Why Modi Must Articulate a Wholesome Vision for Inia

New vision for India

Modi must articulate a vision for the country that goes beyond economic growth and material well-being.  To assume that prosperity would solve all our problems or that material well-being is all there is to the good life is fallacious. Even if it were possible to achieve high levels of prosperity, it is by no means certain that such an ideal (if one might call it that) is desirable, for it can only be achieved at huge environmental and ecological cost; so much so that we would likely be worse off, rather than better.  Further, let us bear in mind that the target is not a static one – the advanced countries are not going to sit still.  

But, this is not my main point.  The way we are now, even if we find a way of providing very high standards of living for all of us (say, we miraculously find deep, long-lasting and large oil reserves for example) at an acceptable environmental cost (say new technologies provide the required mitigation) I fear we will not have found the keys to the good life. For we would still be a country in strife. We will be fighting religious and caste wars, we will be killing for honour, raping and ill-treating our women, bribing to get past inconvenient laws and regulations and allowing ourselves to be guided by ancient prejudices.  We will pay scant regard to the rule of law, we will drown voices we don’t want to hear. Lacking in civic virtue, we will use not reason but force to have our way and make others conform to our dictates.  We will take to the streets and destroy public property on the flimsiest of pretexts.  Our roads will be chaotic and dangerous, our work of poor quality; we will have no conception of excellence; we will be clever enough to achieve our ends, not intelligent enough to pursue the right ends. And our rulers will continue to be opportunistic and devoid of integrity and principle.  

Data show that we have as a country made huge strides in reducing poverty levels.  We must admit that millions of our country men enjoy opportunities and standards of living that seemed a distant dream a generation ago.  However, has a higher standard of living made us less obscurantist and medieval in our outlook? Can we honestly claim that education has equipped us with critical reasoning skills and the ability to examine issues dispassionately? Do we treat the poor and the less privileged with the respect due a human being? Do we know how to resolve conflicts without resort to violence? Are we committed to the truth or do we indulge in hyperbole and downright lies in defence of our interest? The answer to these questions is self-evident.  Far from being a disinterested search for the truth, education has come to mean acquiring skills with which to earn a decent living.