10-31-2004, 02:19 AM
Raja Mohan:
Here we had a considerable discussion of India and China. I think itâs very interesting to compare the two countries in terms of their strategic thought and strategic culture. When the Chinese nationalist movement began, out of which grew both the Guomindang and the Chinese Communist party, it had basically two slogans. One was "science and democracy," meeting Mr. Science and Mr. Democracy. It animated the Chinese people at the turn of the century. It was very similar to what India did -- the fascination for Western enlightenment, the whole question of bringing democratic principles to run the society -- of course the Chinese never got there, whereas we did get there. <b>The second slogan of this national movement is where the difference lies between China and India. The second slogan was "power and prosperity." I canât recall a single Indian leader ever having said power and prosperity for the nation is a major national goal. Prosperity, for example: we talked about growth, we talked about development -- not as much about growth as about development. We talked about redistribution. We talked about all the classical economic things. But our leaders never brought themselves to talk about prosperity, because for the brahmanical leadership, of course, prosperity, making money, was a fairly dirty business that was left to a separate caste. And in any case they were kept out of broader, mainstream Indian decision-making because the bureaucrats would make the decisions, not the baniya who was making the money. So Deng Xiaoping could say -- and get away with it -- that "to get rich is glorious." It sounded crazy, but, in fact, it is not very different from the original slogan; that is: prosperity is a major goal for the nation. But in India, even when weâre doing the reforms, we still present it as socialism, we still present it as something weâre just making practical because the political class even today cannot say -- Narasimha Rao could never stand up and say -- "Look, the country must get rich." This is one major, interesting contrast with the Chinese.</b>
Here we had a considerable discussion of India and China. I think itâs very interesting to compare the two countries in terms of their strategic thought and strategic culture. When the Chinese nationalist movement began, out of which grew both the Guomindang and the Chinese Communist party, it had basically two slogans. One was "science and democracy," meeting Mr. Science and Mr. Democracy. It animated the Chinese people at the turn of the century. It was very similar to what India did -- the fascination for Western enlightenment, the whole question of bringing democratic principles to run the society -- of course the Chinese never got there, whereas we did get there. <b>The second slogan of this national movement is where the difference lies between China and India. The second slogan was "power and prosperity." I canât recall a single Indian leader ever having said power and prosperity for the nation is a major national goal. Prosperity, for example: we talked about growth, we talked about development -- not as much about growth as about development. We talked about redistribution. We talked about all the classical economic things. But our leaders never brought themselves to talk about prosperity, because for the brahmanical leadership, of course, prosperity, making money, was a fairly dirty business that was left to a separate caste. And in any case they were kept out of broader, mainstream Indian decision-making because the bureaucrats would make the decisions, not the baniya who was making the money. So Deng Xiaoping could say -- and get away with it -- that "to get rich is glorious." It sounded crazy, but, in fact, it is not very different from the original slogan; that is: prosperity is a major goal for the nation. But in India, even when weâre doing the reforms, we still present it as socialism, we still present it as something weâre just making practical because the political class even today cannot say -- Narasimha Rao could never stand up and say -- "Look, the country must get rich." This is one major, interesting contrast with the Chinese.</b>