Nation building: An essential action for India

Indians will celebrate 75 years of independence on the 15th of August. There are many reasons to be happy about this important national milestone. However, there is one big regret that haunts us all: our failure so far to undertake a formal 'nation building' process.

Pre-independent India was not a singular entity. It was a conglomerate of around 565 princely states. These independent small kingdoms were bound by the culture of Hindutva, its values, traditions and abundant knowledge. For centuries, the foreign invaders tried and mostly succeeded in creating fissures between these bonded units. The British Empire, which occupied most of the territorial space and ruled for over 200 years, could methodically damage India's culture and shared values more than any other invaders.

The Islamic invaders destroyed the physical representation of culture through their tribal attacks on places of worship and ancient art of erstwhile India. British, unlike them, attacked methodically on the mental aspects. They systematically destroyed the integrity of our civilizational knowledge and our cultural pride. Thereby, British could quite successfully degrade the psychographic landscape across the socio demographic population of this nation.

The British Empire, in its natural quest to enslave and rule India forever, has very systematically lowered the stature of an ancient dharma and a superior civilization into a mere religion.

A century of physical, mental and emotional oppression by foreign invaders does cause serious damage to emotional and psychological profile of the oppressed. Our geography is not an exception. Many generations had to forego, shed and denounce the divine knowledge of Vedas and Upanishads. These generations were forced into the shallow British education system.

I strongly feel that our national leaders after Independence were quite irresponsible and ignorant to not realize and redress a century old painful conditioning of Indians constantly by foreign invaders. Our leaders have literally done nothing to heal, recondition, rework, realign and rebuild the lost knowledge, core values and pride of a superior civilization. They have not refurbished the foundation of Sanatana Dharma which was relinquished by Indians under duress.

PM Jawaharlal Nehru's vision for India was purely political and economical. Unfortunately, Nehru had no agenda to reclaim the superior knowledge of our civilization and repair the emotional, mental and physical trauma that Indians went through for generations. As a key national leader, he did not even feel that it is essential to rebind the nation after geographical accession of 565 princely states into one large nation.

It is imperative that India recognizes the need for Nation Building as an essential action, at least now. The next 25 years can be the era of national transformation through a formal process of Nation Building. I see three areas to primarily focus on, to move ahead.

INDIA-CENTRIC VALUES

Deserted and forgotten superior values of our Dharma (way of life) need to be reclaimed and reinforced as our National Values. The National Value Framework can be an essential driver of all transformation. The unconscious adaptation of western values has been on the rise since 1990's after globalization of Indian economy. Our enslaved mindset is a fertile ground for copy-cat adaptation of foreign values, instead of building our own. As our leaders did not pursue a formal nation building exercise, it is easy to pivot from colonial to western.

The 5th generation of Indians does not have a clue about our civilizational supremacy, knowledge capability and ancestral competence. It is certainly not their fault, but that of the torch bearers and national leaders of each generation.

THOUGHT LEADERSHIP

The mindset of an underdeveloped or a developing economy can't be outlandishly creative to innovate or produce products and services of great value. Today, most of what India exports are the backend IT services, software to power hi-tech products, and global capability service extensions. India is not yet producing innovative global products neither of old economy nor of the gig economy. Our massive population has been relegated to more consumption than production of products and services.

In fact, that's not who we are. We were never simply consumers. We were great creators, craftsmen, architects, scientists, astronomers, warriors and professionals of par excellence. This geography in the ancient times has produced products and services which attracted the world's attention. It drew foreigners in hoards, who eventually invaded and made this land their asset for centuries.

Indians can manufacture best products for the world. We can innovate, provide world-class solutions, build global brands, platforms and organizations, if at all we can tap into our inherent potential as 'Thought Leaders' and not as sloppy back-room boys and copy cats.

Thought Leadership is possible only through reinventing and reimaging ourselves. It can't be possible with the current mindset of 'employment orientation' and 'survival spirit'. India needs to be a global giant in producing top-class entrepreneurs, professionals and researchers in all sectors, not mere back-end employees for western enterprises. India must reclaim its thought leadership through inventions and discovery. It's been over a century since we invented something valuable for this world.

SYSTEMS & STRUCTURE

The excavations of Harappa and Mohenjo-Daro which are relics of our ancient civilization highlight the mental orientation of our ancestors and their quest for 'structure' and 'systems' even thousands of years back. In contrast, our current towns, cities, and acclaimed mega-cities are horrendously unplanned and chaotic. Our vehicular traffic, ad hoc infrastructure, deviations of city's master plans highlight utter lack of respect for 'systems and 'structure'. But we proudly claim our cities are great and we are progressing at lightning speed.

Our definition of development is twisted. India needs to redefine what actually constitutes development. The visuals of our cities and traffic highlight disorientation of our mind, and normalization of chaos as development. There are hundred other case references to highlight how unstructured and un-systemic we have regressed from a civilization which was a global leader in systems, structure and sustainability.

CONCLUSION

I understand that it's the 75th year of Independence and we all are celebrating. I am also celebrating the lives of our freedom fighters who sacrificed their lives for this nation's freedom. However, I feel there is no better time to reflect and realize consciously, if we are on the right track and in the right direction.

(writer is a Harvard Business School certified

Organisational Strategist &

a Global expert in

Emotional Intelligence)