The transformation of India that is being witnessed on Republic Day is designed to ensure a smooth passage to the India of 2047. It will be an India where the roads are broad and clean, and built of material that is capable of withstanding the vagaries of weather change. It will be an India where fossil fuels will be absent, and non-polluting modes of energy created. Thorium will be the foundation for such power, India having an abundance of reserves of the rare earth. Scientists and technologists from India will be in demand across the world, aware that India can be better only once the world gets better.
It will be the India visualised by the Mahatma, where “the mind is free from fear” and opinions get freely expressed without any blowback, as long as they are not calls for violence. The culture of peace, tolerance and non-violence visualised by then Director-General of UNESCO, Francisco Mayor Zaragoza will have become a reality. By that time, India as the Vishwaguru will have succeeded in its mission of ensuring peaceful borders not just for India but for lands afar. There will no longer be a need for subsidies in essentials such as foodgrains, for agriculture would have developed at speed, free from the effect of fertilisers that pollute human bodies even as they feed their hunger. Medical advances will be commonplace, and healthcare costs reduced, so that affordability is no longer a criterion in the selection of health providers by an individual.
Housing would be climate-proofed and made of light but sturdy materials that would have been discovered by then. The population will stabilize to replacement level or less. Artificial Intelligence will serve human intelligence rather than threaten it. Such are the contours of India 2047 that are being visualized by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The ancient teachings of India were admired globally, so will it be in the future. A.L. Basham wrote “The Wonder that was India”. It will by 2047 be the Wonder that is India It took the United States a hundred years after the Civil War to ensure that African Americans were given an unfettered right to vote. In India, that privilege has been there since the birth of the country in 1947.
Voting will be electronic and effortless, and biometrics pressed into service to ensure that citizens can vote from across the world. By then, across the world the ethnic Indian community will be recognized as the harbingers of a better life, and welcomed. Travel will be visa-less for those on databases deemed as safe. India will welcome visitors and Indians will be welcome visitors across the world. Transport will be high speed, and as for work, much will be carried out remotely and efficiently. The ancient culture of respect for seniors will have revived, and Gen Z will be secure, knowing that their futures are good. Once again, the literature from India will amaze the world, with a revival of what may be called the Miracle of Ancient India. At the same time, all faiths will be true to the tenet of “Do no harm to others and ensure others do no harm to you”.
Interfaith dialogue and harmony will replace conflicts, as indeed they should. Prime Minister Narendra Modi is a favourite of the GCC rulers because they know that the tradition of Indian workers from India being the best in terms of obeying the law and working hard have been kept going by him, contrary to inspired news reports by his critics. Clean streets, clean surroundings and absence of poisons such as plastic will be universal across the country. At present even bottled water has micro traces of plastic in them, and this will change. New ways of better housing, better sanitation, healthcare and employment would have been discovered, so that a long life may be accompanied by good health. Junk foods would be replaced with healthier foods. Cyber pollution would be absent. Cyber pollution refers to the toxic messaging ubiquitous in the cyberworld.
They would go not because of law but because of better civic sense. There will be direct contact and feedback from and about the administration, with the progress of each decision on file being made available to the concerned individuals. In a world of plenty for plenty, corruption would be reduced to minuscule levels. Individuals would be judged not through wealth but by the way they use that wealth to assist those less fortunate. India of 1947 had hope for a better life and world, India of 2047 will realize that hope and make it a reality, almost a commonplace in everyday life. Unpolluted air will be the norm, as also water. India will show by example and by assistance how to convert hopes of ordinary citizens into reality transforming their lives. Such is the journey to August 15, 2047 for a country with several millennia of tradition behind the tapestry of its multifaith, multicultural civilisation
