A reflective piece by a former retired Indian Army Officer on India's prospects of India emerging as a sustainable super power

by Nilesh Kunwar

I missed being a member of the exclusive club that author Salman Rushdie popularised as ‘Midnight Children’ in his novel with the same name by a decade but this had its own advantages. For example, with India having adopted the metric monetary system in 1955, one didn’t have to undergo the agony of memorising the complicated values of three pies making one pice, four pice making one Anna, and 16 Annas being equal to a Rupee.

While many in our age group fondly reminisce about what they jubilantly refer to as the ‘good old days’, I recall that life wasn’t as good as what some our age make it out to be. Though I can’t speak about what adults felt those days but at home and even outside, one often heard snatches of conversation between elders that certainly did not give an impression that those days were exceptionally good ones. I distinctly recall the shortage of essential commodities being a common topic of discussion and marvelling at advertisements of electronic gadgets like transistors in foreign magazines like Life and Woman & Home- old copies of which sometimes came our way!

In those days every household had what was commonly referred to as a ration card that allowed you to buy rations from government run shops at subsidised rates, but since the amount of ration one could buy depended upon the number of family members, inflating the number of children and adding grandparents was commonplace.

Then there were permits- letters issued by the local authorities allowing those constructing houses to buy cement and other such commodities at what was referred to as government rates. Needless to say, getting a permit or padding the number of family members in ration cards was only possible through use of influence or the ubiquitous baksheesh [bribe].

The local administration did release an additional quota of sugar during festivals and marriages in the family which could be drawn by showing your ration card but the quantity [despite fudging the numbers of family members] was largely insufficient. However, one could buy any amount of sugar from the black-market. In fact, black marketing was a lucrative and thriving business where you could for a price pick up anything ranging from car tyres to cars itself!

In the summer months, power outages were frequent but didn’t cause us much discomfort because the common Indian household then had neither a fridge nor any coolers. But what upset us kids most was the ban on sale of milk-sourced sweetmeats by the district magistrate due to acute shortage of milk.

When the 1962 Sino-Indian conflict broke out, I was only six years old. Yet I vividly remember the frantic government appeals on radio and advertisements in news reels that preceded movie screening requesting people to donate gold jewellery, money and even woollens to help arm and clothe our soldiers fighting the Chinese.

So much for the good old days!

Things started improving significantly during the seventies and life became much easier and more comfortable. This inference is duly reflected in the World Bank’s data which shows India’s per capita income has risen from a modest $ 82 in 1960, jumped to a whopping $ 2,388 in 2022. This is indeed a remarkable achievement when viewed in isolation, but for accurately determining the precise degree of progress made over the years, a comparative analysis is essential.

As China's per capita income in 1960 was $ 89 as against India's $82, comparison between the two countries is fair. In 2022, however, while China’s per capita income swelled to $ 12, 720, India’s per capita income was only $2,388. So, while India has definitely done well over the years, it would not be inappropriate to say that we could have certainly done much better.

Hence, the centre’s decision to declare ‘Viksit Bharat’ [Developing India] as the central theme of India’s 78th Independence Day celebrations is most appropriate as it gives a clarion call for the government's vision of transforming India into a developed entity by the centenary of Independence in 2017. Thanks to well conceived and dynamically executed infrastructural development projects, adopting a ‘bottom-up’ approach and public participation to improve quality of life of the people through imaginative schemes as well as reducing foreign dependency by facilitating indigenisation through the ‘Make in India’ initiative, much lost ground has been covered.

Though the results achieved thus far are remarkable, there’s no room for complacency or negativity, as in this competitive world there's no place for laggards. Simultaneously, since India’s continuing progress is bound to upset certain countries and entities whose captive market is under threat from India’s ‘Make in India’ programme, spreading negativity and creating a hostile working environment would only help inimical forces to exploit public emotions and impede progress.

India has all it takes to become a world leader provided we remain united and play our respective roles as its citizens in a responsible manner.

Nilesh Kunwar is a retired Indian Army Officer who has served in Jammu & Kashmir, Assam, Nagaland and Manipur. He is a keen ‘Kashmir-Watcher,’ and after retirement is pursuing his favourite hobby of writing for newspapers, journals and think-tanks