Sixty Years....
Vinod Mehta, 'Sixty Years of Latitude';
.....The advance publicity to the run-up to Wednesday, August 15, unfortunately, relies too heavily on self-congratulation and self-promotion. I would have preferred to see a little breast-beating and honest reassessment.The backslapping, let me quickly add, is not entirely unwarranted.
In the past 10 years, India's tentative steps into the brave, new world of economic reform and globalisation have yielded handsome results. All the talk of attaining "economic superpower" status may be premature and pompous but the boost to the country's self-confidence and self-esteem (best summed up in that awful phrase: "India can do it") means the middle-class native can roam the world head held up high, even though it may still be necessary to line up like the shivering Boat People at international airports. Happily, we have crossed the glass half-full or half-empty stage, our march forward is no longer a matter of perspective or a matter of individual perception. Optimism is justified. The deniers are few and far between.
However, self-congratulation needs a dose of realism. Before my critics say, there he goes again, let us remind ourselves that in Superpower India, 75 per cent of 1.1 billion citizens live on less than Rs 80 a day, out of which 30 per cent live on less than Rs 40 a day. The NGO Child Relief and You tells us that 50 per cent of India's children get no school education; 25 per cent of victims of commercial sexual exploitation are below 18; 1.2 million children under the age of 5 die of malnutrition every year; 90 per cent of working children live in rural India....
Even my critics would concede that I am not given to jingoism. However, as I contemplate India and the world on our republic's 60th birthday, I feel privileged, even blessed, to claim citizenship of our loud, messy, sometimes infuriating but unfailingly robust, resilient and free democracy.....
.....The advance publicity to the run-up to Wednesday, August 15, unfortunately, relies too heavily on self-congratulation and self-promotion. I would have preferred to see a little breast-beating and honest reassessment.The backslapping, let me quickly add, is not entirely unwarranted.
In the past 10 years, India's tentative steps into the brave, new world of economic reform and globalisation have yielded handsome results. All the talk of attaining "economic superpower" status may be premature and pompous but the boost to the country's self-confidence and self-esteem (best summed up in that awful phrase: "India can do it") means the middle-class native can roam the world head held up high, even though it may still be necessary to line up like the shivering Boat People at international airports. Happily, we have crossed the glass half-full or half-empty stage, our march forward is no longer a matter of perspective or a matter of individual perception. Optimism is justified. The deniers are few and far between.
However, self-congratulation needs a dose of realism. Before my critics say, there he goes again, let us remind ourselves that in Superpower India, 75 per cent of 1.1 billion citizens live on less than Rs 80 a day, out of which 30 per cent live on less than Rs 40 a day. The NGO Child Relief and You tells us that 50 per cent of India's children get no school education; 25 per cent of victims of commercial sexual exploitation are below 18; 1.2 million children under the age of 5 die of malnutrition every year; 90 per cent of working children live in rural India....
Even my critics would concede that I am not given to jingoism. However, as I contemplate India and the world on our republic's 60th birthday, I feel privileged, even blessed, to claim citizenship of our loud, messy, sometimes infuriating but unfailingly robust, resilient and free democracy.....
Comments