DRIVING down one of Riyadh busiest streets the other day, I noticed for the first time a vehicle that didn't carry any of the automotive nameplates famous in Saudi Arabia. The vehicle's brand was Tata, and it looked pretty new. I asked a friend of mine if he had ever seen it before and where it was manufactured. “Yeah,” he said, “it has been here for some time now, and it's manufactured in India.” India… everyone seems to be talking about the Indian miracle now. India seems to have caught the development train earlier than any other developing country. “No,” my friend said, “it has already been a passenger in the front seat.” Instead of destroying worship places, promoting hatred and mingling around creed and color, Indians are now working hard to assimilate in a unifying nation so as to build tolerant, pluralist and open society. They have rightly sought for years, despite the numerous setbacks, how to heal the wounds of the past and build the Indian nationalism that is loyal to the whole India, not to a particular religious community. There are several vast changes that have recently transformed India from a developing country crushed by poverty, violence and political instability into world's exemplar in the realms of science and technology. Take for example the Indian giant Infosys Inc. It is one of the most important information technology magnets in India today with its huge investments in the so-called outsourcing services. Achieving higher levels of development in the fields of science and technology is not a state-sponsored enterprise. The story behind the Infosys is pretty interesting. In 1981, a young computer programmer borrowed little money from his wife which, at that time, constituted her entire wealth. Narayana Murthy took the money and, with other entrepreneurs, established the Indian Information Systems, now Infosys, and, by doing so, changed the course of Indian industrial history. Now this company is attracting fine brains not only from the state-of-art technological institutes in Bangalore but, surprisingly, from famous American universities and institutes. Numerous other investments giants are emerging opening the door wide for Indian goods and services to invade the world's markets. Politically, India is a well-respected democracy. Religion is not a key factor in the political life of modern India. Indian political parties are cosmopolitan bodies that can include Hindus, Muslims, Christians and Sikhs. More vivid is the sight in May 2004 when a Roman Catholic Sonia Gandhi had decided to make way for Manmohan Singh, a Sikh, to be sowrn in as prime minister by president A.P.J Abdul Kalam, a Muslim. Ironically, none of these political leaders belong to the largest Indian religious group: Hindu. Despite the sharp linguistic, religious and communal differences that shape the Indian social fabric, Indians have miraculously buried the hatchet and united to push India to hit records in development. Neither language nor religion unites these ethnic groups. But it is the shared dreams that what makes Indians live in harmony is, simply, the peaceful coexistence. Despite years of political instability and violence, Indians have reached a conclusion that they have to live and strive together and that any violence would have dire consequences on the nation as a whole. The price that Indians have paid for their unity is heavy. Until recently clashes between different communities and religious groups had greatly undermined plans for growth. The conflict between Indian Muslims and majority Hindus, for example, peaked last decade when fanatic Hindu extremists completely destroyed the 16th mosque, Babri Masjed, igniting a wave of protests among minority Muslims who found the incident unbearably offensive. Despite the legacy of India being a rising star in the fields of science and technology, it is no secret that India is still facing several problems. Indian pluralism has enabled India to handle diversity so any threat to the Indian pluralist society will, undoubtedly, drag the whole country into another wave of renewed violence. Poverty is still a problem. Estimates show that 22 percent of the population is living below the poverty line. Those people are not given the chance to live a decent life despite the thriving economic promises. The growing number of population is a threat to India's future. With strict regulations imposed by Chinese government, India is expected to be the world's most populous country. Overpopulation is jeopardizing levels of growth not only in poverty-stricken areas but also in most developed Indian states. Although India has a history of deep communal and religious divisions, Indians are creating a lovely story of development and growth. In the Middle East where religious intolerance and sectarian violence are claiming the lives of many innocent people, we are in a desperate need to derive inspiration from Indian story in its purest essence: creating a tolerant and pluralist nation. – The author can be contacted at [email protected] __
