Opinion | The Indian social mindset needs to change, but it probably never will.

 What makes a great nation-state, great? Is it its economy? Its military strength? Its soft power, perhaps?

While all these are the right questions and the answer to all of them is YES (to a certain extent), there is a crucial piece of the puzzle that is very often overlooked. So much so, that due to the overlooking of this factor, many great nations that should have risen to power, either did not manage to do so, or missed the bus leading to greater difficulty in achieving their supreme national interests.

The single greatest catalytic factor in the rise of a nation, is the national mindset. A collective state of mind that reflects a nation's priorities, opinions, values and beliefs. Here, values and beliefs are referred to in more a materialist, pragmatic sense, rather than the usual cultural or traditional sense. The priorities of a collective, such as a society or in this case, a national collective frame of mind, is very well reflected by how its populace views the world around it, but more importantly, how it views its own position in the world around it.

If you take almost all the great powers in the world today as a case study, it will quickly become apparent that even on a slight study of the characteristics of their individual rises to their current positions, a large chunk of the speed and/or scale of their remarkable upswings can be attributed to a strong sense of patriotism, nationalism, and subsequently a boost in national morale, and an invincible desire in the populace to make their nation great. Due to this change in the national spirit, there became an implicit agreement in the populace to work for the nation, so that the nation could then work for them.

A wonderful example to this effect can be seen in Japan. Post the American occupation, the Japanese felt a deep sense of humiliation inflicted upon them by the West (aka the US) through their ruthless occupation in which their monarchy (seen to be a great source of national respect and pride) was callously discredited by the then Occupation troops. But then after the withdrawal of the troops in 1952, the distraught Japanese populace (with some help from the United States), rallied around their fellow countrymen and proceeded to lift their nation to a greatness never before seen (arguably even before WW2), while still maintaining their society and traditional structures and systems.

It could be widely argued, and there would be substantial merit to the argument that Japan and many other such nation-states themselves, as well as their respective rise to prominence, were highly aided by largely homogeneous societies in those nations, that helped to unify them better than, say, a multiethnic, multilingual potpourri that is India. But, I am of the opinion that these are not nearly sufficient grounds for such an argument to be made since there is the biggest example that contradicts this flimsy argument. (Hint: It's Uncle Sam!)

India is a nation where multiple ethnicities are battling for influence, recognition and respect, and the Indian (South Asian?) mindset, is primarily characterized by the fact that there lacks a common civic sense among the populace, that contributes to an unfillable void in the national spirit. Due to this tendency, South Asia in general and India in particular, has become somewhat akin to a video game free-for-all, where one is forced to submit to a policy of natural selection, and self above all else.

This mindset is a grim reflection of the collective social priority in India, (or a lack thereof) that is destroying India's superpower ambitions from within, similar to termites destroying wood from within. We spend more energy in denigrating our own brothers and sisters on their achievements, leading to a dopamine rush individually, but causing unfathomable damage to the national spirit in the process. Our impression and our value is squandered by our own kind, both from within and without, and when we cannot find enough in ourselves to respect our own kind, how can we logically expect other societies to accept us and nurture us?

The game of geopolitics, national interests and influences is a game of emotions, mindsets, and tactics. When we are subjecting our own selves to endless global ridicule as a manifestation of our Machiavellian and masochistic desires to denigrate, discredit, and satirize our own kind, the world, ready at a moment's notice to dunk on someone in a faraway land at their expense, feels no incentive to pause or hesitate in joining in on the action.

Only if we unite in one single voice to defend our fellow countrymen, to ensure respect is given to our position in the world, can we logically expect other societies to follow. The national spirit largely plays the role of an individual's self esteem, in that it gives a nation the sense of self-worth and pride in its achievements, and the desire to stride ahead as a nation, for the nation.

 

The extent, and the time at which India can find its common thread, unite as a collective, and fight for our respect on the world stage, will determine the possibility and/or scale of this great nation's rise to great power status. But if the status quo continues to prevail to the same extent, it will continue to divide the once great golden bird, and raise several questions even to the mere possibility of regaining its lost wings as a civilizational power.

Image Attributions:

1.  Rashtrapati Bhavan: Matthew T Rader, https://matthewtrader.com, CC BY-SA 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0>, via Wikimedia Commons

2. Tokyo Shibuya Crossing: Benh LIEU SONG (Flickr), CC BY-SA 2.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0>, via Wikimedia Commons

3. Red Fort: Denimedger, CC BY-SA 3.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0>, via Wikimedia Commons