I recently returned from a business trip to India and I am deeply moved by what I have seen of the people and what I see as the future of that nation. I am also inspired to look at the America I know, and to offer my thoughts about what it is we have to learn from what is happening over there. I am clear that at least once in American history, we were a nation much like they are now: proud to be who we are, anxious for the opportunity to learn more and to work harder and willing to do what it takes. We were a nation where innovation was the rule and created new opportunities constantly.
From the people I met in India I regained a connection to what it takes to become a great nation, a global leader. None of this is intended to exalt India or its people as if they have no problems, nor is it intended to put down the US, but to offer a critical look at the patterns of thought and behavior that have move people, organizations, nations forward and some that don’t.
The people of India will accomplish amazing things. They will do so in part because they see in their Indian compatriots who have accomplished great things proof that greatness is available to them, themselves. Each accomplishment is proof of the possibility for greatness. While we in the US complain that people more willing to work are “taking our jobs”, they strive to discover, train themselves for, and ultimately invent what will be valuable to the market at large, both now and in the future. While we seek out the flaws of outstanding individuals, highlight those flaws as proof of their humanity, and by doing so prove ourselves adequate by comparison, the Indian people take their outstanding few and hold them up, examples of what they themselves can accomplish, proof of what is possible through hard work for the individual, and for the nation as a whole.
India has huge problems. What infrastructure exists (much was built during the British occupation) in many places is crumbling and much of what is being built now seems to be built without a clear plan for the future; what is built, in many cases will have to come down, to be rebuilt. The nation has not learned from other countries that the lack of a comprehensive plan results in a development strategy that will, as growth ensues, lead back to the same type of unworkability the current strategy is meant to mitigate.
Over sixty percent of the population lives in a state of poverty so deep it is shocking to my western sensibilities. Virtually all of the people in this category cannot depend on where the next day’s food will come from, and most have no convenient access to basics such as drinking water. What they deal with as corruption is pervasive, and still they move forward, the young generation of leaders setting out to create something better, gradually becoming aware that there is a correlate relationship between long term success and “Integrity”.
And the people of India will rise up and India will become a world power – not because they are on the right track, but because they see possibility in every success. The Indian people are motivated by each sign of hope, rather than disillusioned by everything that doesn’t work. It is true that there are many things that do not work in the US. And it seems that for most of us Americans this has become proof that it is not worth trying, that we need only take care of ourselves, that we cannot make a difference. At the same time, in India, hope has been translated into real possibility, and nothing will stop these people who have come through so much, have traveled so far, from taking their place in a global future we can only imagine.
Education in India is a national concern, and not because something is wrong, though, like many, their education system is far from perfect. It is because the people of India, the thirty percent exposed to and engaging with aspects of Western culture, see education as access to the national future. It is also one of the greatest elements of the national past. For approximately 700 years, beginning around 400 C.E., India’s Nalanda was arguably the greatest institution of higher learning ever in existence. Students came from Tibet, China, Greece, and Persia. When it was destroyed in 1193, the library alone was reported to have burned for 3 months. And the people of India have committed to building this great institute again, both literally and figuratively.
Young people operate on the assumption that they will get a bachelors degree and a masters degree and then whatever other education they need in order to have the opportunity for success. They are clear that the work they do now, as young members of society, will make the best possible future available to them. They study Science, Engineering, and Technology. They focus on areas that they identify as crucial in the future.
They develop themselves for a market that in many ways does not exist yet, though they can see it coming. There is real support for their view of the future, an apparent consensus. Young people who strive to prepare for it come to the US or the UK for their graduate education and thrive. They thrive not because they are smarter or more talented, or necessarily better educated, they succeed out of a commitment to their own and their national future. The Indian people have declared that their future is to be global leaders.
Their relationship to this future is not like one who sits under a cloak of ignorance: it is awake and aware. The Indian people recognize their challenges, that there are areas where India could be easily labeled Third World.
It is valuable to notice how India deals with crisis, how, in the wake of horrible violence against a woman in Delhi recently, the community came out in force, effectively shutting down the city and demanding justice. And how the authorities responded by taking the protesters in and learning from them, handling the immediate situation rapidly, and looking to create new policies and procedures that reflected the new consensus. There are many nations where such protest would have been suppressed, but in India it is welcomed. Only in an environment where the leadership welcomes having revealed to it what doesn’t work can cultural breakthroughs become predictable. And India is striving to be such a nation.
Again, I am not lifting up the government of India as perfect or healthy, not by any means – the corruption appears to go from top to bottom, and many people have so completely surrendered to this that they believe nothing is possible. And, there are those who are willing to work to make a difference here.
Most significantly, India has leadership. It comes from many directions, mostly business. There is no separation among people of different economic status in India; the most successful companies have views from the highest floors that include massive slums. One cannot get to the front door of wealth without passing through poverty in India. There is no isolation, no ivory tower. It is all happening in the same place and the business leaders with whom I met are very aware of this. They work to raise the tide.
The leaders I met have huge visions for their companies and of the ways their companies will bring in others, will include the people they know, and will impact the world. Training programs is an intense focus, because it fosters their sense of caring about the long-term, and the global impact. You see, the leaders of India have committed to a future where India is the leading global economic power and they have the people, the resources, the vision, and the humility to make it happen. It might be that they are analogous to the American people of the early days of the industrial revolution – hard working, ready and willing to participate in an unprecedented shift.
Finally, the Indian people will rise up and take their place in a global future because they know how to ask for help. I suggest that the people of India have much to teach us, as we have much to teach them – the main difference is that they are anxious to learn while, in a large majority, we seem to operate from the premise that we “already know”.
They do not kick the walls and say, “It is not fair.” Rather, they turn to those who have something they want and ask, “How?” India is a nation with a people who have a many thousand-year-old tradition of learning from others; a place where part of how one is known, is by whom one learns from. No one needs to know everything, and everyone has teachers. There is no shame in being humble; the greatest leaders are but students.