The History Of Transformational Change

People don't like politicians. 

Yet Modi broke all records and came to power, even stronger than before. 

A worthy ponder - what's his secret sauce?

The Moditva doctrine appeals much to the Bharat-bhakt creed, those seeking an indigenous cultural renaissance, that has otherwise been long subdued. 

The said renaissance is about decolonization of the Indian population's mind i.e. intellectual property too, not just eviction of the British from the physical real estate called India. 

The indigenous thought was buried by the British courtesy "Baron" Thomas Babington Macaulay.

His strategy was to remove from history books, all that's worthy of admiration within the Indian civilizational context, that might bring pride & reason of 'Being' to future generations. Only one's Being manifes into Doing. 

Putting it differently, the strategy was to teach the future adults of India, that it's a defeated race and there's merit in doing it the English culture way.

For Macaulay the logic was straight & simple - brighter the student today, easier the subjugation tomorrow, so long as the student was taught a history of his or her defeated ancestors.

The ancient Indian literature & relics which stood as a testimony of a very advanced thought, engineering, culture & civilization - was deliberately ignored or even belittled.

That was continued by status quoists non-strategist government of "independent" India. That's cause :

1) The British suddenly left India post the 2nd world war, to focus on their efforts in the reparations of their economy & were finding it difficult to contain the many rising mutinies. They handed power hurriedly to a bunch of fellows, who somewhat felt obliged to their erstwhile masters.

2) To add decay to the dilapidation, sadly the early leadership of India in subsequent election took support from the Leftist to form the government. As a result, the Marxist historians that came on board in the academia, didn't challenge much of Macaulay's tamperings. The only modifications allowed, were to tactfully present the Indian freedom struggle movement as a peaceful, one in which the British glady negotiated into & left. It was to showcase the ruling party's soft power & prowess, to cement their political agenda.

3) To make matters worse, Abul Kalam Ghulam Muhiyuddin Ahmed bin Khairuddin Al-Hussaini Azad, the first education minister of independant India for the initial decade, was a Saudi born, never had any formal education except briefly going to a madrassa, and had interest in the Khilafat movement. 

This then led a good student of history to conclude that India's problem was in her medieval Hindu thought, the Indian National Congress was a savior, aligning to everything Western was good, and to be secular means to accept & appreciate all that is Islamic without any questions.

That came at the cost of everything to do with what is innate to India. That not only included Sanskrit, the rich language of the scholars, but also one's very own mother tongue !

Englishness then was projected as a ticket to a brighter future.

Heritage then obviously felt like a product of the past with a firm expiry date & indigenous culture as a burden. 

They would teach us at length of the entire lineage of the Mughal dynasty but not of their ruthlessness while destroying the Hindu temples,  or converting large swaths of population by force. Nor would they show much of the local heroes like Rana Pratap, Chatrapati Shivaji Maharaj, Sri Guru Gobind Singh, etc. 

World War was taught sans the mention of the sacrifice made by Indian soldiers and of course the loot from the Indian soil to finance the British empire or it's wars was put under the carpet. 

They hid from us that the temple was the epicenter of major activity in ancient India, including a place for exchange of thought, art & exhibition. That nodal point was thoroughly ransacked or disturbed. While the Mughals destroyed temples by brute force, the sophisticated British carefully removed the idols from them to adorn their homes, gardens or museums. 

So while they wouldn't tell of the mass destruction of monuments here by invaders, they would also keep us bereft of knowledge of the grand wonder-of-the-world type monuments of Indian origin found not only in India but also in Afghanistan, Thailand, Myanmar, Malaysia, Cambodia to Indonesia which were under the influence of ancient Indian civilization. 

In "cultural" history, we would be taught, for example the architectural beauty of the Taj Mahal or Humayun's tomb but not a word is mentioned on the grandness of Kailasa Temple or as why did the sarvajanik Ganesha became a mass cultural movement. 

The independence struggle mostly highlighted Mohandas Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru, who were close to Mountbatten, a British administer who was also close to the royalty there, and waz the last viceroy of India. 

Real history became history, really. 

It's believed, if you want to control the future, you must control the past. To control the past, you must control the present. Those who control the present, own the history of the past that provides nourishment to the future. 

If you teach of the glory of past to the children, you are more likely to produce real inspired men in the future i.e. proud motivated defenders of the legacy & heritage of motherland.

However, with a truncated, pygmied, and morphed history by both the British & the continuation of same by the early Indian leadership, further backed by the communists, people slowly became psychologically embarrassed Indians or Hindus. 

That, even when the Hindu-centric civilization is the only living civilization that has survived thousands of years, including in the face of the onslaught by both the Mughals and the British. 

And survived it did because in the ancient Hindu wisdom, at it's natural core is Cultural Secularism - one that is open, pluralistic, inclusive & with no prescription whatsoever. 

