As the Taoiseach prepares to visit India, K. Natwar Singh explains the social and economic achievements of a country that has belied the prophets of doom
From the dawn of history, the spiritual came to India seeking wisdom; others came in search of either glory through conquest, or wealth through commerce, or both. Alexander the Great... the Romans followed the Greeks Pliny the Younger started a debate on our trade balance by complaining vociferously that the gold chests of Rome were being emptied so that Roman ladies could bedeck themselves in the finest Indian muslins.
For more than a thousand years, India was at the heart of an intricate trading system in the Indian Ocean - an "empire of the monsoons" that stretched from Java to Madagascar.
The "fall" of Constantinople acquired significance precisely because it cut off trade routes to India.
Conversely, the great European sea voyages and discoveries became important because they restored them.
Persians, Uzbeks and Tajiks were followed by the Arabs and Afghans, and finally came the European seafarers. Columbus sought India and died in the belief that he had found it. Vasco da Gama got his bearings a little more accurately and the European inflow culminated in the British Raj.
India matters because historically, it has been a confluence of peoples and civilisations. In a globalised world, this has a particular significance.
Yale historian Paul Kennedy estimates that in 1750, 24.5 per cent of global industrial production was in India. Its allure was almost mythical - a land of fabled riches, of silk and muslin and ivory and spices. By 1900, India's share of the global economy had fallen to 1.7 per cent, and during the 50 years before India became independent in 1947, its annual growth rate a bare 0.7 per cent. Literacy was as low as 14 per cent.
Regarding the independence struggle led by Mahatma Gandhi, there are few precedents in human history for a peaceful mass movement in support of a political cause being pursued patiently for half a century or more. It was not just the character of our independence movement that set us apart. It was equally its resulting political dispensation. Given the dominance of the Congress party in the movement for independence, India could easily have been a one- party state. It could also have been non-democratic or a partial one with a limited electorate.
By opting for universal adult franchise and fostering political pluralism, Nehru's India set a powerful example. India matters because its choices half a century ago have made democracy a global norm today.
It is an example of hope in our fractured, strife-torn and often fratricidal world. It is a country that has belied the prophets of doom who had confidently announced the assured break up of India.
India matters because never before in history have a billion people constituting a sixth of humanity been shaped into a single political entity, and that too a steady thriving secular democracy. To have risen above the bloody aftermath of partition in 1947, and built a strong multi-ethnic, multi-religious, multi-lingual, secular nation state was no mean feat. To have maintained and strengthened this nation state in the face of conflicts imposed on us, the enormous natural calamities and the drastic economic and social changes that have affected independent India over the last 58 years was a task in itself.
India matters because, far from becoming the basket case that many feared and some hoped she would become, she is today the fourth largest economy in the world in terms of purchasing power parity. The most prestigious financial and business analysts in the world forecast even better times ahead.
The economy's recent performance justifies such predictions. One of India's unsung triumphs, as the World Bank puts it, has been the progress made in poverty reduction, from 35 per cent in 1993 to 20 per cent today. Rural purchasing power is increasing faster than that in the urban areas, and rural India is changing rapidly - politically, socially, economically, even technologically - as sections of the population earlier left out of the growth stream come on board.
The world today admires how India has nurtured the spirit of freedom and ensured that it permeates all our democratic institutions. It seeks to learn how India has managed to transform possible fault lines - of religion, language or ethnicity - into bonds that unite and hold us together. India's ancient, resilient civilisation has always been not just tolerant of diversity, but has accepted and embraced it.
We celebrate diversity and pluralism. There are not many countries where a Muslim head of state, a Sikh head of government, a Christian leader of the largest political party or a minority representative heading the armed forces would be so taken for granted as to barely cause comment. And this in a country with an 84 per cent Hindu population. That it is because we have a genuinely pluralistic culture, one where all faiths are equally respected. This has created recognition that we are each inheritors of multiple traditions. I consider India matters a great deal, even if it was only for this reason.
The scale of these (economic) reforms has been extraordinary, not just for their impact on society but in the manner in which they have been brought about. To introduce change without disrupting the social fabric is a challenge at best of times. To do that when a significant segment of the society is still poised to emerge from its economic margins is even more difficult. If this has been managed without social upheavals - and that it has, as our record demonstrates - there is much to be said in favour of our system of governance.
The advantages of democracy as a buffer against social tensions created due to rapid growth and the inevitably uneven regional spread of this progress must be noted. It is true that the public consensus building what a democratic system strives for may appear to slow the reform process, but it makes it more durable, indeed irreversible.
India matters because we are proof that democracy and development are not choices we make but processes that supplement each other.
Of course there is much to do, many hurdles to cross, many problems to solve. India is in a confident mood, not one of self-congratulation.
The internal pluralism of India has always been matched by its external receptivity. Over the ages, we have welcomed travellers, trade, ideas, faiths and refugees - all with open arms. The eclecticism that they have spawned has been our defining characteristic. We have always valued our interactions with the world and were clearly the poorer without them. It was natural for such a society on regaining its independence to restore the connectivity snapped by colonial rule.
This gave a broad and open outlook to our foreign policy as well. The narrow pursuit of national interest was never our only goal. Even when our resources were few, there was a willingness to share with those in greater need. As our capabilities have grown, so too has our sense of responsibility. We have always been intuitive internationalists and as we integrate into global society, this trait will be strengthened even further.
India matters because its outlook is not wholly rooted in the past; it matters because its identity is not defined vis-a-vis that of others and because its nationalism reflects the idealism advocated and practised by Mahatma Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru.
K. Natwar Singh is India's former minister of external affairs. This is an edited version of a speech at the Canadian Institute of International Affairs.