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By
the diplomatic hoopla in Washington that greeted Indian Prime Minister
Narendra Modi, it would seem that intrepid U.S. explorers had just
discovered India and were celebrating him in the way Britain treated
tribal leaders in the 19th century: Show them the big time. Then co-opt
them to vow allegiance.
In
this century, the U.S. equivalent of the big time is a state visit and
endless professions of friendship. Experience says Modi won’t bite.
Historically,
India has been reluctant to accept the embrace of the West. Although it
is democratic, capitalist and has the largest diaspora, India’s
affections have been hard to capture.
Since
independence from Britain in 1947, India has sought global status by
standing aloof and leaning toward countries and regimes that are
anathema to the West. Its first prime minister, Jawaharlal Nehru,
fostered the concept of a third force in the world: a constellation of
unaligned nations with India at the center.
It
showed a perverse affection for the Soviet Union — which was hardly
nonaligned — and didn’t reflect the values of India: free movement of
people, free press, capitalism and democracy.
Years
ago, a retired executive editor of the Times of India, whom I knew
socially, told me, “There are maybe a million Indians living in the
United States and only a handful who live in the Soviet Union, but our
leaders have always leaned toward them. It is a puzzle.”
There are now 4.2 million Indians living in the United States.
At
the same time, Indians migrated across the world and made inroads into
professions from Canada to New Zealand. In Britain, they are prominent
in politics and the prime minister, Rishi Sunak, is of Indian descent.
In the United States, executives of Indian descent run some of the largest tech companies, including IBM, Google and Microsoft.
Indians
are a huge force in English literature. Every year Indian writers
feature on the prize lists for best new English novels. Whereas the
computers most of us use may have been made in China, much of the
software was written in India.
Indian words abound in English: Pajamas, ketchup, bungalow, jungle, avatar, verandah, juggernaut and cot are just a few.
The effect of Indian culture on the world is evident from curry and rice to polo to yoga.
Yet,
India remains a distant shore, elusive and obvious at the same time. A
country of enormous talent that lags economically. It now has the
fifth-largest economy in the world. With 1.4 billion people of obvious
ability, the question must be, why does it still have crushing poverty?
Andres
Carvallo, professor of innovation at Texas State University, told the
“Digital 360” webinar, for which I am a regular panelist, he thought it
was partly because India lagged in essential electricity production,
pointing out that China has four times the electricity output of India.
But
is this symptom or cause? I have been puzzling over why India doesn’t
do better for decades. It seems to me that the causes are multiple, but
some can be laid at Britain’s feet — not because the British were
occupiers in India but because of some of the good things they left
there that have perversely remained time-warped.
One
of India’s ambassadors to Washington told me with pride that every
occupier had enriched India and left something of value behind, from
Alexander the Great to the Moguls and, of course, Britain and the Raj.
But
the Brits also left behind a sluggish bureaucracy to the point of
sclerosis and a legal system that is independent but takes an eternity
to reach a decision. Additionally, some of the ideas prevalent in
British Labor Party thinking — and long since abandoned — took hold in
India and have been extremely detrimental. These included protectionism,
a state’s role in the economy, and a fear of competition from abroad.
I
believe that protectionism is the greatest evil. It discouraged
competition, innovation and creativity. It inadvertently allowed a few
families to concentrate too much wealth and economic power and to work
to protect that.
India
is more open now, but it needs to be vigilant against the evils that go
with protectionism, which is still part of its DNA.
At
one time, you could buy a brand-new Indian made-car — Fiat or Morris
design — which was 30 years out of date. No need to innovate; just make
the same car year after year.
If
it liberalizes its economy, India may one day outpace China. Meantime,
do luxuriate in those Indian words that have so spiced up English.
On Twitter: @llewellynking2
Llewellyn King is executive producer and host of "White House Chronicle" on PBS. |