Free market fundamentalists love to deride and denigrate the ‘state’ & the public sector in india. why they are both wrong and dangerous...
A vision doesn’t take too long to become an anachronism. A visionary too can be transformed into a pillar of blunders if history delivers a future that was presumed impossible in the past. When it comes to sterile debates behind ivory towers by academicians, it would not really matter so much. But when debates about the legacy of such visionaries and the visions they spawned have to do with the livelihood and well being of tens of millions, the debates acquire a much more strident note. For the last few decades, this is exactly what has been happening with Jawaharlal Nehru and his vision about the ‘Temples of Modern India’ transforming a former British colony and a wounded civilization into an industrial powerhouse. Most us us have forgotten what Nehru meant when he coined and invoked the term ‘Temples of Modern India’. India’s first Prime Minister had a habit of invoking the term passionately when it was time to inaugurate dams, particularly the Bhakra Nangal dam in Punjab (Wonder what powerful words and phrases Arundhati Roy would use to trash Nehru’s obsession with dams!). In his vision of a modern post-colonial India, Nehru differed dramatically from his mentor Mahatma Gandhi, who wanted to concentrate more on villages rather than dams and factories. Nehru’s vision won the day and spawned what is now ubiquitously known as the Public Sector in India.
Just in case you didn’t know or had forgotten, those was respected industrialists and entrepreneurs like J.R.D Tata who had unveiled a vision for modern India well before the nation gained freedom. Their vision clearly stated that the ‘State’ had to play a key role in pushing industrial and economic growth in the country. Please do not forget that those were the hey days of ‘socialism’ and Stalin (His horrific crimes against humanity were uncovered much later). Please also do not forget that even for those unwaveringly against the ‘Socialist’ vision of the economy, the icon and hero in those days was John Maynard Keynes, the economist who found a solution to the Great Depression that gripped the global economy since 1929.
A vision doesn’t take too long to become an anachronism. A visionary too can be transformed into a pillar of blunders if history delivers a future that was presumed impossible in the past. When it comes to sterile debates behind ivory towers by academicians, it would not really matter so much. But when debates about the legacy of such visionaries and the visions they spawned have to do with the livelihood and well being of tens of millions, the debates acquire a much more strident note. For the last few decades, this is exactly what has been happening with Jawaharlal Nehru and his vision about the ‘Temples of Modern India’ transforming a former British colony and a wounded civilization into an industrial powerhouse. Most us us have forgotten what Nehru meant when he coined and invoked the term ‘Temples of Modern India’. India’s first Prime Minister had a habit of invoking the term passionately when it was time to inaugurate dams, particularly the Bhakra Nangal dam in Punjab (Wonder what powerful words and phrases Arundhati Roy would use to trash Nehru’s obsession with dams!). In his vision of a modern post-colonial India, Nehru differed dramatically from his mentor Mahatma Gandhi, who wanted to concentrate more on villages rather than dams and factories. Nehru’s vision won the day and spawned what is now ubiquitously known as the Public Sector in India.
Just in case you didn’t know or had forgotten, those was respected industrialists and entrepreneurs like J.R.D Tata who had unveiled a vision for modern India well before the nation gained freedom. Their vision clearly stated that the ‘State’ had to play a key role in pushing industrial and economic growth in the country. Please do not forget that those were the hey days of ‘socialism’ and Stalin (His horrific crimes against humanity were uncovered much later). Please also do not forget that even for those unwaveringly against the ‘Socialist’ vision of the economy, the icon and hero in those days was John Maynard Keynes, the economist who found a solution to the Great Depression that gripped the global economy since 1929.
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