The faithful are all seekers of a Universal Truth by whatever method, practice or belief in God one chooses, including with the freedom to not choosing anything at all i.e. if they believe it will lead to salvation. 

For lack of word, it was called a religion but all it is, is a way of life. 

What they are expected to follow is their dharma, translated loosely as principled duty, one that they deemed as fit for the larger good of both - self & the society.

In this kind of way of life, the only fundamental, is that there are none.

Thus, the narrow singular steadfast concepts of The God, The Holy Place, The Holy Book, The Prayer, etc do not exist. Obviously then blasphemy, heresy, apostasy & punishment thereof are alien to the land here. 

And so there's never ever been a case of conflict between the State and Temple here nor have there ever been crusades or religious zealotry, all of which were witnessed in the West. Secularism as a cure was therefore required for the Western society but has little utility here. 

This too was never taught in India.  

It is this philosophy which gives rise to Bhartia or "Cultural Secularism", one which allowed for the Hindus to accept the Jews, fleeing from religious persecution & to provide them shelter; it allowed for making of one of the earliest mosque in the world i.e. Cheraman Masjid by a Hindu king for the convenience of his Muslim visitors; it allowed for the Ezharappallikal Churches in the first century within the Brahmin community at Malabar Coast, it allowed for a Hindu king to resettle the Parsis who were displaced from Persia including building a fire temple for them & one in which the builder king himself or his subjects agreed to not enter as requested by the Parsi immigrants.

All this much before a written constitution or it's pet word 'secularism' found its roots here. 

Thus in the context of Indianness - the State should have no embarrassment in embracing the faith, as a guiding principle for serving, rather than keeping an arms length from it.

But because it was not taught here, the said Cultural Secularism that existed in practice, got replaced by introduction of a Constitutional one, with an attempt to model it on a Western idea, that too in a surreptitious manner in the midst of a national emergency. 

Again, that was never taught to the political science students.

Further, that Constitutional secularism was used as a vote banking tool by politicians, to pander to those following the Abrahamic faiths, that inherently are proselytizing & predatory by nature, with claims of their's being the only way to achieve salvation. 

The mere mention of some of these truths or any suggestion for correction of the anomalies, is inconveniencing some.

What they forget, is that only when you find authentic pride in your own deep roots of the past, can you rise tall in future. 

History teaches lessons and we must seek them out - "Do forgive but don't forget" is a valuable one. 

However beware. For those who do not learn from history, are often condemned to be taught the same lesson again & again. 

The current government is now asserting a transformational change as it believes that truth must be told for the sake of truth, not with a view to seek revenge. 

And they will resurrect the real history and counter intuitive to what some believe, it will in fact bring long term peace & harmony in the country.

For his huge number of followers, Modi is just a name - a metaphor for change that they too seek. And change always faces resistance.

That has been the history of change !

Order Order !

The peculiarity of the world is that they claim to desire Law & Order...well, that's getting it all backwards. 

In reality they pursue Order & Law. The world talks Law, but walks Order.

China is a ripe example of same & so attracted so much investment from all over the world in the last three decades, that its now reached a place, where it is challenging the investors. 

If there a lesson? 

Notwithstanding the demand for Law (functional democracy, policed IPR regime, contract enforcement agencies, mature courts, etc ), money follows Order - not Law. 

And so in the past, even tiny single party democracy like Singapore or Middle-Eastern kingdoms got more investment over a democratic India. 

Wherever there's political or otherwise stability i.e. Order - industry & money would move there. Sure, Law does provide that little bit of extra comfort, but only as a good accessory to Order.

America is desirous to "use" India as a counter balance to the widening Chinese footprint esp. as they themselves are abrogating their global responsibility.

They would through China centric trade war (read "Hot Peace" which haz replaced Soviet era "Cold War") want to contain China & nudge the American owned factories in China to move elsewhere. 

But where?

India has both - a potential market base & sourcing capability. 

It also has Modi to set the Order right !

Unfortunately, even as Modi's India tries to untangle itself from itself i.e the web of too much Law & bring about an Order, China has taken advantage & has manufactured a disorder here through it's proxies, including the terror organizations working out of Pakistan. 

That's because besides considering us as next emerging competition, on international forums, India has been vocally anti-BRI and not just the CPEC part of it. Unlike the Americans, we didn't even send in low ranking officials to Xi Jinping's launch of OBOR. 

China's economic growth rate is also at a 30-year low and costs are high. The OBOR seems to be sputtering & the America imposed trade war is now a bad irritant.

Industries are moving away from China to countries like Thailand and Vietnam, India could be next. That would be an irreparable ouch. 

It wants to keep India employed internally, so that we leave it alone internationally. And in that, it has smelled blood in the midst of the anti-CAA protests. 

