1. The constitution from the British and US system
2. The strict regulatory form of government, again from the British
3. A Western education system. Mainly from British and off late from the US system (like the IT and MBA education)
What is striking is that though we have copied a lot of these just like most other nations/countries/geographies, we have perfected each and every aspect of this to such an extent that now we can claim to be pros in these. Our constitution is robust and unbreakable. We have a robust regulatory system that the finance system in India stood the litmus test of global recession without deterring much. Our telephone regulatory system is now the ideal case study for countries who want to correct their course. We have mastered the western education that IIXs produce the best brains in the world.
After figuring out that we are masters of what we copy, I wanted to know which is the best practice/system which we have copied from others. And a bit of deep thinking and I was stunned on what I realized. I am sure any compatriot of mine would be equally surprised to tag this system as something alien. Guess what is the system? ... "Democracy". Democracy is a system which Indians are never exposed to. Since the recorded history of more than 5000 years, there was no democratic form of government in India. It was introduced by the British in the 19th century, but with limited scope. A true exposure to democracy has actually come in the last 65 years. (Since the formation of interim government in 1944). In this short span of 65 years we have mastered this alien concept so well that it is hard for any of us now to believe that India can be run in an monarchy or autocratic form of government. We just cannot accept that democracy has originated in Greece(before 300BC) and came to India eons after. Though it is a very short time frame, the passion and vigor with which we have embraced, made it the soul of our society. Here we should remember to credit our cultural and societal values which make India accept the best and reject the bad. Since democracy gives a voice to every individual (however feeble that voice may be) and lets things settle in the best accepted way of the society (with whatever delay it injects) it reflected the philosophy of Indian. That is one reason we have scored well ahead of all independence peers (like Pakistan, Srilanka and others) and also have a convincing story for future (unlike the uncertain Communist China). It is no wonder we are one of the youngest but largest democracies of the world.
Subbu, the way you mention it, "copy" appears to be giving a negative connotation. I think "copy" is good.
ReplyDeleteWhen the idea of democracy came to Indian people (I guess some 50yrs before independence?), it was still young. But no doubt, introduced by British. Though, the kind of democracy they brought was only a cover up for imperialist-authoritarian rule (they said it was ordinances they were passing! :D). And at that time everyone had a different concept of democracy (ofcourse!), and it was vague.
So, I think we should credit Indian people for having built the democracy we have today from the vague concepts they learned from foreigners (and it definitely was not copying!).
sorry, I lost my thread of thought earlier...I was saying copying is good, when we are busy tackling more immediate problems, and with limited resources (time, people etc) we want to evolve upon an already tested solution!
ReplyDelete@meenu I agree with the idea: anything new is learnt by 'copying' or imitating. It is the part of the learning curve and has no bad implication to it as long as we evolve the practice with changing times. And we Indians are masters of that.
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