An Impartial Reflection
Our journey, as a republic, offers a lot to be proud of. Yet it is marred with severe under performance and disappointments. This piece attempts a dispassionate and objective evaluation of journey of independent India only to explore a better future for Indians and the world.
Our Progress As a Unified Nation
Our evolution as a unified and cohesive nation, given the conditions in which we gained independence in 1947, generates immense pride in the earliest architects of independent India. They proved all naysayers wrong who had doubted our ability to hold together as a nation, given our diversity and constraints. We survived horrors of partition, deprivations of poverty, unprovoked wars imposed by deceitful neighbours, protracted insurgencies backed by external forces, linguistic and religious tensions infused by reckless politicians, social upheavals and internal turmoil inflicted by a variety of disguised forces and authoritarian streaks of elected leaders. We remain a stable democracy with vibrant society. Governments have repeatedly changed hands through largely free, fair and peaceful elections. Unlike many post-colonial states, who have faced recurrent military coups, we have had a democratic continuity that appears remarkable given the enormity of our context.
Economic Transformation
The economic transformation of post-independence India, despite internal discords and sub-optimal institutions, is a remarkable testimony of resilience, innovation and adaptability of our entrepreneurial class. With a roughly $4 trillion economy, growing at 7.6 percent in 2025 according to the World Bank, (https://data.worldbank.org/country/india?utm), we are one of the major economies in the world. Our digital infrastructure, pharmaceutical manufacturing, formidable space programme, sustained information technology output, transformative automotive sector, surging financial technology prowess and overall entrepreneurial ecosystem have given us a strong global heft. Yet we need to be humble. Our overall performance remains suboptimal, and we remain one of the poorest countries in term of per capita income.
Nevertheless, success of Chandrayaan-3, Aditya-L1 and the continuing
expansion of India’s space capabilities have demonstrated that Indian institutions
can accomplish far more complex goals with sheer competence and commitment of our scientists driven by a stronger national purpose.
(Indian Space Research Organisation: https://www.isro.gov.in/ISRO_EN/Achievements_Department_of_Space_2025.html?utm)
Similarly, achievements of our global diaspora reinforce our self -belief as a people. Most expatriate Indians are intelligent,
prosperous and disproportionately influential in several advanced economies. This only confirms that Indian way of life, characterized by family values and unqualified parental support to children, is a huge strength of our society. If we can build such institutions at home that can nurture our human resources and harness their strengths for national purpose, probably quality and pace of our advancement shall multiply beyond calculations.
Uncomfortable Paradox:
It is fair to observe that we have created a paradox of world-class
excellence amidst an ocean of societal constraints and institutional mediocrity.
National Family & Health Survey (NFHS)-5 has found that 35.5 percent of Indian children under five had stunted growth and 32.1 percent were underweight due to malnutrition. (Press Information Bureau (https://www.pib.gov.in/Pressreleaseshare.aspx?PRID=1779258&lang=2®=48&utm). These lead to severe cognition impairment.
Successive Annual Status of Education Reports continues to reveal serious deficits in foundational learning. Our workforce remains inadequately skilled.
The Economic Survey has repeatedly highlighted the extraordinarily low proportion of Indians receiving formal vocational training. (India Budget (https://www.indiabudget.gov.in/budget2024-25%28I%29/economicsurvey/doc/eschapter/echap06.pdf?utm).
Approximately 800 million Indians, accounting for over 60% of total population depend upon free ration for survival.
The most important resource of nation is not natural resources, land and capital alone. While we are deficient here as well, given the size of our population, but it is always the quality of human, and their productive capacity and the quality of cohesion that drives progress of a nation.
Unprofessional, Oppressive and Generalist Bureaucracy
Our bureaucracy has many brilliant and incorruptible incumbents. Yet it appears substantially entitlement driven, unprofessional and rent-collecting behemoth, lacking professional/technical capacity or even commitment and conducive environment to address transformational goals and priorities of the nation. Citizens spend huge time and energy navigating bureaucratic hurdles for their day to day existence.
