So what is it that makes this nation tick and go?
Those who look at us from outside, think
we are an impossible chaos.
If you want this nation to become a big business, then we have to make some changes which are painful.
if only if we can a few steps,
strong steps in the next few years,
what is possible is truly tremendous.
Superscript: The 3 Fundamentals of Making a Great Nation
Nations are made because of sameness of race, religion, ethnicity, ideologies, languages…
But in that sense, India is in defiance of all those things.
This is a total defiance of the sameness.
If you (Laughs) just go fifty-hundred kilometers, people look different, speak different…
dress different, of course eat different, everything is different.
But for over 10,000 years, we have been a nation.
Even when we were ruled by over two-hundred different entities, political entities of the time,
still we were called a nation.
Not only by ourselves but the rest of the world also looked at us as a nation,
even though politically we were over two-hundred entities.
So what is it that makes this nation tick and go?
Those who look at us from outside, think we are an impossible chaos.
But our chaos is like, if you compare a manicured garden with a forest,
those who have lived in manicured gardens will feel lost in a forest.
But if you don't tend to the manicured garden for a month, it will be no garden at all.
But forests have been there for millions of years.
So what looks like chaos on the surface is a very resilient organization of its own.
Not understanding this, a whole lot of people are trying to break that and bring a new,
very synthetic level of organization to this country, which will not work for us.
In fact, we enjoy some chaos – we feel lost if there is no chaos (Laughs).
To make a nation, there are a few fundamentals.
Three basics are...
the territory or the geography is a fundamental thing.
When it comes to geography – when we started forming this new India in 1947,
we made the most fundamental mistake of breaking the geography into pieces, three pieces.
Not understanding that this break will lead to a problem that could endure forever.
In the sense I'm not here to give you a political commentary about what happened in 1947 or ’48.
The important thing is this has been a business nation forever.
Political entities came and went, kings and empires came and went, but the business endured.
We were the largest business on the planet.
Columbuses, Vasco-da-Gamas, did not do daring seafaring journeys just for adventure –
they were looking for the largest economy on the planet (Applause).
Well, we… nobody talks about hundreds of expeditions which drowned in the ocean, of course.
So this was the largest economy and it didn't stayed that way because it was a business nation.
It was not a political nation.
It was not a military nation.
It was a business nation.
But we forgot this and we broke both sides of the country,
which were our trading routes for thousands of years.
Forever we had traded through these routes and we broke the trading routes and made a nation,
because we were a little blinded by our freedom.
We broke the country and broke our trading routes, and we thought we will somehow survive with our activism.
Well, first forty-fifty years went about without knowing what the hell we should do with ourselves.
Because by the time we understood that…
by the time the leadership understood rather that to make a nation successful,
what is required is not successful politics,
what is required is not successful armies –
what is required is successful businesses.
By the time we figured this out,
it was thirty-forty years gone.
So now we can say this new upsurge in India is only about twenty-five or thirty years old.
For thirty years, I think we've done a great job.
What do you think (Applause)?
We could have done better, we could have done better that is always in post mortem.
We could have done better.
But for thirty years, for any nation of the size that we are and the complexity that we are, we have done great.
But we are dragging our feet on a few things.
As I said, the first dimension of a nation is its territory… territory or geography.
The second part is the processes and systems,
the laws and mechanics of how a nation should function.
In this we have dragged our feet a little bit
and because of this we still have many systems and processes which were in imposed upon us
by the occupying forces, where the fundamental intention was control and obedience.
We still have many laws and many processes and systems which are all about controlling the citizenry,
not about unleashing our human prowess and genius and human intellect to function
and above all, India's enterprise to really be unleashed.
Unfortunately, we inherited a whole lot of them,
only now we are paying attention as to how we can change.
We have been dragging our feet on this.
For this, nation has paid a huge price.
Though on one level, we are the fifth largest economy as the Prime Minister was saying,
but at the same time we also have the largest number of malnourished children in the country.
So we are... both ways – there are strides ahead and there are leftovers behind.
We are trying to pull them along.
But we have definitely dragged our feet
on fixing the systems and processes, which is… which should govern this nation.
And the third, the last, but the most important is the people.
In the minds and hearts of people, if you don't build the nation, there is no real nation.
Nation is just an idea.
When we invest our thought and emotion into it, it becomes a wonderful idea.
Otherwise, it becomes a nasty idea.
Whether it's nation or a smaller entity of society called family.
So, for example marriage if you take it, it's just an idea.
But if you invested your thought and emotion in it absolutely, it could become a wonderful idea.
Or it can become a horrendous idea.
The question is only how much of myself will I invest in that idea.
The same goes for the nation – how much of ourselves do we invest in this idea of nationhood,
accordingly it either becomes a wonderful idea or a horrible idea.
We’ve been little back and forth on this because when we got our independence,
we did not do this aspect really well.
When we got independence, there was a huge pride of being Indian.
Slowly it got chipped away and worn out because
we did not establish this idea strongly in people's minds and hearts.
We did not do enough work on that, we thought it just happens by itself.
Because of this people took on their own small identities of caste,
creed, religion, race, ethnicity, all kinds of things.
