India@71

It is India's 71st independence day anniversary. I was born on Aug 29th 1945, not quite the midnight's child but my life parallels India's life.

India is a unique country and a noble experiment. Its freedom movement was also unique in that it was broad based and peaceful. It chose to become a constitutional democracy with universal suffrage. Its literacy rate was about 10% and 90% of the country was below the poverty line. It had unimaginable linguistic, religious,and ethnic diversity. Almost nobody in the west gave it a chance to survive as a country let alone as a constitutional democracy. I remember "after Nehru who" whispers.

When I came to US in 1967 India was a the bottom of its game. It had lost a war with China in 1962 and much smaller Pakistan had fought it to a draw in 1965. It had language riots in the south against imposition of Hindi as the national language. It had a severe drought and extreme food shortage in 1966. It was seen as a hapless, hopeless country that had to be fed by outsiders. PL 480 wheat was flowing in on soft terms to feed Indians.

Now 15 elections later and having a fastest growing economy in the world , nobody doubts that it is a matter of time that India will emerge as a superpower in not too distant future. In another 20 years or so it should become the third largest.

India is the only country that became a democracy before it became rich. Except for a brief period of "Indira is India" and emergency, it has stayed a robust democracy. In spite of BJP/RSS attempts to convert it into a Hindu Rashtra, it is unlikely to turn its back on its minorities.

Yes, India is a noble experiment. It is still a work in progress but it is becoming clearer by the day that it will keep its tryst with the destiny.