Entrepreneurs struggle with routine permissions, regulatory uncertainty, litigation and informal transactions or underhand payments. Bureaucratic institutions rarely encourage and support entrepreneurship with timely approvals and proper guidance. But illicit networks often appear to thrive right under the nose of regulatory institution or in collusion with malicious elements within these.
Innovators in critical area of technological progress or national security encounter more administrative friction than cerebral challenges.
Simultaneously, upright and professional civil servants discover that integrity pushes them more often on a lonely and risky trajectory. At times, these invite severe systemic wrath and even all-out hybrid warfare that is impossible for poorly paid honest civil servants to withstand.
Instead of any quick fixes, we need a comprehensive restructuring of entire civil service. I have outlined earlier that the current structures of civil service- where generalist paratroop at the top - should be replaced by a professional and specialist edifice. We need a trimmed and yet highly efficacious civil service, where recruitments are based on combination of aptitude, skills and commitment; every leadership role is earned by performance both on technical and leadership parameters. Unnecessary frills and colonial privileges need to be abolished, and civil servants must be well paid to eliminate need driven corruption but deter greed driven corruption. Further recommendations are available in my write ups.
Sluggish, Inconsistent and Inaccessible Criminal Justice System
A sluggish, inconsistent and inaccessible criminal
justice system, widely perceived to be substantially corrupt, has been choking our collective progress by breeding avoidable conflicts and frictions. I have written extensively on this issue. There are many brilliant judges and fearless cops. Yet they are too ineffective in face systemic encumbrances choking justice delivery system.
The National Judicial Data Grid currently records more than 5 crore pending cases, including nearly 3.9 crore criminal cases (National Judicial Data Grid (https://njdg.ecourts.gov.in/njdg_v3/?utm_source=chatgpt.com). The justice that arrives decades late, if not beyond lifetimes, and often skips less publicized cases, substantially loses its meaning, purpose and credibility. The phenomenon must have induced such epigenetic changes in Indian neural circuitry to normalise dishonesty, fear, anxiety and even corruption and a degree of criminality as normal behaviour pattern. This is a dangerous transformation that India is facing.
I have stated earlier that the challenge is not going to be addressed by enhancing the number of judges. I have recommended a very large number of concrete measures in my write ups on judiciary. These include de-colonisation of Indian judiciary to banning of practicing lawyers from turning judges and end of cronyism/nepotism in recruitment to higher judiciary by collegium. From recruitment to training must be driven professional knowledge, skill, courage, integrity and mental resilience.
Similarly, litigation process needs simplification, perjury and frivolous litigation deserve criminalization. Specialisation among litigation lawyers and transparent fee structures defining number of hours hours invested in each case shall prevent monopolization of courtroom victories and lucrative cases by few top lawyers knowing judges. While false complaints of corruption against sitting judges must be severely punished but credible allegations of corruption and willful subversion of justice against judges must not only be investigated but should invite severest punishment of judges.
Indian state needs to consider withdrawal of constitutional immunity of judges up to the level of High Court as many of them turn lawyer following retirement from the High Court to practice in Supreme Court or other High Courts. Supreme Court should rather have a Judicial accountability commission to continuously monitor quality of judgement and conduct of 1000 plus Judges of 20 odd High Courts of the country. This will enhance justice delivery system and quality of accountability at this level that can revolutionise output of judiciary. Constitutional immunity should be restricted only to Supreme Court judges and voting in impeachment procedure should be secret and no whip should be allowed in these.
Nevertheless, counter-intelligence agency should be allowed to keep entire judiciary under serious surveillance to guard against linkage or association that undermine justice delivery system. There should be a standard laid down procedure on way of reporting and quick disposal of improper professional conduct by judges at every level. Reporting of improprieties by judges of High courts should go to Supreme Court and similarly Supreme Court judges need to be reported to CJI. In case of anything suspicious coming to notice regarding CJI, the matter should be reported to President of India and if the findings are genuine, the concerned CJI must resign. If any incumbent of judiciary or Indian state is found to be genuinely involved in actions that amount active collaboration or passive approval in larger covert warfare by external forces, all immunities should be waived the incumbent must be charged with waging war against the nation and awarded severe punishment within the quickest possible time.
