The national aim of the Indian people must be to transform India into a modern industrial giant, like the USA or China, for only then can we abolish our massive poverty, massive unemployment, appalling level of child malnutrition (every second child in India is malnourished, according to the Global Hunger Index, and the situation has become worse in recent years), skyrocketing prices of food, fuel, etc., almost total lack of proper healthcare, and good education for the masses, etc.
A Struggle for Progress
To make this transformation and establish a political and social order in which the standard of living of our people is steadily and rapidly rising, and they start enjoying decent lives, will require a Long March, i.e., a mighty united, protracted people’s struggle, led by patriotic, selfless, modern-minded leaders, stretching over several years, maybe even a couple of decades, with many twists and turns, in which tremendous sacrifices will have to be made.
The Chinese people made their 6000-mile Long March in 1934-35, which led to the ultimate success of their revolution in 1949.
On the other hand, the Long March of the Indian people has not even begun.
The Distractions Holding India Back
Instead, we are still embroiled in building a Ram Mandir in Ayodhya at huge cost (which started leaking with the first rains), washing our sins in the Mahakumbh in Allahabad (in which there was a stampede killing an unknown number of people and leaving numerous still missing, despite the thousands of crores of rupees spent by the government on the preparations for the event), etc.
And of course our politicians, of all parties, have successfully polarized society on a caste and religious basis to secure their vote banks in a country that is perpetually in an election mode (there are 28 states and 8 union territories in India, apart from local bodies, and hence elections, or their preparations, are going on somewhere or the other all year round, thus further entrenching and spreading casteism and communalism).
I have explained in these videos and articles that the developed countries will oppose tooth and nail the transformation of India into a modern industrial giant, because if that happens, with our cheap labor we will undersell the goods produced by the developed countries, making them uncompetitive, thereby leading to the collapse of their industries, throwing millions out of employment.
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To prevent that, the developed countries, through their local agents in the underdeveloped countries, make people of the underdeveloped countries, like India, fight each other in the name of religion, caste, language, race, etc., so that they don’t unitedly launch a people’s struggle for their socio-economic emancipation.
However, we cannot keep blaming foreign nations alone for our ills.
The Role of Patriotic Intelligentsia in Socio-Economic Emancipation
The tiny patriotic section of our intelligentsia has a heavy responsibility in launching a powerful ideological struggle to change the mindsets of our masses, which are steeped in feudal ideas like casteism, communalism, and superstitions. This will be a long, patient struggle, but like Voltaire and Rousseau, who launched a powerful struggle in Europe against feudalism and religious bigotry, it is their solemn duty to the nation to do it.
Paraphrasing British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, let us therefore brace ourselves to our duty and so bear ourselves that if the Indian nation lasts for a thousand years, men will still say, this was their finest hour.
Let the Indian people’s Long March for their socio-economic emancipation begin.