The growth of India over the next fifty years will mirror the growth that took place in North America over the past 200 years. An evocative book that captures this story is the Pulitzer Prize winning effort of Daniel J. Boorstin’s The Americans: The Democratic Experience.  The author traces the creation of myriad institutions in North America as it grew from a former colony of the British to the pre-eminent economic and social model of the last century. This story’s own context is starkly different from India. But the analogy of the story is helpful : institutions were created in a new country which had a different geographic, demographic, intellectual and emotional setting from Europe. The USA had a strong European intellectual influence to start with, but the reason it succeeded is because it adapted that mindset to suit its own environment. They created a national university system, which moved learning beyond the Ivy League colleges, they perfected an insurance network, they created a food distribution system, they invented an aerospace industry, where starting from PanAm onwards aviation brought the death of distance. India will have to create similar institutions and systems over the next 50 years. Boorstein also eloquently demonstrates that the process of building a nation is a two step forward and a one step back process. The important message though is that some of the seemingly ‘impossible’ problems India faces today were faced by other countries as they grew from a young nation to a mature democracy. When we are faced with those difficulties, we also need to take a long- term view and keep that positive frame of reference that comes across in Boorstin’s work.

However, as North America became a successful industrial nation powered by oil, Model T cars and the threads of Amtrak that started criss-crossing its vast land mass, Boorstin warned of the dangers in blindly following existing, ‘successful’ models and the ‘momentum’ they generate. He said: ‘The sense of momentum which overwhelmed Presidents burdened ordinary citizens. ….. the future of American civilization could not fail to be determined by the mass and velocity of enterprises already in being… Fewer decisions of social policy seemed to be Whether-or-Not as more became decisions of How-Fast-and-When.’

As globalization has made the world a smaller place, a number of emerging countries like India run the risk of not asking Whether-or-Not questions. As India starts accelerating forward in its own ‘democratic experience’, we have to be careful of not heading down the How-Fast-And-When tunnel. At the start of its own journey, North America borrowed its intellectual heritage from Europe, but moulded it to the reality of North America, and we face a similar challenge at this juncture.

What we must adopt from the West is the spirit of scientific inquiry. But the age of networks, electrons, biotechnology, agri-business and relevance of intangible assets must warn us against creating mechanical institutions. As this is the beginning of our own development journey, we can use and connect with the Indian mind which has always respected knowledge and respects service.

Recent environmental awareness in the developed world is asking fundamental questions of the industrial civilizations of Europe and North America. Commentators have declared that the ‘demand for carbon-free power is about to become the most disruptive force since the Internet’, and a new world-view is being called upon to stem the damage that may already have been caused by the industrial sprint of the past 200 years. In this context, China is already well down the how-fast-and-when tunnel by building large factories, industrial plants and carbon intensive industries. India, till recently seemingly a laggard in industrialization, still has an opportunity to ask whether-or-not questions, and perhaps put a healing balm on the Industrial damage already underway.

An even more important lesson from the ‘democratic experience’ is the dynamics of democracy. The real fruits of democracy come when citizens ‘work’ their democracy, when they engage to build institutions. More than the Roosevelts and the Kennedys, it was the cattle rancher and the railroad pioneer who built USA. Modern India and its race forward will be shaped not only in  state capitals but also by the bottom up entrepreneurial innovations taking place across the nation. India’s progress will take place not only in the halls of  Parliament, but by the various mini institutions that we visited during our travels. India will be shaped by the creation of a Tilonia, by the courage of a Kiran Bedi, by the experiences of the submarine commander in Vizag and by the innovative factory manager at  Bajaj Auto.

As countries like India start to take off, they will take off on the wings of passion of its young citizens. A country starts to prosper when the people – alongside the government – start building. While we have a number of seemingly insurmountable problems, we have a future that is powered by the momentum of a growing country. Gerd Behrens drew a contrast with the attitude in more developed economies, ‘The West resembles a marriage of convenience, while other growing civilizations are passionate affairs’.  

More so for those pouring to fill the glass of India.