Similarly, there should be an impartial and financially independent oversight committee of retired judges of Supreme Court to monitor conduct of intelligence agencies and sensitive enforcement agencies. This will ensure that they act professionally and not for partisan agenda or personal gains. This is a standard practice in model democracies but we should go a few steps ahead given systemic constraints.
Needless to mention that judges at every level need to be paid well. Unnecessary frills and colonial style bungalows with army of personal staffs and fancy imported cars can only encourage financial insecurity in poorly paid judges along with a sense of entitlement.
Yet our country should never appear an open jail where citizens live under constant fear. State is there to protect, educated, nurture and correct citizens. Severest punishment is required only in cases of those who appear incorrectable and whose sheer existence in society is threat to society. Like doctors remove cells of cancer from human body, such incumbents need to be removed from society to guard the rest of the society.
An effective judiciary has enormous capacity to unlock and unleash comprehensive potentials of a society. But efficacy of judiciary depends to a great extent upon quality of professionalism within enforcement agencies and overall integrity of political space and societal ecosystem. Yet Judiciary can spearhead larger transformation of Indian state and society. Deterrent judgments can bring down number of litigation and number of crimes as well as an army of lawyers loitering in and around courts.
We do not need such large number of lawyers in the country who thrive on conflict,litigation and misery of citizenry. We need to reduce space for these and use innovative measures to foster trust and collaboration in society. This is possible with deeper wisdom and infusion of knowledge from behavioural biology or evolutionary psychology to societal psyche that are not available in current clerical model of education. The syllabus of law colleges needs serious overhaul to improve the intellectual, professional and ethical quotient of law graduates. Besides, our governance system should be such that ensures gainful employment of our youth in all sectors.
A healthy and vibrant society and robust state is not the one that is discordant and overburdened with squabbling citizenry and pile of litigations. It is one where police and courts find no job or serious challenge and they need to focus on prevention of crime and dispute and gradually improve the quality of social cohesion. Heavy litigation or over enforcement by state agencies kills vital energies of a nation. Inconsistent observance rule of law is primary cause of societal squabble. It may benefit few people, but it is an invisible weapon to bleed an entire civilisation and state.
Corruption
It has been universally acknowledged that corruption is a cancer that slowly kills a society. In independent India, corruption has been repeatedly described as an acceptable way of life for its elite and upwardly mobile masses. This is the single most factor responsible for underdevelopment of India, rampant poverty and poor public infrastructure.
— Transparency International, Corruption Perceptions Index 2025 (Berlin: Transparency International, 2025) has observed that public institutions are routinely undermined by rent-seeking behavior, where political and bureaucratic elites manipulate rules for private gain, eroding trust in governance. Transparency International’s 2025 index gives India 39/100 and ranks it 91st among 182 countries. (Transparency.org (https://www.transparency.org/en/cpi/2025/index/ind?utm_source=chatgpt.com)) While the index is not a verdict on every Indian institution yet it is a reminder that corruption remains rampant enough to cripple national capability.
Another credible academic R. Vaidyanathan, in his work Corruption and Development: The Indian Paradox (New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2024) has observed "Large-scale public procurement and infrastructure projects are plagued by kickbacks and inflated contracts, draining resources meant for development."
There are multiple credible researches that have outlined the enormity of corruption and its impact on institutions, governance and quality of development. Yet the damages inflicted by corruption are unfathomable. It shall not be an exaggeration to state that corruption appears deliberately fused not only in system but also psyche. But the same continues to drain massive resources of the nation at one level and undermine not only progress as a state and society but also peril our long-term survival and security in competitive and somewhat hostile world. It is beyond capacity of courts and police to dent the menace of corruption. India needs serious and comprehensive systemic restructuring for which its key stakeholders need to build a degree of consensus.
