, to proper planning of the cities and the industrial areas and to a sustainable growth model. Rapid deforestation and urbanization was undertaken. Lack of attention to rural economy made cities the hub of employment. Poor people from the villages steadily moved to the cities. Slums came into existence, the cities became crowded, unable to support the migrating populace.
This industrialization and the so-called Green Revolution made the country superficially a little more prosperous, but at the high cost of indebtedness to other countries, dependence on chemicals for agriculture, massive pollution of the topsoil and the rivers and increased toxicity in food and water.
There comes a time when one makes a mess of a situation and then all one can do is to sit back and ruminate. The initial policies made a mess of India. And the later politicians had no energy, will or initiative to reverse the juggernaut. There was a very powerful minority in the country which wanted things to continue as they were. This minority dictated to the country the direction in which it was to continue to move.
The later politicians were in power only to profit from their power. The national interest had taken a backseat. Corruption became endemic and ubiquitous.
There was no purpose left for the politicians but to fill their own pockets with the country's wealth. They had no interest in improving things. They were already living a lifestyle which was very distant from that of the common man. They did not have to go to the places a common man went to, they did not travel as a common man did, they got their health treated in the West instead of their own hospitals, their children studied in elite schools, their wives shopped in Dubai and London ...
In short, there came into being a great divide between the haves and have-nots. The powerful had their own priorities, the common man ceased to matter. He was heard nowhere, his complaints fell on deaf ears and just to survive became an ordeal.
In such a milieu, the state of India's towns, the dwelling places of the common man, went from bad to worse. The government doled out jobs to people who were either incompetent but ``deserved'' the job due to their social position or had bribed their way in. Hardly anybody was interested in performing his duty. Government jobs were secure and life-long. Corruption was rewarded and honesty was punished.
The dream of a common man, to make a decent effort and be rewarded with a decent life, was relegated to the nullahs. Despite making great efforts and working extremely hard, a common labourer could only make just enough money to let him survive. The real fruits of his labour went to the pockets of the unseen corrupt.
India became a field in which weeds were having real growth and the common plants were being crushed into death and disease. The field was abandoned.
India was not ungovernable. It has become so due to great protection given to the corrupt. It has become so because the powerful have not been held accountable for their deeds.
Its towns were not unlivable from the beginning. They have been made so due to the flagrant lack of respect for the common man. He has been passed over. Any violation of the law, left punished, is a punishment to the law-abiding citizen, because he has to suffer its consequences.
Sometimes laws were made to serve everybody, but they were enforced in a way so as to serve only the powerful. The common man is crushed everyday by the threat of police and legal harassment. Police and the Judiciary are not there to serve him and to protect his rights, he should rise beyond this illusion.