Where are our sense of freedoms? Security?
A hopeful world?
All these questions arise, mainly owing to the leadership vacuum at the present time of the world? The USA is led by a very capable leader in Barack Obama. But he seems to be giving a feeble signal to the rest of the world.
We in India itself are not confident about Obama’s less than forthcoming attitudes and signals over the minor (or let us not imagine a major!) Incident over the diplomat’s unhappy treatment at the hands of a rather foolish behaviour with a friendly nation’s national.
Of course, the time has come in the history of our country that other nations in other parts of the world are also waking up to their own rights in their own geographies, like the South China seems many territorial claims by a host of countries. Most of them are friendly countries of India.
When we travel to those distant lands what we see is the warmth and a sense of brotherhood for India.
Now, Japan has come to India seeking our hands of friendship and to offer any range of helps, from the largest foreign direct aid to many infrastructure developments.
Japan enjoys four times the highest per capita income and living standards compared with China. Japan’s per capita GDP of 37,000 dollars means that the Japanese are so richer; they are 10 times richer than Indians. When USA is looking at India just a strategic partner with no other interest except perhaps as a source of cheap educated skilled labour supplying country, then, we Indians have to turn to other friends and eager seekers of our hands of friendship.
India has to grow speedily and with utmost commitment to what would make India a modern country, a country of high values. The Japanese people have so much to give us, their work ethic, their technological skills and their high calibre to undertake big infrastructure projects.
Though we have our democracy and our many learning’s from the time of our independence, we are yet to win the admiration of other nations in terms of our own economic achievements, our own unique achievements in the latest frontier sciences, Space Exploration and other related areas of high technology.
Our education system must start delivering on various fronts.
Indian society, the traditional values are admired in the East Asian nations.
But then, we have to be self-critical too. Our long period of history under the British had given us many advantages but also some undesirable qualities.’
One is the lack of self-confidence. We don’t care much for our own self dignity; we don’t rate our personal freedoms much. Or, do we?
I am not sure. What I am sure is this diffidence when it comes to openly debate and argue. We are not an argumentative nation at all. When the US did indulge in such extensive spying activity, when Edward Snowdown asked for asylum, India kept quiet! Is it not a shame?
It is a shame! No high profile (why even low profile voice was ever heard over this humiliation of our country. While Germany and Argentina protested, we in India kept such a pathetic low profile silence!
What sort of individual liberty we learnt from our British heritage. Did we at all ever study John Stuart Mill? Or, Sir Isaiah Berlin?
Liberty is a sacred concept in any democracy. Mill and Berlin must have taught Indians about these values. But there is no indication we Indians, either here or those living outside India, in the USA or UK ever raised a voice.
So, we can imagine that as a mature democracy we are yet to learn the theories or philosophies of personal freedoms or individual liberty that only can mark our persona as free individuals.
Not to speak of other great minds like Fredrick von Hayek, the author of Road to Serfdom, the Constitution of Liberty for which he won the first Nobel Prize for economics when it was first instituted.
At least now we teach our students these theories and philosophies. My concern here is that also we have to teach the current world scenario where the USA threatens the entire world over its paranoia over its own insecurity.
There are now Al Qaeda-inspired threats within the USA, the USA fears.
So, more and more the US would spy over every citizen of the world!
This an intolerant situation. We in India must take our humanities education much more seriously; we have to create a more liberal democracy.
There must be freedoms of discussion and debates. We have to link with like-minded nations and peoples.
This is the task of great education vision. Let us all think and ponder over these ideas and developments in the world we live in.
Jai Hind.