Hollowed Core of Economic Strength
Despite impressive growth rate, India's economic strength, especially in the larger global context, appears fairly hollow at its core. Consumption-led growth appears driven more by trading, services and imports rather than serious industrial prowess or innovation. The World Bank has repeatedly underlined India’s meagre R&D expenditure- less than 1% of GDP- which dents its ability to generate breakthrough technologies and forces dependence on imports for critical sectors. The IMF has cautioned that structural imbalances — weak manufacturing depth, fragmented supply chains, and poor productivity growth — continue to undermine competitiveness. There are
Monopolies and duopolies dominate key industries, stifling enterprise and reducing serious competition to rituals. This clearly smacks of rigged regulatory mechanisms. India has 308 billionaires who control over 10% of national wealth. Given abject poverty of our masses, this is a worrying phenomenon for long-term economic stability of the nation. Indians outside India are known for innovation but innovation inside India thrives only in few isolated pockets. Systemic incentives for innovation and genuine industrial enterprise appears too deficient. As expanding market, we appear to lack enduring strength in form of robust ecosystem for innovation and diversified industrial capacity. This seriously impedes our aspiration for strategic autonomy and economic prowess commensurate with our size. The entire situation is an outcome of fragile institutions and overall deficient ecosystem.
Flight of Capital and Super-Skilled Human Resource
Poor systems continue to expel a huge amount of capital and talent from the country. Henley estimated a net outflow of about 3,500 millionaires from India in 2025. (Henley Global (https://www.henleyglobal.com/newsroom/press-releases/henley-private-wealth-migration-report-2025?utm_source=chatgpt.com). A degree of wealth and talent migration in a globalised world is unavoidable. But persistent and disproportionate outward migration of wealth and skilled human resource should provoke a harder question. This dangerously impacts the quality and pace of economic development. It is a clear indicator that citizens are not feeling secure, respected and institutionally rewarded within their homeland. Keeping quiet may be convenient but it will only delay an impending disaster. A frightened citizenry shall never make a great state or glorious civilisation.
Substantial Cartelisation and Criminalisation of
Political Space
India’s political discourse over the last few decades has become
excessively rancorous. Rival political formations appear to condemn and curse each other for electoral victories rather than offering constructive perspective towards nation building and institutional reforms. Most public discussions on politics focus more on electoral wins and losses rather than governance issues.
The 2014 electoral verdict in India appeared substantially a repudiation of the prevailing ways of governance. Accumulated legitimacy deficit of the UPA
years, corruption scandals, policy paralysis and a widespread perception that
the political system had become an entitlement machine had contributed to regime change. The current government
has unquestionably pushed up India’s trajectory in infrastructure, digital
governance, welfare delivery, financial inclusion, external positioning,
strategic ambition and technological aspiration.
Yet the challenges of corruption has turned far too worse and systemic. Institutional-structural deficiencies have aggravated in many sectors. It is impossible for courts and investigative agencies to contain corruption within an acceptable threshold. Simultaneously, most cabals and syndicates of previous regime have also sneaked into the current dispensation as well to perpetuate the larger culture of corruption with greater impunity. Spirited cartels appear to have captured several institutions for their own private agenda. Many institutions have witnessed serious
erosion in their integrity and efficacy, even though loyal incumbents
are often able to deliver on tactical priorities of the regime quite efficiently. But overall strategic capacity of state institutions appears to be on decline.
Indians must appreciate that great leaders
are temporary but good institutions are permanent.
A powerful leader can accelerate progress of a state. But only institutions can sustain that acceleration.
