India: 2047

The Living Stream

Politics sits on people’s minds as lightly as a jasmine flower. Things couldn’t be otherwise: trustworthy and sensitive individuals are in charge of the State; they run the government in ways that don’t disturb the lives of the people. Since only the most virtuous are in political life, every political party is filled with good people who have a great love for the country and a deep understanding of its realities. It is therefore tough to tell one party from the other.

Indeed, Opposition parties exist only since the people wish to ensure that the ruling party gets a break after having selflessly attended to the work of government for a full term. And, for its part, the ruling party looks forward to sharing the opportunity to serve the people with another party.

Although parties take turns at running the government, they work together at all times. All cards are on the table and the government doesn’t take a step without legislators from all parties walking along with them. As a happy consequence, the wisest decisions are arrived at always and, contrary to intuition, fairly quickly, too. When the discussions do go on for long at times, they will seem to have been worth the time.

As the possession of power doesn’t make a difference to how one sees his or her own place in the world, the political life is solely about securing the wellbeing of all and ensuring that no one feels wronged. Rarely does anyone complain about being short-changed in favour of someone else. Further, the polity is designed such that political figures at all levels -- centre, state, district, taluk and village -- are seen to be doing equally significant work. The happy ties of co-operation between them all seem like the most natural thing.

Elections are simple matters, and cost little. The political parties invariably field men and women of brilliance and integrity. Close to the election date, on a public platform, all the candidates share their ideas of what needs to be done. The voters really face a tough job of choosing from among these very eligible candidates, but choose they must in the end. The fine personalities of the political candidates have made elections a low-risk affair.

Of course, the amazingly lovely polity isn’t an accidental achievement. People came to prize the quest for a creative and meaningful life more than anything else and felt that everyone should be able to follow such a quest. The previous jaded polity then began to change in beautiful ways.

Miraculous turns were, in fact, seen everywhere. The judiciary and the police, which work freely without outside interference, came to have less and less work to do, with the disputes among people getting fewer. The natural environment recovered its vigour and now breathes as it did a few centuries ago: the forest cover has grown and grown, and the rivers and the air have become clean beyond anyone’s wildest expectations. Since economists work together with ecologists, writers, tribals and agriculturists, they have carved up the country into bio-ecological regions to ensure that people find most of what they want within small bio-ecological regions. Tribal and rural communities now have real control over their destiny. Apart from bringing about a fulfilling symbiosis between the producers and consumers, the small-scale economies also help conserve the energy spent on moving goods across long distances.

Building ecologically-based regional economies created tons of meaningful work and volunteering opportunities locally, removing any scope for a few regions to siphon off the profits from the rest. And, so, the villages have got back their groove. The towns and cities too radiate a healthful presence.

Communities -- religious, caste, tribal, linguistic -- are unfailingly good towards each other, and their differences not seen as high or low. Making for a delightful culture of reciprocity, individual self-sacrifice for community wellbeing is as common as the community willingness to let individuals find self-realisation on their own.

India is truly a soulful place.

(The ISEC Professor looks for new ways of looking.)