60 Years.. Many Happy Returns...

India celebrates her 60th Independence Day in a few hours from now. Despite whatever I've written about India, this is my country. She has gone through a lot of ups and downs and has certainly been going good for the last few years. We just forget how good we have it here sometimes. That's why I believe that after a long, long time - we should be thankful.

When British India split into two, it was India which was getting more of everything - many people forget that we got more of the population too. Nehru and Co. had a lot of responsibilities. They had to cater to a nation which was in turmoil in every single way. I think India chose the right path in doing many things - even politically. We believe in equality and have a 'no-no' policy on discrimination. I know countries who almost make themselves non secular.

60 years is just such a long time that my mind boggles at what could have been had even a tiny detail changed. Of course, that could hold for many things relating to the past. Over these years, we certainly have progressed a lot more than our neighbours. We have risen sharply as an economy and our society has become a lot more liberal in the decade gone by. It has been a turbulent transition without a doubt, but I think that we’ve survived. We are quite easily the strongest nation in the sub continent – in every which way.

The Beeb has come out with a bunch of statistics about who has how much amongst India, Pakistan and Bangladesh. It is a no brainer that India has the most of everything (land, population, military stuff, ammo, nuclear warheads).

The problem I have with such anniversaries is that people tend to look backward. We tend to look at history and forget that we do live in the present. We have a future to look forward to. Everyone thinks of the hardships of the partition and forgets that we live in a free country where we get to do pretty much anything we want today. Everyone thinks of the bloodshed and the events of August 1947 and forgets about August 2007.

I think that over the last 60 years we have come a long way. Yet people look at the poverty (yes, me included) and all the other negatives. I say, think positive, think about the future. We can be a world power and at 60 years - India is a fairly young nation. When there is a will, there is a way and I dare say that we have so much will that the next 20 years could well see India rise to the top of the world. I really see that vision becoming a reality.