Opaque political funding has perennially undermined the quality of our democracy. This challenge has continued to rise instead of waning. In one of the rare and courageous judgments in recent years, the Supreme Court in 2024 struck down the Electoral Bond Scheme. The issue exposes the sustained structural problem of political finance. The Court held that non-disclosure of political contributions violated citizens’ right to information and struck down provisions permitting unlimited corporate contributions. (Sci API (https://api.sci.gov.in/supremecourt/2024/10865/10865_2024_1_302_51365_Judgement_11-Mar-2024.pdf?utm_source=chatgpt.com))
This should have produced a bipartisan discourse on reform of political parties. None happened.
On the other hand, we come across criticism that 'Leader of Opposition appears to believe that controlling India is his divine fundamental right.' Critics cite his actions and speeches that suggests that 'he appears aggrieved that this right to rule India has been illegitimately taken away' from him by the current Prime Minister.' While his criticisms of the government have been relevant on many issues and these have rightfully brought the Government under pressure, but the tone and approach appear way less than dignified, honourable and effective. Moreover, his credibility continues to be suspected by large sections of educated population given his dynastic entitlement.
If viewed from the prism of national security, almost entire political opposition offers no convincing escape from the current predicament or challenges gripping the political space of India. Most parties remain trapped in dynastic entitlement, patronage politics, personality cult, and negative mobilisation and corrupt politics, instead of offering a powerful perspective. Opposition parties are focusing only on removal of incumbent rather than providing any perspective on transforming the political space and the quality of governance. Internal democracy, intellectual renewal and regeneration, culture of principled dissidence in interest of public good remain conspicuously weak in all political parties. Loyalty is always valued in political space of our democracy that has appeared extremely suspicious, if not hostile, towards integrity, ethics and intellect.
It is unrealistic to expect a political culture built around inherited entitlement or personality cult to suddenly become engine of national and institutional transformation. There is genuine crisis that Indian democracy is grappling with. There seems cartelisation of entire political space of India, which eliminate space for high-quality ideas and leadership that can spearhead genuine transformation of governance in near future. Is it possible to trust our political systems that relies on few families and clans, or even individuals, to lead our democracy despite a population of 150 crores?
My paper on Indocracy has offered more detailed and structured recommendations in this direction.
Security and Geopolitics
India continues to struggle in the trap created by the
receding colonisers who fractured our composite national-cultural identity by raking up the monster of xenophobic Islamic radicalism that resulted in creation of sectarian state like Pakistan which eventually turned into the biggest aggregator of terrorism and organised crime. It also left behind a confused border issue with China that we have neither appreciated nor resolved. I have
explained in my 2020 paper on national security that how threats and challenges in the region, that we face as a nation, are
far more than routine neighbourly irritants. We have been a wide range of complex grey zone wars to identity conflicts, covert and proxy wars. Both West and China seek to
equate us with Pakistan to undermine our inherent moral strengths.
Pakistan’s military establishment has developed religious militancy into an instrument of asymmetric covert
warfare against India through a series of proxies internally and regionally. Serious scholarship documents
the evolution of Pakistan’s use of non-state actors, including crime
syndicates. The nuclear capability has been used only to create space for proxy
warfare. (OUP Academic
(https://academic.oup.com/book/27124/chapter-abstract/196504781?utm_source=chatgpt.com))
Islamist terrorism has remained transnational in character. Religious identity has been weaponised, leaving its reverberations in India. India should have understood
much earlier identity war by Pakistan this was not merely a law-and-order problem or a territorial
dispute. It was a statecraft issue requiring intelligence superiority,
military deterrence, diplomatic isolation, economic leverage, ideological resilience
and competent justice delivery system at home to protect the national cohesion of India.
Yet Indian state needs to be careful that its enemy is
violent extremism and the state structures that enable it—not Indian Muslims,
not Islam and not religious identity itself. India has to guard its Muslims
from radicalisation by appropriate mix of strategies. What we need is not counter radicalisation from Hindus but smart and
tactical war to preserve our entire civilisational
space. This is possible only by strategic equilibrium among institutions and
not total obedience and surrender to partisan agenda of any group. Challenges are too delicate and formidable given the global geopolitical context.