So we are a bit struggling on these things because we did not do…
we did not beat the iron when it was hot,
now cold steel to beat it,
we are struggling a bit to a point where
some people are confused whether they belong here or somewhere else.
We have kept this confusions going unfortunately, I think it's time to settle
because if this one thing if we don't settle
that people are clear that I belong to this nation and the only way for me to prosper is to be a part of this
and to make this work – if that doesn't become clear in everybody's minds and hearts,
taking the nation ahead will be a struggle.
So these three dimensions, all these three we have to settle.
One thing is the geography of the borders of the nation has to be fixed and say, “This is it!”
Some given and take should happen and there should be no confusion for future generations
as to which is India and which is not India.
Whether I'm in India or I'm outside India (Laughs), it must be clear to me, otherwise
how will I focus my emotions and energies and how will I dedicate myself to something?
This confusion we have left, this must be settled now for taking strong steps for the nation.
And the systems and processes,
it is very important that we explore every one of them and see
whether this is made for free India or this is made for enslaving India?
In the sense, just to give you a sample for most of you,
if you are from outside the country you may not understand this -
even today,
for most common people, not criminals, regular people,
even mothers tell this to children,
“Hey, you... you listen to me otherwise see the policeman is coming.”
A policeman is not seen as help,
a policeman is not seen as support,
a policeman is not is... giving your security,
policeman is a threat!
This is because this is a hangover from the British era,
policeman comes means your life is in trouble (Laughs)
because he's always there to trouble you.
So these kind of things still exist.
We have to change these things
that when we see a police officer or a government officer,
we must see solutions are coming, not problems coming our way.
Right now still, most people experience this is a problem,
we have been dragging our feet on making policy changes,
drastic policy changes will cause some upheavals
but if we are not ready for going through that little pain that we have to go through when changes happen
that means we will not make any change, that means we will stagnate.
A whole lot of people telling me, for example, GST has hurt small businesses.
Yes it has, I know this very well, because they're (Laughs) all in touch with us and there is a lot of pain.
But if we don't make these changes, forever this nation will be a small business.
If you want this nation to become a big business, then we have to make some changes which are painful.
We are used to working out of our pockets,
just to trust this money... that I trust my money only if it's in my pocket, even the bank I'm suspicious.
This is how the culture has evolved because
the governments that ruled us were always from outside for many centuries,
so we were always suspicious of them.
It is very important now
the people of this generation and the future generation are very clear hearted about this –
that this is our country and these are our governments,
and these are standing for us, not against us.
This has to become very clear in the minds and hearts of Indian people.
Otherwise, we will always be halfhearted about what we want to do in this country.
And coming to the people, we have 1.3 billion people,
really if you look at it, that is our greatest strength
and that could be our biggest problem.
If we have 1.3 billion people who are well educated, skilled, focused, and inspired,
we will do a miracle that nobody can imagine possible.
But if you leave them unskilled, unfocused, uninspired, then this could be a recipe for disaster.
So this is where our real challenge is,
whether we will convert this human resource that we have into a phenomenal force,
or into a great problem for ourselves.
This challenge if it has to be addressed, serious policy changes are needed.
So as a nation, we are standing on a threshold,
will we have the courage and commitment to take the steps that will make us cross the threshold,
or will we just sit there?
Lot of people have this thing, “No, no, we are on the right track.”
I'm telling you (Laughs), especially if you're on the right track and sit there for too long,
you will get run over,
especially if you're on the right track (Laughs).
So we don't become a run over country but
we became a country which is on the right track, moving at the right pace – this is important.
As I said earlier, this is in the hands of the business.
The political leadership can only set agenda, can only make policy,
but the real nation happens depending upon how the business will buzz in this country.
Well, I know there are difficulties,
I know there are challenges –
there are problems of corruption, there are problems of variety of things, road blocks all over the place.
But this is our time, we can talk about glorious past, it doesn't matter.
This is our time on this planet,
whether we will make this the greatest time in history of humanity
or we will make it the worst time is all in our hands.
There are many challenges – there are ecological challenges, there are nourishment challenges,
there are organizational challenges,
there is investment challenges,
but the possibility is so big that these problems look small in terms of what is possible for this nation.
What is sitting in front of us is so big,
if only if we can a few steps, strong steps in the next few years, what is possible is truly tremendous.
Above all as a nation, we have been always a land of seekers, not a land of believers.
Seekers means we have invested in our ignorance.
Understanding the intelligence of ignorance is very important.
If you identify yourself with what you know,
you must understand, in this living cosmos,
what we know is a very puny little thing.
What we do not know or our ignorance is a boundless nature... of boundless nature.
Our ignorance is really boundless.
So we have always invested in this, that is why this is a land of seekers.
In this is the root of this nation,
in this we evolved this nation in such a way, a culture in this country
where human genius unfolded, because we were always seeking about things that we do not know.
this is understanding the intelligence of ignorance,
understanding that the phenomena of life is always on full fire if you're in a seeking mode.
If you come to a believing mode, you settle down
but when you're in a seeking mode, you're continuously on fire.
So this fire we have exhibited for thousands of years,
we should not lose this fire because
this is where our growth is, this is where our future is.