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Generation Next

We are poised on the threshold of opportunity. The shackles of the past are slowly being loosened, so that the free enterprise of ordinary citizens can be liberated from the noose of ridiculous government policies. There is a natural progression to such an awakening, and in due course, to borrow former prime minister P V Narasimha Rao's famous inertial phrase, this trot will turn to a gallop. The changes engineered throughout this decade have made more of us optimistic about the future.

In the past few years, the signs of this change have slowly enveloped us. Splendid office towers sprang up all around our cities, retailers learned to smile at customers, and a few things even cost less than they used to, something unheard of in the days of the licence raj. As liberalisation takes firmer hold, consumers have more choices, Indian enterprise is gaining recognition at least in a few industries, and notwithstanding odd shouts of despair from Malthusian economists, things are definitely looking up.

But there is another reality to life in India, one that is mostly removed from the lives of those who have access to this magazine. In that world, we sense with stark horror that a few hundred million Indian citizens will remain poor for the rest of their lives, and never live to see even the hint of opportunity for their children. Their thatched homes will never see even a leaky faucet, they won't buy timeshares in Sterling, let alone vacation in the Maldives. And their kids will never go to the Indian School of Business.

This dichotomy is at the core of the lore of India, that her majesty and her squalor coexist on the same streets, that her achievements and her failures parade on the same grounds, her serenity and her fury are worn on the same visage. Perhaps that has made us the grand exception to the world's images, a land where conformity clashes with enterprise, and humanity battles callousness as the moments pass.

Frankly, apart from alluring brochures of Kerala's backwaters or Rajasthani camels, there isn't much to be said for this dichotomy. It is little more than an excuse for the shameful failures of the past, averting our eyes from the truth that liberalisation was necessitated mostly because free enterprise was first shackled by the same political groups that now shout themselves hoarse claiming to be champions of free trade.

Thanks to such worthies, we got camel rides in the desert where one sat as a king might on a lofty throne atop an emblazoned camel with 33 ribs you could count by night.

It is time to bury the inertia of this lore, and to seize the moment. Around the world, competition is the buzz-word, and efficiency has long since replaced equity as the byword for progress. In a few instances, notably in software development, we have benefited from the rapidity of global change, and have rapidly woven ourselves into the fabric of global trade. In most instances, however, we continue to lag far behind the rest of the world, and much of the blame for this continues to lie at the political doorstep.

Will that change? History reminds us that it is unlikely. A comprehensive and powerful thrust to our modernisation is unlikely to stem from our political masters, for two reasons. First, they are indifferent to the quality of our lives, and second, they do not possess the knowledge and the perseverance to liberate the people from their continuing transfixation. The latter is a technical difficulty, perhaps, and might be overcome, but the former is surely a weighty burden, a dark tunnel with only a suggestion of light at the other end.

Which brings me to the solution. Once we have recognised that we cannot wait for our political masters to provide the answers, it is apparent enough. We've got to do it ourselves.

Private enterprise, aided by government and regulated only when necessary, has been the universal solution of the 1990s. This model isn't limited to the Yahoo!s and Amgens of the world either, the rapid adoption of information-based and accountable enterprise has thrust many industries forward with great vigour, lending them a high-tech angle previously limited to a few arenas. Retailing, media, entertainment, and many more facets of social organisation have all made the switch, drawn from the same spring of ideas.

There's no more a secret to this; all successful economies of the day are propelled by the energy of their brightest men and women, and the only thing various governments lend to this progress is a willingness to step aside, for the most part. The revolutions of our times owe their origins to the minds that envisioned a different society, and to the abilities of individuals to turn those dreams into practical matters. The hand-waving sloganeering of politicians at the top is just so much noise.

Where does that leave us? We know the problem, we know what it will take to overcome the hurdles, but how do we engineer a society in which the solutions can be applied? The answer follows almost by default from the questions themselves. The government will not build the societies we seek; indeed it is plain that the government is among the worst obstacles to the long-delayed changes, and that leaves only one option. We must create a parallel society, and we must do it actively.

No, I am not advocating the overthrow of our democratic institutions. Instead, I urge that we merely act on the principles which appear to work in the rest of the free world. The government of India and her various states may eventually veer around to a forward-looking point of view, but we can hardly wait until that moment arrives. Instead, I propose that we set off on the journey ourselves.

A fair number of groups are already at work along this principle. Scouring the Internet, I have found organisations which debate the ideas necessary to shape the future, I have found those that are at work creating pragmatic solutions to current problems, and I have found others who disseminate the information acquired through such solutions to others who might confront similar hurdles. Clearly, the energy to reshape India is in us. There is no reason why we should not add our own spirited involvement to that process.

And this is the time to do it. In a dozen different conversations I have heard it said that there is reason to be optimistic about the future, that at long last the vision needed to transform our nation is at hand, that the inertia of times past can be overcome by the scent of opportunity. Combined with this is the realisation that in a rapidly changing world the cost of inaction is rising, and the lethargy of the past will not suffice even to maintain the little we now have.

If we remain on the sidelines, thirty years from now, a few hundred million more Indians will despair of the very things their fathers and mothers now do. If instead we act now, we can begin to formulate the ideas needed to change India, we can find ways to propagate them into the realm of public policies, and we can create a society in which the unfettered expression of our free enterprise is valued. As a bonus, the camel won't stumble so much under its burden. :-)

This is the make-or-break generation. Your move.

Ashwin Mahesh