From Midnight to the Millennium & Beyond By Shashi Tharoor

Summarized by Puneet Kataria

The reading is a speech delivered at Pennsylvania. It talks about India as a whole culture, economy, religions, politics, etc. Absolutely globe articlethere is nothing in this article that one would not already know. This has been delivered with the intent of introducing & explaining India to the international world. Following are some salient points made in the lecture: How does one come to terms with a country whose population is over 40% illiterate but which has educated the worlds second-largest pool of trained scientists & engineers, whose teeming cities overflow while 3 out of 4 Indians scratch a living from the soil. How does one determine the identity of India; it cant be done to everyones satisfaction. 4 important debates in India: o The bread Vs freedom debate: can democracy deliver the goods in a country of poverty & scarcity. The centralization Vs feudalism debate: does tomorrows India need to be run by a strong central govt. r is that govt. best that centralizes least? The pluralism Vs fundamentalism debate: Should India find refuge in the assertion of its own religious identity? The Coca-colonization debate: Globalization Vs self relianceshould India open itself to the world economy.

Only in India could the country be ruled by a man who does not understand its national language (Devegowda); only in India is there a national language which half the population does not understand. The idea of India is of one land embracing many. It is the idea that a nation may endure differences of caste, creed, color, culture, cuisine, costume & conviction & still rally around a democratic consensus.

The reason that India has survived disintegration is that it maintained consensus on how to manage without consensus. In rejecting the case for Pakistan, Indian nationalism also rejected the idea that religion should be a determinant of nationhood. West defines secularism as the absence of religion, but Indian secularism meant a profusion of religions, none of which was privileged by the state. Hinduism idea is that religion is an intensely personal thing; that prayer is between you & whatever image of your maker you choose to worship. You have to find your own truth. It is the only major religion in the world that does not claim to be the only true religion. 20th century politics of deprivation has eroded the cultures confidence. Politicians of all faiths across India seek to mobilize voters by appealing to narrow identities; be seeking votes in the name of religion, caste, & region, they have urged voters to define themselves on these lines. An India that denies itself to some of us could end up being denied to all of us. No one identity can triumph in India: both the countrys chronic pluralism & the logic of the electoral marketplace make this impossible. Democracy is the only technique that can work. India is unusual in that democracy is not an elite preoccupation, but matters mostly to ordinary people. Tough there have been major threats to the nation from separatist movements, caste conflicts & regional rivalries; political democracy has helped defuse them. The power of electoral numbers has given high office to the lowest of Indias low. Problems: Poor quality of political leadership, rampant corruption & the criminalization of politics. And yet, corruption is being tackled by an activist judiciary & by energetic investigative agencies that have not hesitated to indict the most powerful Indian politicians. The rule of law remains a vital Indian strength. NGOs actively defend human rights, promoting environmentalism, fighting injustice. The press is free, lively & irreverent. Dramatic changes are taking place in politics, economics & caste relations. It is a democratic revolution sustained by a larger idea of India.

Strength of Indianness lies in its ability to absorb foreign influences & transform them- by a peculiarly Indian alchemy-into something that belongs naturally on the soil of India. Idea of India is a deceptively simple idea, familiar to developed democracies but few others-of a land where it doesnt matter what the color of your skin is, the kind of food you eat, the sounds you make when you speak, the God that you choose to worship (or not), so long as you want to play by the same rules as everybody else. That is why India can face the new millennium with confidence, if not with optimism.