The Evolution of Aspirational India

IN HIS SPEECH in the recent Special Session of Parliament, Prime Minister Narendra Modi articulated the idea of “aspirational India”. For the last few years, Modi has been pushing governance, development and politics to respond to the emerging and resurgent India that is also the aspirational India we talk about. But what is this idea of an aspirational India?

Aspiration is the basis of mobility, of the rise and development of any community and society. It is the qualitative and symbolic transformation of the desires of people. It is not a coincidental entity but intricately linked with the ongoing socio-economic processes. To aspire, people need certain conditions. Such conditions evolve when people acquire a certain level of self, social and collective confidence and a certain range of economic mobility. So, those ‘aspiring’ require the capacity to aspire. This capacity emerges from social and economic empowerment. When such capacity to aspire is gained, a community or society then evolves the capacity to both aspire and acquire. Only then are they capable of participating in the politics of representation. So, we can see how the capacity to aspire is crucial to the socio-economic and political development of society and the nation.

After more than 70 years of Indian independence and democracy, there are many marginal and invisible communities that have not yet acquired the capacity to aspire. Their circumstances are so difficult that they are not able to even aspire for a better life. Due to deepening of democracy and distribution of democratic resources at the grassroots in independent India, a section of people have acquired the capacity to aspire for growth and development, for fulfilling their desires. They have acquired the capacity to dream of better life conditions. The policy of aspirational districts has helped in creating a basis for growth and mobility among the most marginalised people in India. It is a goal-centric government project to create conditions for aspiration in the most marginal districts and blocks in states.

After 2014, Prime Minister Modi’s vision and policies began developing the capacity to aspire among various marginalised communities across caste and religion. Flawless and effective delivery of state-led welfare projects for marginalised communities strengthened their existence. Along with raising the aspirational capacity among the marginalised, Modi also tried to break the inertia of the middle class and invoked their desire to become more mobile. Due to the conditions and the ecosystem created by his government, the middle class began aspiring for mobility in its socio-economic and political life. Entrepreneurs, who belonged to the upper middle class, got the opportunity to rise higher. The entrepreneurial class as a whole found the conditions in which its businesses could become more pan- India and even global or multinational corporates. Thus, one can see how aspiration emerged at the bottom and rose to the top in Indian society.

The new liberalised economy shaped by PV Narasimha Rao in the 1990s slowly evolved the conditions in which people’s aspirations could be cultivated. The liberalised economy and globalisation opened up the skies for entrepreneurs. Rajiv Gandhi’s efforts to disseminate information and communication technology, the setting up of public telephone booths, and thereafter, the advent of the mobile phone created a ‘globe of interaction’ which enabled and contained an enormous flow of information about opportunities which became a resource for developing aspirational capacities among Indians. Again, this crossed caste and community boundaries.

Modi has re-crafted the conditions created by the liberalised economy, which was mostly outward-looking, and oriented it inward too. He made it deshaj (indigenous) and yuganulkul (appropriate for the time) for the nation. Modi weaved the global with the local and formed an interesting ‘glocal’. Policies and campaigns, such as Atmanirbhar Bharat, Make in India, One District One Product (ODOP), and various Garib Kalyan schemes developed conditions for aspiring and also retuned the market economy to the idea of Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas. It has been difficult but an alert mode of governance has responded constantly to the rising and changing aspirations of the Indian public.

The rapid spread of urbanisation, connectivity and communication technology has contributed to the growth of the capacity to aspire and acquire among a large section of Indians. There was a time when Lalu Prasad used to say that only upper-caste and upper-class people could benefit from road infrastructure, not the Other Backward Classes (OBC) and Dalits. Today, one can see that an alternative politics of development has emerged through various efforts around developing connectivity and communication infrastructure. The networks of four-lane to six-lane highways, roads under PM Sadak Yojana, and other schemes developing connectivity have changed the Indian landscape. This has improved the mobility of goods and people, breaking the inertia and monotony of rural India. It has also brought village and city closer, which has played an important role in building aspirations in the interior and marginal social and geographical zones. The spread of the internet all over the country as well as cheaply priced internet services have brought about a communication revolution. The 3G to 5G bandwidths made connectivity faster and quickened the flow of information from rural areas to cities. Together, all these changes raised people’s aspirations to grow and achieve a better-quality life. This aspiration-centric notion of development, as an alternative politics, is trying to expand from the mere politics of representation to an inclusive politics of development.In an evolving democracy, people’s aspirations constantly grow and the state that works as the agency for distributing democracy needs to constantly feel such rising aspirations and respond.

When aspiration grows among various sections of society, it transforms the whole society. Such an aspirational society, in turn, helps the whole nation evolve as an aspirational nation. Therefore, the making of ‘aspirational’ is a process in itself. It continues to play a foundational role in bringing a qualitative shift to the developmental history of the nation. Aspiration plays a crucial role in developing ambition (in a positive sense) to achieve a high level of success. The Chandrayaan-3 and Aditya-L1 missions, for example, are the outcome of such positive and progressive ambitions of Indian society and the nation. Some critics of Modi’s developmental governance attempt to paint all of this as a reflection of his individual ambition. They forget that a democracy, in the process of qualitative transformation, produces very democratic ambitions to make society and the nation confident—in this case, an Atmanirbhar and Vikasit Bharat.

This aspirational bhav of the nation brings about a renaissance and a resurgence which creates conditions for a new Bharat Abhyudaya. This aspirational India is perhaps the new Bharat that Prime Minister Modi keeps imagining and planning for. An India that is Vikasit Bharat.

democracydeshajglocalgovernanceIndian economyliberalised economyNarendra Modiyuganulkul