There are very few individuals who set long term goals and strive towards achieving them. Amongst these individuals there are many who visualize where they want to be in life say in a decade and work towards being there. Apart from these few individuals there are a handful of corporate enterprises whose vision statements are very clear and permeates down to the last resource of their organization. These vision statements are the success vehicles for any business enterprise.  Likewise, when it comes to our Nation how good it feels to have a vision for the next decade and how interesting it will be to know where we, collectively as a Nation, will be at the end of the next decade in each and every sector.

The book “India 2030 The Rise of a Rajasic Nation” edited by Sri Gautam Chikermane and published by Penguin Random House India, is a collection of essays predicting what will happen during the decade 2021-2030 and tells us what will the India of 2030 looks like. As Sri Gautam Chikermane echoes this book is a ten-year time compression capturing to its readers the India of 2030, now.

Coming to the title of the book, “India 2030 The Rise of a Rajasic Nation”, the word Rajasic is of extreme importance given the history of India.  As per the Sankhya system of Hindu Philosophy (one of the six systems of Hindu philosophy) our experiential realities are reduced to two fundamental and eternal forms, the Prakriti and the Purusha.  In his treatise “The Six Systems of Hindu Philosophy”, Swami Harshananda^(a) explains that Prakriti is made of three Gunas namely – the Sattvaguna also known as Sattva, the Rajoguna also known as Rajas and the Tamoguna also known as Tamas.

Sattva signifies purity in thought and action leading to higher spiritual attainments. Rajas is responsible for desires, actions to fulfill those desires and passion. Tamas is rest, inertia, impurity, darkness or lack of will.  According to Swami Harshananda “Prakriti is none other than these three gunas in a state of perfect balance”. 

In his essay titled “The Aryan Ideal and the Three Gunas” Maharishi Sri Aurobindo^(b) echoes that if impurity caused by Tamas has to be removed it has to be through Rajas.  Maharishi Sri Aurobindo extended these three gunas to the Hindu Nation as a whole.  According to him the Nation can be Rajasic or Tamasic.  In his essay Maharishi Sri Aurobindo goes on to explain that Tamas was the reason for India to be in slavery for a period of more than a thousand years.  According to him it is the Rajasic force alone which can bring this Nation upwards towards Sattvic plane, desirably. 

According to Sri Gautam Chikermane, Sri Narendra Modi’s ascension as the Prime Minister of India has given the Rajasic forces a launch pad and is all set to take India to the next level in the global arena.  He is absolutely right. In fact, in his first speech in the Lok Sabha on 11^th June 2014 after his swearing-in as the Prime Minister of India, Sri Narendra Modi did speak about the 1200 years of slavery^(c).  In his own words (in Hindi) “Barah sau saal ki gulami ki maansikta humein pareshan kar rahi hai. Bahut baar humse thoda ooncha vyakti mile, to sar ooncha karke baat karne ki humari taaqat nahin hoti hai”.  Translated: “The slave mentality of 1200 years is troubling us. Often, when we meet a person of high stature, we fail to muster strength to speak up”. 

This assertion by the PM meant two things amongst many others. One, that we were habituated to slavery mainly due to our Tamasic guna.  Second this needed to be shredded outright which is possible only through Rajasic guna and the man to lead this change will be Narendra Modi. 

Predicting where the Nation - that too a Nation having a diverse population of close to 1.4 billion people spread across 29 States and 7 Union Territories with varying cultural backdrop, with people having diverse skill sets, differing literacy levels between each state, lopsided share of each state in the total GDP of the Nation etc., - would stand ten years down the line is any policymakers’ worst nightmare.

Gautam Chikermane dons the hat of an individual who dares to dream and dream big about his Nation placed amongst the big league in 2030. [Former President Late APJ Abdul Kalam (along with Y S Rajan) was also one such who had his dreams penned in his books “India 2020: A Vision for the New Millennium” and “Beyond 2020: A Vision for Tomorrow’s India”].