India also needs strong strategic realism to shape its relationship with the wider world. Western powers, China, Russia and others pursue their own interests and agenda. Some may welcome India’s rise but only for their own interests. Most are likely to balance it by propping up Pakistan. United States has appeared to prefer India to be strong enough to be useful and yet it is back to its old ways to propping up Pakistan to neutralise India.
India has traditionally enjoyed a degree of goodwill across faultlines in West Asia, Central Asia, Africa, Far East and South America. This was outcome of our humanist liberal outlook as a state as well as our long civilisational roots. During era of American hostility in the previous century, many American allies frequently took anti-India position on various issues. But a combination of economic, military and covert prowess has potential to alter the larger geopolitical calculus within the region and beyond to win more active allies and passive supporters. India need not take partisan stand to endorse states facing isolation. Serious security partners do not need open diplomatic mollycoddling. It is better to keep such relations under the wrap.
Further, it is naive to expect any global or regional hegemon to allow India to be strong enough to become consequential on its own or emerge as a formidable power. Yet we have to find our own ways and quietly negotiate challenges in this direction. Deception, ruthlessness and cold calculations have always been integral component of geopolitics. These shall continue to remain so even in foreseeable future. We must convince our corporate leaders to be partners in institution building in India rather than act as collaborators in institutional subversion for short term financial gains. It is possible for them to realign their goals in a manner where their own profitability and rise can converge with larger national priorities. In a globalised world, an India with fragile institutions can expose them to far more serious vulnerability.
We must also appreciate that there are so many transnational financial, technological and strategic interests that profiteer from sub-optimal progress of India. They would like our continued under-performance and dependence on them. Our weaker criminal justice system and poor regulations allow them to profiteer at bigger scale. They have no moral commitment to our strategic progress. They would like to cripple domestic enterprise and industry by subverting our own institutions. Most may not be foreigners. But in a globalised world, no domestic network can thrive without powerful global patronage. We need to deal with it calmly and not emotionally.
Stakeholders of India cannot afford to act on assumptions that the world wants us to succeed. Pleasing or soothing words of our external friends and adversaries need to be reciprocated but we cannot lose focus of deeper understanding and evaluation of different shades of external entities and contexts. Institutional resilience alone can help us negotiate with external world more efficaciously. World respects power and careful harnessing of power further enhance comprehensive strength.
Our sheer survival, in a competitive
and hostile world, warrants us to become economically too formidable to be coerced, technologically too innovative to be intimidated,
institutionally too resilient to be subverted and strategically too valuable to
be ignored. This is possible not by expression of aspirations and intent. We need genuine leaders or an army of professional leaders in different spheres. There is no dearth of smart and committed brains
in our society. India never ceased to produce individuals with sagely integrity and high-quality intellect. It is imperative that they are brought together and their strengths are optimally harnessed.
Need For a Fundamental Shift in Outlook: Relevance of
Indocracy
India needs a fundamental shift in way it interprets national power and identifies its priorities. GDP is not national power. Neither are missiles, aircraft carriers or sophisticated weaponry sourced from foreign manufacturers. Even diplomatic visibility on its own has limited value.
National power is the compound result of healthy citizens,
educated minds, productive workers, robust and trustworthy institutions that
promote excellence, technological capability, economic depth, military
strength, social cohesion and national confidence and an overall culture of
excellence, innovation and entrepreneurship, and total freedom for
conscientious and enlightened dissidence. State has to appear protector,
benefactor and corrector of every citizen, especially the high-end contributors
to national power in every realm.
The governance question facing India at this juncture is
deceptively simple:
How do we enhance maximum potential of every Indian and
harness the same to achieve our national goals with right priorities?
This is where Indocracy becomes relevant.
