The “DEVELOPED” India

If you are aware of the television programme ‘Satyamev Jayate’, you must have heard it’s title track. If you have not, yet, do hear it once. No matter what language you speak or which country you belong to, you can connect to it for sure (subtitles for your help).

But what caught my interest was a comment of a person wishing to see a developed India before he dies. And then there was a string of replies … some synonymous to your thoughts and some not.

There were people determined to work their best for it. Towards their notion of a ‘developed’ India. Their were people claiming it’s impossible. Others defending the latter on grounds of practicality and reality. That one has to be immortal to see such a day. Others saying that it will take atleast 60 years to reach that height.

But how can we exactly estimate the time we will take to be labeled as ‘developed’. Can development be quantised? Can it’s rate change be plotted on graph? It’s slope measured? And after reaching the peak of the curve, can we exclaim that we have no more problems and no more requirements?

It is true that ‘development’ in real world deals with economy and production of a country. A nation’s strength on basis of self-sufficiency. And it is absolutely necessary to have a basis of classifying things. I am no economist trying to belittle these terms or discuss their lacunas. But as a human being, as a citizen of one of the countries of our world, I just express my belief.

But my point is economic strength, self-sufficiency and heavy foreign investments is indeed essential. But is it enough to give us a night of peaceful sleep? Or is it enough to make a blind person see the world. Or an orphan getting the love of parents.

Along with financial stability, we also need security. Security to life and leisure. Security to endless dreams. Security to make it all happen.

Said, “A country is not by it’s soil, but by it’s people.” What truly defines a country is the love in people’s hearts not just for others, but for themselves too.

Today we may not be as financially strong compared to others, but we are able to feed our children with proper meals and proper knowledge. Amidst the different songs of faith escaping different person’s lips, we stand together for Nirbhaya, we stand together besides Kailash Satyarthi, we stand before the Kerala flood victims.

It’s true that not everyone has been reached. And that’s what we need to do. India will be ‘developed’ in it’s real sense the day we will breathe our last thinking I never bowed down my head in shame just because my brother or sister did something wrong. Nor do they have to live being looked down due to my deeds.

It’s a promise we have to fulfill for each other. Not just as an Indian or citizen of any country, but as a human being.