Kudos to Gautam Chikermane for bringing in twenty experts, who are an institution in themselves, to forecast where will India be in the decade ending 2030 in twenty diverse domains.  The domains dealt with and forecasted for the next decade and the domain experts are: 

As can be seen, diverse areas have been dealt with by subject matter experts. Reading each of the expert essays makes one happier to imagine where do we stand after a decade in certain of the domains as also makes one worrisome after getting to read about the probable happenings in the coming decade.

Sample this: While well-known Economist Bibek Debroy predicts the doubling of per capita income from the present $2100 to $4000 by 2030 which is a happier thing to note, the assertion by Dr. Rajesh Parikh that the next two decades will witness a host of pandemics apart from the currently raging COVID-19 pandemic is indeed worrisome.  

While some of the essays predict what will be the scenario towards the end of the next decade, some essays talk about the actual scenario in 2030 and how India was able to achieve that.  All the essays point to one thing – India has a lot of ground to cover, a lot of hard choices to choose from, a lot of policy shifts to make, a lot of reforms to undertake and of course a lot of involvement needed from its fellow citizens before it reaches the stage in 2030 as set out by the experts. As the essays predict, India, in 2030 will be a much stronger and a vibrant Nation than what it was in the seventy odd years post 1947. 

Though it would not be appropriate to review every 2030 prediction/trend discussed in this collection of essays, for it kills the curiosity of the reader, it would however be worth mentioning some of the interesting predictions. Namely:

1. The decade to be dominated by the nationalist politics of the BJP
2. COVID would become a cultural extinction event
3. The economy will move from wealth redistribution to wealth creation creating equity in access to critical resources
4. The rule of law will be the prerequisite for sustainable economic development
5. Courts moving away from collegium system of appointments
6. Increasing role of MSMEs in defence production
7. Inevitable rethinking and relook by Indian Intelligence agencies given that technology will be the new weapon
8. India dealing with a multilateral and a multipolar world with weaponized interdependence
9. Data is the new oil
10. India achieving cleaner, greener and more sustainable energy forms
11. Emerging of liveable Indian cities
12. Creation of a skillful workforce
13. Scientific policy making
14. A more spiritually aware Nation where India will reconnect with its ancient past to ride into the dharmic future  

All the essays are well researched and assertions well supported by data and sources.  However, the essays by Abhijit Iyer Mitra, Vikram Sood, Dr. Rajesh Parikh and David Frawley can be rated outstanding.

There are some drawbacks in the way each domain is analysed and scenario 2030 is predicted. How to deal with the legacy has been completely ignored in some of the essays.  For instance, the essay titled “Justice: Technology will Deliver Exponential Efficiency” completely ignores how the nearly 44 million cases (March 2020 data) pending in various courts across India would be concluded! The essay titled “Politics: Return to Conservatism, Rise to Great Power” ignores the role of the opposition and regional parties in shaping the future of Indian polity!

There are also some areas which have not been covered in the book.  Some of the main areas which would have merited an expert discussion are:

1. The fate of agriculture and the allied land reforms in India given the current pandemic scenario raging across the country and the migration of work force as a consequence.  A substantial urban population too is slowly taking up farming which is an encouraging sign. As everyone is aware agriculture was one of the predominant occupations in India.
2. How does India fare in the sports arena? For a Nation of approx. 1.4 billion people, the Olympic medals tally of India is not at all an inspiration.
3. Internal Security especially the threat of naxalism including threat from the Urban Naxals.
4. The role of the dominant Leftist Indian mainstream media especially when it is predicted that the next decade of politics is dominated by Hindu nationalist policies and also given the fact that the Leftist Indian media is letting down the Nation at every opportunity.

It makes for a superb read for every Indian having a dream for his Nation.  This is also a must read for those individuals in the corridors of power. 

Sources:

1. The Six Systems Of Hindu Philosophy - Swami Harshananda, Sri Ramakrishna Math, Mylapore, Chennai – 600 004
2. https://www.aurobindo.ru/workings/sa/04/0043_e.htm
3. https://www.firstpost.com/politics/1200-years-of-servitude-pm-modi-offers-food-for-thought-1567805.html

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