Away from Delhi, away from newspapers and television, life in Maheshwar, on the banks of the Narmada river, is languid and seemingly effortless despite the scorching heat and intense humidity in Madhya Pradesh. It makes no difference to the pace of life here, to the patience of the people who are compelled to live a dismal life without the basic infrastructure in place, whether A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, or Bhairon Singh Shekhawat are going to fight Pratibha Patil to live in a palace that was built for the viceroy of India. They understand well that a native viceroy has replaced the colonial representative and that this ‘election’ will make no difference to the quality of their life. They know that no one cares.

India is developing and getting on despite the failure of governance, and in spite of the endless leaders who have betrayed their constituents. People have to survive in order to pass the baton to their next generation and, having lost faith in governments that have stalled rather than encouraged entrepreneurship, they have evolved their own strategies to move ahead. This has led to chaos and anarchy in growth patterns that have destroyed the environment.

Indore is an urban mess where the roads are potholed, where road rules are never adhered to, where wealth is being generated but there is no reflection of it in the public space. What is this terrible malady that afflicts our towns and cities? Why has the governance of India, over the last sixty years, been so utterly abysmal? And why is no one made accountable? To destroy this ancient civilization must be deemed a criminal act.

Need of the day

The success stories that reflect the energy of India, that manifest the diverse skills, the new and positive realities of an India breaking loose from its historical shackles, are all in the private domain, initiated and nurtured by those who do not belong to the government but have a commitment to Bharat. In Maheshwar, a traditional weaving centre which had lost its special skill over the years, Richard Holkar had orchestrated a revival of its artistic skills over two decades ago. It began as a small enterprise. With its gradual but systematic success, and the larger village, influenced by this private endeavour, also began to renew its old connection with weaving. Today there are at least 1,000 functioning looms, operated by men and women whose ancestors had been weavers. This sleepy village I had first visited in 1988 has, over the years, grown into a small but prosperous town.

It is this ‘pride’ that needs to be kindled and nurtured. It is this that will change Bharat and take India into another time and space without losing the countless strengths that drew the world to our feet a long, long time ago. This is not nostalgia, nor is it a way to romanticize our country. It is a truth that began to disappear, sometime in the Sixties, when those who ruled us began to clone what they believed was a ‘first world’ because it was dollar-rich. Priorities changed rather rapidly as the best of the sophisticated East was replaced by a mass market oriented to the middle-class West. And, we lost it. We lost our centre and our pride.

Governments, consisting of bureaucrats and politicians, cannot give us our sense of pride in what we do, in what we excel at, in what we are. They are merely tools that should provide the infrastructure for us to work and generate wealth — wealth of ideas, of philosophies, of products and more. Successive governments have failed to preserve the dignity of civil society. If one aspect worked and grew well, the other, equally important, aspect failed and let us down. The left hand was not in sync with the right and it continues to be that way. Governance today is a charade that is being enacted for us. But Indians are angry. Urgent remedial actions are the need of the day.