India – A Brand of Resilience
The knowledge that so much wealth has been plundered from India each time, even after the previous wave of plunder, gives us three pointers for the future:
1. India is an inexhaustibly rich country.
2. The people of this land inherently have the capacity to generate wealth quickly.
3. The wealth came from internal mobilization of resources and not plundering others.
LAND OF INEXHAUSTIBLE WEALTH
That, this land has internally got the capacity to generate inexhaustible wealth, has been
best brought forth by the statements of Col. Alexander Walker
Col. Alexander Walker had annexed Saurasthra for the British, in a 30 year bloody battle,
which had earned him the sobriquet “Butcher of Saurashtra”.
Col. Alexander Walker, in his letter to James Mill, a historian, on 8th
April 1820, writes about the proverbial riches of India as,
India has natural abundance and fertility of soil,
India has no mines of gold or silver.
There has been a constant influx of gold and silver in exchange for the natural productions of the country:
It has been a regular and uninterrupted accumulation.
Conquest and plunder are the only expedients to bring back into circulation, this super abundant wealth.
LAND WITH INHERENT CAPACITY
That, the people of this land, inherently have the capacity to generate wealth quickly is evident from the fact that the wealth of this land was generated from trade.
And for a rich trade, there has to be copious produce.
And for a copious produce, there has to be thriving industry.
And for a thriving industry, there has to be sufficient raw material, labour, skills and technology.
All of these were the inherent capacity of India.
INTERNAL MOBILIZATION OF RESOURCES
That, the wealth was generated by internal resource mobilization and not by plundering others is evident from the fact that India produced and traded in products whose raw materials were native to the Indian soil.
These raw materials were the strength of India as also the technology for converting them into finished goods.
The technology was so honed and perfected that the products produced were one of a kind, not available elsewhere, were of high quality and of relevant use.
This speaks volumes for the resources within India and the ingenuity of the common Indian folk then.
More than all this, the fact that this was a sustained production and trade for over 2 millennia indicates that, whatever technology and strategy they had adopted was ecologically sustainable too, for otherwise how could they have kept supplying to the world for over 2 millennia?
RESILIENT INDIA
It was the cumulative effect of
1. sufficient resources within the land
2. sufficient labour, skills and technology to manufacture and
3. sufficient navigational prowess to trade
that earned India riches and made India so resilient, as to keep generating wealth after every wave of plunder.
Can India unbrand herself from a slum image to reflect thisresilience instead?
UNBRANDING THE SLUM INDIA IMAGE
The knowledge of India’s resilient nature should give the youth of this land enough reason and purpose to have confidence in the wealth generating capacity of their land and its indigenous systems and
techniques. The success over the last 50 years itself proof enough.
This confidence should help them in engaging themselves in making this land prosperous once again for their own benefit and for the benefit of the generations to follow.
It is India’s chance at erasing its slum image and a way to regain its lost glory, name and fame.
Will india take the chance and make it ?
