For the Love of India

Monday, 3rd March is Founder's Day for us Tata employees. The founder - Jamsetji Nusserwanji Tata - was born 169 years ago on the same day. This man had the capacity to visualise the years beyond his life and what the Tata Group has achieved is testimony to that. It bedazzles you, how he could even think of building a steel plant or a hydroelectric power plant at a time, when India was under foreign rule. Not only that, hardly anyone India had the technical know-how to achieve this. Yet he took it upon himself to find all the experts the task needed to be brought in from outside and get them here regardless of the cost. He did not stop at initiating these two projects, which were to be completed only after his death. He wanted to ensure that there is a steady flow of manpower and talent to sustain the projects, which should come from the locals, fellow Indians. He did not stop at sponsoring deserving students with scholarships but went on to pledged half his wealth towards an institute which would provide the best-in-class technical education to Indian students, within India. This was to materialize into the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore.

And he did not have to do it. He would have been labelled as a successful industrialist even if he had not taken these initiatives, for he had already created two successful textile mills (Empress in Nagpur and Swadeshi in Mumbai). He could have just sat upon the wealth he had amassed and lived peacefully, but he did not do that. He wanted to see India on the path of Industrialization, which he had first seen when he went to England to study. And that has to be the only reason, why he started with these three massive projects at the same time and urged his successors to pursue them, which they did. The result is there for all to see.

Another mark of his thinking is the way he treated people, the most important resource for any industry. This reflects in some of the policies he established for the workers at his mills. That he was a man of principles is evident from the fact that he pumped in his own wealth into the Swadeshi Mills when it was struggling for survival, a huge risk which eventually paid off (This was to be repeated by his son Dorab for the survival of Tata Steel in 1924). R M Lala's biography of Jamsetji Tata traces his life in detail and provides an account of his values and principles. What he did can only inspire you to look beyond your life and think beyond the wealth you want to earn.

I wish, I can do something - based on the same principles and values - as he did, purely For the Love of India.
Amen!

Freedom

Yesterday, I read A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini. I read his first book The Kite Runner almost a year back, thanks to my younger brother who recommended it to me. I have to admit that Hosseini's first book almost had me in tears by the time I finished reading it. The second book ends on a rather hopeful note, but barring the last few chapters you will go through the same heart-wrenching experience reading it. Hosseini manages to build on the real backdrop of the devastating three decades of war in Afghanistan, characters which are fictional but linger in the boundary of realm. That is why you feel an emotional connection with the protagonists in both the books. I do not possess the talent to be able to express the actual experience of reading these books in words, so I will leave it at this point.

There is one aspect that of the books which has made me think a lot, that being the situation in Afghanistan. Hosseini puts it in words so effectively that you can actually visualise it. Most of it is true and you might have read the same in a rather mundane fashion in the news reports. Reading about the mass devastation in Afghanistan helped me realize how fortunate I happen to be to have been born in a free nation. People in Afghanistan have been deprived of all the advances the rest of the world has made in the last three decades. The only advancement they have experienced has ironically been in the weapons of mass destruction, which has only aggravated the situation there over the years. In the same period, India has enjoyed democracy and peace at large which has helped her move swiftly on the path of progress. I will admit that there are flaws in the Indian system, but the net outcome of these three decades has been on the positive side and it has to be attributed - at least partially - to the democratic system which has survived for sixty years.

Afghanistan saw lot of restrictions, oppression of human rights - particularly of women in all the years it was at war. The Taliban regimen even gagged the entire media and forced restrictions which were completely inhumane. Can you imagine a man being beaten brutally just because he was not wearing a turban, or was clean shaved, or had a TV set at his home, or missed a prayer, or was carrying/reading a book that was not Koran, or a woman being beaten just because she was wearing jewellery, or was not accompanied by a man on the road? It is astonishing how the people in Afghanistan survived all this brutality. On the other hand, I have enjoyed access to all kinds of media, all the books I wanted to read, pursue a lifestyle I liked (by and large). I can express my views freely on any matter that interests me (again by and large). This has been possible because people have stood against any attempt of enforcing such unjust rules, like in the case of the 1977 emergency. Democracy has helped India build the large middle class it has, which contributes the most towards development in all sectors.

Afghanistan is now back on the democratic path and they will definitely see the fruits if they persist with the system. India has to continue to do the same. Lot of people from the older generations, particularly those who were born before independence, fear that the younger generations take freedom for granted. Well, I fully understand the value of freedom - even more so after reading about Afghanistan - and I know what a privilege it is to live in a free India. I am also confident that a majority of Indian youth thinks the same way. All we have to do is guard against the section of people who target and attack specific communities, attack the fundamental right of freedom of expression. If we can collectively keep them at bay, Indian democracy will never be in trouble.

The scene from Chak De India is still fresh in my mind, where the coach refuses to accept the representation of different states from the players. What he insists on is the representation of India, forgetting the individual states it comprises of. That is what needs to be emulated. Forget about the castes, communities, states and think India.
Freedom has cost us a fortune and we can't let these small issues snatch it from us!