Wednesday, August 15, 2007

Indians are fractious

Home > News > Columnists > Rajeev Srinivasan
Indians, alas, may be the original individualists: nobody likes to follow a well-trodden path, as is evident on any of what are called, euphemistically, highways. This individualism is both a curse and a blessing. The curse is obvious: Indians are fractious, and collectively deserve John Kenneth Galbraith's jibe about a 'functioning anarchy.'
The blessing is less obvious: Indians have the processes to manage anarchy, more or less. If a couple of ingredients can be added to the pot, such as discipline and, perhaps most importantly, self-confidence, there will be no stopping India.
Discipline and self-belief arise from a strongly internalised set of beliefs, the moral equivalent of the American vanity of 'manifest destiny'. If we believe, we can work wonders. And the belief has to be straightforward and easy to understand. Some of the best examples come from the world of business; and since business is in effect war by other means, the lessons learned there are useful in statecraft, too... rediff.com/news/2005/mar/24rajeev Comments welcome at my blog http://rajeev2004.blogspot.com

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