Redemption and Rebirth

A DECADE IS A VERY long time in politics but it flies when everyone is kept busy. Taking stock at the end of 10 years is not a matter of simple accounting. Not when a country as big as India undergoes a comprehensive transformation. And yet, the markers of the change in the Modi years of 2014-24 are stark across India’s policy, governance, socio-economic, infrastructural and cultural landscape. Indian Renaissance: The Modi Decade, edited by academic Aishwarya Pandit and with contributors ranging from former prime ministers of friendly nations to journalists, think-tankers and corporate leaders, is an eclectic collection of essays that offers a substantial glimpse of this change within and without. But why another book on Modi? Pandit answers: “I felt the need for a book that captures all aspects of his years in office.”

Pertinently, the book begins with a view from the outside. Tony Abbott, former Australian prime minister, sets the parameters of India’s role in the world and connects it to the evolution of Indian democracy. India’s growing solidarity with fellow democracies, such as via the Quad, can one day make the country the leader of the free world. But there is an important caveat: should this be interrupted, “the long-term future of liberal democracy will be in considerable doubt, given all its contemporary challenges.” Not only is all talk of democratic regression hokum but having been consistently democratic for three-quarters of a century, except the wobble of Emergency, India is what Abbott had long ago called “the world’s emerging democratic superpower”. Thus, “if there is to be a leader of the free world fifty or hundred years hence, it is as likely to be the Indian prime minister as the US president.”

But to get there, India will have to make clear and hard choices. This concern is echoed by former Reagan administration official Scot Faulkner “when China is playing championship Go and the US is failing at Whac-A-Mole”. China’s Go gameboard is Asia, the Pacific and Indian Oceans and it is Modi who can lead India into effectively countering Chinese aggression: “He could deploy a holistic approach that addresses economic, cultural, political and military aspects of China’s challenge. He can become the new ‘Go Master’.”

If that is how India is being perceived abroad, what has been happening within has made it possible. The digital revolution and a decade of infrastructural growth have brought about a socio-economic transformation that coupled with the Modi government’s initiatives in overhauling healthcare, has few parallels in human history in pace and scale. Without the JAM (Jan Dhan-Aadhaar- Mobile) trinity, for example, near-universal banking could have taken nearly another five decades. Crises have also morphed into opportunities. The Covid pandemic with its demand for medical kits and vaccines made India a manufacturer and exporter of medical equipment even as poor Indians today get easier and speedier access to healthcare. Decongesting the railways and optimising dedicated freight corridors have boosted the economy and made travel faster and more comfortable. At the same time, India has finally begun utilising the potential of its hitherto underdeveloped inland waterways. The achievements powering—to say nothing of rural electrification—India’s transformation are far too many to be listed.

This would not have been possible without an overarching but clearly delineated worldview. A concrete parallel to the cultural change being wrought is perhaps India that is Bharat’s drive towards energy security where clean energy, keeping in mind the ticking time bomb of climate change, is going to weigh more in the energy basket. Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam integrates the changes occurring inside the country with its dealings with the world. Modi could do all this before seeking his third term because he did not inherit the Nehruvian legacy. Instead, he could, as Pandit argues, dismantle it to build his own. He redeemed politics and redefined power as S Prasannarajan, editor of Open, argues. With essays by Don Ritter, Antonia Filmer, Cleo Paskal, Samir Saran, and other respected analysts and field experts, this collection is a 360-degree ready-reference for 10 unprecedented years in independent India’s 77-plus years of existence.

Aishwarya PanditbooksIndian politicsIndian Renaissance: The Modi DecadeNarendra Modi