Many people hype the notion of the BRIC economies and surmise that India will be a superpower in the next 50 years. Here I will state some of the reasons, which in my view, hinder India's dominance in the world stage.
In order to become a major world power, a country should be able to set an agenda at the world stage. Since 1000 AD, Indians have always fell prey to the foreign powers, be it the intruders from the middle east or the white powers from the seas. Indians have not set any agenda at the world stage in the last 1000 years. They have always followed the agendas set by other people.
Besides, there are structural and institutional problems in Indian society that will impede its ability to become a major world power. First, Indians lack structured thinking. This comes from the beliefs people have about the world in which they live. When you believe in multitude of gods, it makes nice stories for young kids, but it hampers your ability to group the society together on the basis of common belief and attack the enemy, rather than be attacked as has always happened with India.
The above does not mean that individual Indians will not shine in the world. In fact individually Indians will do very well, as they have all the abilities that others in the world have once they realize their potential. It is just that in order to become a major world power, a society needs to have a cohesive outlook about itself. This is sadly lacking in the Indian society. In India people see themselves as members of a group, clan or caste. This division in the society is not conducive to putting an organized complete interface for the rest of the world. Indians are too divided as a race and people to be a threat to the rest of the world.
Because historically, India has always suffered defeat in the war with foreign powers, the Indians lack confidence that is needed to be a nation that is a superpower in the world. The upper classes in India created a society based on varna which in the long run turned out be their greatest undoing. As foreigners with ever fairer skin appeared the Indians looked up to them, rather than looking down on them. These are not the characteristics that one hopes to see in the citizens of a country wanting to be a superpower.
6 comments:
Why should Indian society be completely homogenous ? Beauty of India is that even with so much diversity with so many states, languages, and castes, we are all Indians at the end of the day.
A country becomes a super power when there is an order in the society and accountability. Even if one doesn't have the talent and technology then it can be built by hiring from other resources which is exactly what US & A did. In lack of accountability people forget that what's their goal is and what they need to achieve. By building on corrupt system for 60 years, India has made everyone feel that its the norm of the days. With each Man believing in that and beaming with a pseudo sense of patriotism, they evolve into a hypocrite and in the end these men become leaders and continue looting the country.
I would suggest that why India will never become Super power :
In India anything happens by default than by design.
First we need to define what superpower before we can jump into the discussion on whether a country can be a superpower. Are you referring to - economic power, military superiority or technological superiority? Or are you referring to the a national/societal ability to influence evolutionary events that shape the human history over long periods of time?
I believe sustainable economic superiority and a strong state - results in superiority in lot of other areas, and may be you are referring to that.
You cite 3 reasons why India can't be a super power:
-- India hasn't set the world agenda for the last 1000 years
-- structural and institutional problems are too tough to overcome
-- Indians lack structured thinking
It is tough to say to either of these reasons are strong enough to support your argument.
First - the concept of nation-state itself is fairly new (less than 500 years old), and for most of the last 1000 years - most humans (across continents) lived oblivious to the presence of each other. More importantly - India became a nation-state only for the last 60 years - prior to that it is a bunch of kingdoms with no common ethnic/linguistic/cultural traits/boundaries.
Second - the factors that contributed to become a superpower over last 1000 years can be quite different from what contributed for the next 1000 years. India lacked a strong ethnic majority (compared to other strong strong nations - China, Greeks, Romans, Great Britain etc.), and this possibly the reason for the weak nation/state concept, and the failure to defend boundaries.
But this factor is not that important anymore in this global world (look at US - ethnically diverse, yet a strong power).
Structural and institutional problems are lot quicker to change in the current always plugged-in world, and may not be strong enough reason. Look at the revolutions in the middle-east - who expected that twitter/facebook/youtube can destabilize some of the strongest military/social institutions. I believe an effective print/television media can bring about rapid societal change, and Indian democracy allows this.
I can't really say much about your third point that Indians lack structured thinking. Is there a scientific study to back your argument? It will be tough to make a general statement about - structured thinking (an abstract concept) - especially when you are referring to a billion people.
By structured thinking I meant an ability to think logically -- from reasoning and empirical evidence. The majority of Indian population still comprises of village Indians and the lowest classes of people in the cities. There are always exceptions, but this group of people have been brainwashed by
the system - religious and social beliefs - to believe in fatalism.
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