So China knows well that unlike Tiananmen Square where it send tanks (afterwhich there's been no mass protests since 3 decades), India can't even send a team of policemen for investigation to curb the JNU student agitation, without the Law getting in the way. 

Law has the mesmerizing feeling that all is fair & equal. Well, to treat unequals equally is itself unfair !

Law is an ass, Order is a stallion.

The Tricycle we must balance !

The Male Trinity are :

Brahma the Creator, 

Vishnu the Nurturer,

Shiva the Destroyer.

The Female Trinity are their respective consorts :

Saraswati with Knowledge, 

Lakshmi with Wealth, 

Durga with Strength. 

At the Creative stage of any organization - you have ideas i.e. Knowledge is your key asset. 

Later as the organization grows, you need Wealth to keep Nurturing the business. 

And finally, for renewing, reinvention & rejuvenation, you need all the Strength to Destroy your very own -  else the business itself dies.

The Male Trinity represents the actual visible action, the Female Trinity representation is the intangible source that nourishes them. 

Without her, he is completely incomplete. 

The indestructible crucible of the entire Eastern spirituality is "Change" & that is a constant !

For change, you have to destroy the old paradigm.

Thus, Shiva the destroyer is worshipped much more than what the nurturer Vishnu ever will be.

And the creator Brahama is almost not worshipped at all, as is revered for only a fraction of time's tiniest unit. 

Destruction of the feeling of achievement is the essence of human progress. 

It is what the Western management is now beginning to learn.

Now, they claim that eventually, a man reaches the maximum level of hiz incompetent self. 

With each promotion he sought, the man feels incompetent in the higher plane. 

However with his capability, he overcomes that incompetence. But on doing so, he finds himself at once dissatisfied - his lust for that position is instantly destroyed & becomes restless to seeks next higher level. 

This goes on, the cycle of promotion and almost at once resultant shortlived joy of success & instantly followed by the angst arising  from greed to achieve more - till he keeps rising and reaches his level of final incompetence. 

Now when he can't destroy success anymore and begins to enjoy it instead - he feels not incompetent. 

He basks in the past not realizing he's becoming a prisoner of it.

He begins to feel comfortable !

At that stage, begins his own personal destruction. 

The world views the man on the top as most comfortable  and competent !

But the man on top must perpetually wear the uncomfortable crown of incompetence - else his days are numbered.

At some level, the man started at the lower most level of nothingness & ends where he began, as if to discover it for the very first time. 

Then sum total of his life is a brilliant nothing.

About time we cheer the leaders we elect!

The more a prostitute sells her services, the more customers she gets, and the worse her reputation becomes.  

A politician is elected by us. His job is to practice politics. The more he does it, the more he is vilified!

Same difference!

Let's expose our hypocrisy. 

Why Do We Celebrate Some and Mock Others? 

Let's look at a cricketer or a CEO. 

In a match he watches two things at once: the scoreboard and a ball that can swing or spin off an uneven pitch. And he still has to score runs.  

We understand how hard that is. So we reward him with cheerleaders, stadium ads, and million-dollar endorsements. The better he plays, the bigger the rewards.

It’s the same for a CEO. He juggles shareholders, stakeholders, and market dynamics. For that, he gets pay, perks, prestige, and bonuses. More the business, more the goodies.

Now one look at Politics and our hypocrisy is seen. 

The moment voting ends, the winner is sworn in, and we declare our democratic duty “done.”  

Then for the next five years, we start demanding miracles.

But a politician’s job is harder than a cricketer’s or a CEO’s.  

He has to do everything at once:

1. Deliver welfare and stay connected with the public.

  

2. Manage Parliament  because good intentions can be killed by parliamentary arithmetic.

 

3. Make policy that is constitutionally sound, socially acceptable, culturally compatible, economically feasible, technologically viable, parliamentarily passable, legally defensible, and geopolitically prudent. All at the same time!

It’s like solving a Rubik’s Cube that never ends. Fix one face, and another gets scrambled.

To make it worse, even the most powerful leader must still depend on the people below him.  

While cameras and criticism stay on the top, it’s the low-level officials who actually run the country’s lifeline, possibly through indifference, bad interpretation, or poor implementation - all that can derail public welfare.

This is the bureaucracy, a hardened block - obstinate, inflexible, powerful, unelected, often selected by the earlier regimes. 

Individually they look ordinary. Collectively, they’re extraordinarily intelligent but often show zero common sense.  

And when things fail, the anger falls on the elected leader, not on them.

So, even as the cricketer or the CEO becomes a demi-god, the politician becomes the devil.

It should bother anyone with a robust sense of fairness:  

A politician stays away from home, works long hours under media glare, operates inside rigid rules, cedes power to career bureaucrats, trades popularity for tough decisions, needs opposition support for national projects, and is still expected to deliver! 