Indocracy is based on much deeper understanding of human psyche, evolutionary journey of India as well as major civilisations and their strategic psyche, especially the way these have evolved, alongside a very broad range of issues varying from governance, geopolitics, warfare, security, technology, science and economy etc. Though the entire idea is not in public domain, because the complete work has been repeatedly hacked, yet the broad contours are available, It is scientific blueprint of a strategic statecraft that may not be perfect and requires continuous refinement. Yet Indocracy envisions a mutually empowering equilibrium between individuals and institutions and institutions and society as well as society and state. It also draws from ancient wisdom from not merely a passive but active and progressively improving quality of harmony between man and nature. yet it comes down to focusing building right attributes within individuals, varying from physical strength to cognition to technical skills to human empathy to help them evolve into better human beings who can help build better society. The entire idea is not about wishful thinking and moral aspiration. It offers a hardcore and ruthless strategy towards societal and national transformation.
Indocracy has also offered a comprehensive and integrated framework of all dimensions of security and warfare and integrated these with geopolitics and intelligence. It has spelled out a model for prevention, preemption and deterrence of all shades of conflicts at home by integrating governance with security and making the latter proactive. Simultaneously, it has also spelled out a principle of short, swift and decisive intelligent warfare involving minimal human and material costs as well as avoidance of collateral damages.
There are no shortcuts in this direction. Building great states and great civilisations warrant lifetime of dedicated efforts and initiatives over generations towards building appropriate network of dynamic institutions that are efficacious in specific context of a state in each era.
China has demonstrated extraordinary state capacity to carry out societal and institutional transformations at unprecedented scales. It is virtually shaping global geopolitics in a way that was unimaginable half a century back. The West has continued to retain its immense technological, financial and institutional prowess even though it no longer appears in a position to shape the world the way it has done so until the last century. Certain states of West Asia and Africa can still rely on natural resources. But with burgeoning population, shrinking land and water resources, and a host of governance challenges and pressures, India has to rely on exceptional innovation and energy. Indocracy points towards a viable, sustainable and optimal course of trajectory.
A larger call for transformation or re-dedication to the cause of nation shall remain a rhetoric, unless Indians, especially its elite, summon their conscience, courage and self-belief to set an example themselves by attempting build a mutually empowering equilibrium with wider society. Our aspiration to turn Vishwa Guru or Vishwa Bandhu shall appear hollow unless we ourselves rise beyond our parochial caste and language identities.
We need to reassert our civilisational values that threaten no one and offer universal hope for betterment of entire mankind. India's essential and original character was exceptionally humanist. While rest of the world kept trading in human slaves until the end of 19th Century, there is no example of organised slavery even in Kautilyan code. Entire mega structures from Rome to China were built by slave labour. We did not have organised slavery or culture of building tombs and palaces for kings. Manusmriti needs to evaluated as per sensibilities of its era and context. We also have to concede that most of not only ours but all scriptures of all ancient civilisations have been adulterated and subverted. Academics of even early 20th Century have observed that there is huge discrepancy in language of even Rig Veda. Mahabharat written by Ved Vyasa has seen expansion from 8000 to 24000. If ancient India was brutal and inhuman and deeply oppressive, which is a pure foreign canard, our civilisational footprionts may never have extened in whole of Asia and Orient and even West Asia. We degenerated and decayed. It appears more plausible that many of these ancient codes perverted and what we see today may not be real.
Nevertheless, we cannot go back in the past. We have to move forward. Our challenges are formidable. We cannot let a civilisation whose humanist values once reverberated from basins of Sundhu to Surya Pradesh or Levant and Al Sham to parts of Central Asia and Central-West Asia to islands way beyond Java, Sumatra and Borneo and going up to Japan. Our focus has to be on building right values among our people and creation of a culture of genuine leadership, driven by ethics, integrity, deeper wisdom and psychological resilience is critical for this purpose. A commitment and progress in this direction is the best tribute that we can pay to our freedom fighters and martyrs even after independence who have laid down their lives. India needs Indocracy or Bharat Tantra. Where integrity, empathy, deeper wisdom and strength of human character define the core of India as a society, state and civilisation.