Ouch!

And how do we repay him?  

We lampoon him in cartoons, make him the butt of jokes, roast him in stand-up comedy circuits, and assume he’s guilty until proven innocent.

In the final reckoning, Karma 101 strikes: We get the government we deserve!

The time has come to free our minds.  

Let’s start by giving a free hand to those we ourselves elect.  

Because right now, we only see the power they have but not the weakness of those in public offices.

Wouldn't that be fair?

Modi 1.0 : the Performer-In-Chief !

The oxymoron of the season is that Indian economy was found sputtering in the recent past just before the election & yet India delivered a historic win to Modi - unprecedented pro-incumbency !

So even as almost all Indians go about celebrating, should we worry? More so since Modi did not unleash high intensity reforms and so India's growth rates remained below potential?

Well one can worry in the absolute vacuum, just like the media folk like to - but not in reality.

At the onset, we must understand where India was when Modi got first sworn-in on 26th May 2014.

India's ranking in the World Bank monitored Easy Of Doing Business index was a shameful 140 on 190; now it is 77, huge leapfrogging over a five year period.

India had then also found itself in the disgraced The Fragile Five economies list. Today, in the expanded The Troubled Ten economies list, India's name is absent.

The global rating agencies too have upped India's grade. 

Finally, Indian banking system was on the brink of a collapse due to the all time high non-performing assets, where most loans to corporates were given away in an undeserving & unqualified ad hoc manner, rendering the system to be soaked in corruption. 

Today, because of Modi's strong arm tactics, there's a beeline among the corporate head honchos to return the money or face loss of company ownership. And yes, some have lost their companies.

Sure, Modi did self-impose ( some dubbed it as self-goals) tough measures like a) Demonetisation (rendering 86% of printed circulating cash as trash if earned illegally or to be exchanged for new notes if legitimate ) and b) GST.

Both of these resulted in withdrawal symptoms and so did act as major speed breakers as bulk of India worked in the informal economy. 

But in view of the above two blows, while many lost money, some were grudgingly forced into the formal sector.... & are now learning to pay taxes. 

That also resulted in the obviously unethical coming together of 22 opposition parties - a motley mix of arch rivals under the banner of "Mahagathban" or the great collaboration.

Notwithstanding the hardship & the counter view presented by the army of opposition parties - most Indians understood that the said two measures were good for the economy in the long run.

The world agreed too !

India earned it's highest Foreign Direct Investment & Foreign Portfolio Investment ever, pumping it's reserves to an all time high. At the time of the results coming in, the Indian stocks are found to be at an all time high.

So even when last election quarter showed a big drop in the corporate earnings, the government yet had a windfall tax collection - a clear harbinger of the things to come. The number of new tax payers have also galloped their way in.

Considering the pain, the Indian public has demonstrated an unusual and rare human trait & endowment i.e patience & maturity respectively - missing so much in that "of-for-by the people" system of electioneering.

They actually voted in a guy, that imposed austerity of sorts, took away money from many and imposed tight measures. 

Unlike Venezuela which also tried some things similar & failed, India saw no riots nor strikes - otherwise typical of developing nations in such times. 

Looking outside, in the last 5 years, we see not one country in the world where the animal spirits have been unleashed & economy is running on all cylinders fired up to the max, even when it wasn't suffering as much as India was when Modi ascended to the prime minister's chair.

So let's get it straight - 114 countries were growing at a GDP growth rate of 5% or higher, until the global financial crisis that hit in 2008.

Notwithstanding the promises at G-20, all major countries came up with lose monetary policy to spruce up their economy and covertly began looking inward to protect jobs at home i.e. slow poisoning globalization. 

The IMF's regular downward revision & good natured euphemistic language since the last few years gives us a clue - global economy is definitely crawling it's way closer to a recession.

Today, less than ten nations are growing at 5% or higher growth rates. 

China's GDP growth of about 14% at one time i.e. prior to the global economy collapse in 2008 to now less than half of that over a decades time can always be used as a bell weather as she is, unlike India, largely integrated with the global trade. 

Her forex reserves are down - already lost over a whopping USD 1 trillion from it's peak. 

Every leader in the world wants local manufacturing and for that, the inducements are a plenty - the obvious being lowered taxes. The Trump induced trade war is a manifestation of the reality. 

For most part India has ducked the slowdown trend - that's a huge achievements considering where she started five years ago and what it was suffering from. Modi did not allow the Indian economy to happily slide into the slow but sure IMF's trap and then do things as dictated by the external lenders - he saw it coming and did what he must. 

That's leadership 101 !

Also, Modi delivering a clean corruption free term is a welcome change. Modi 1.0 was in a consolidation phase, Modi 2.0 should do much better, as unlike the first term - in about 24 months he could have a control of the upper house too, allowing him to free the tiger, caged until now.