Remembering Nehru.....
*M. A. Pai
When the country talks about becoming a Science and
Technology powerhouse in the 21st century, it may be nice to step
back and evaluate why such a robust optimism is possible at all. It may be
appropriate to recall the rich legacy that Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru left behind
and his permanent footprint in terms of building a modern secular and democratic
India with a firm commitment to science and technology. It has become a national
pastime in the media to decry what he did wrong and not
what he did right. Perhaps no politician /statesman in modern times has ever
received so much criticism as he has nearly 4 decades after he died and very
little praise for what he did for a country he so much loved. Given his position
even in the early 1900’s he could have been an NRI and settled in England and
indulged in long distance nationalism as so many of us do today. He did return
with a purpose and he largely accomplished his dream.
Long before India became independent he had a shadow planning committee under
the Indian National Congress in the late 1930’s charting out what India should
do when it became independent. When it did in 1947, he lost no time in working
towards that dream.
Within the parameters of free, secular and democratic values he wanted to build
an India with a strong infrastructure in Science and Technology. He always felt
that India had missed out on the Industrial revolution and he wanted to make
sure that it did not miss out on the Electronics revolution. He got together
with people like Bhabha, Bhatnagar, Sarabhai, Krishnan and Mahalnobis to build
the S and T infrastructure. Dr Ambedkar helped him not only to write the
constitution but also helped him implement the Hindu code bill which took the
large bulk of the country towards the modernization path which we are witnessing
today giving women the rightful role that they deserve.
In the area of S and T about which he was passionate, he gave his team total
freedom with all people reporting to him directly and taking personal interest.
Thus Bhabha developed the nuclear industry, and more importantly he shaped the
careers of people like Ramanna and others who built upon what Bhabha did. TIFR
which he founded is today one of the prized assets of the country. As chairman
of the Electronics commission, Bhabha created ECIL, which was later to be on the
forefront of the TV industry. Thus the TV industry initially spawned by ECIL and
then privatized became an indigenous effort instead of becoming a MNC effort
thereby protecting the consumers in a big way. In the heavy industry and power
sector there was a big lobbying effort by the multinationals for doing turnkey
projects for the steel and machine building industry. Had they succeeded without
the matching S and T manpower in India which was not there in those days, the
country would have had the likes of Enron’s that would have given the country
its Industrial Taj Mahals without the ability to replicate them. Nehru wisely
chose the path of self-reliance and we see thus today the Bhilais and Bokaros
along with SAIL which do turnkey projects abroad. In the Power sector BHEL
occupies a proud place with 70% of the nations generating capacity installed by
them.
Bhatnagar and Krishnan set up the CSIR chain of laboratories, more than 40 in
number today, doing research from Aeronautics to Coconuts! Many of the research
labs and PSU’s which did good research initially have now become average now
due to the poorly implemented Mandal I reservation policy in R and D areas.
Fortunately DAE, ISRO and AEC were spared. The country is witnessing Mandal II
in central institutions now and its effects will be felt a few years from now.
Mahalanobis was the architect of the planning framework, which was basically to
provide the country a benchmark for progress as we went along instead of a free
market approach. The way statistics are gathered in the country for computing
GDP etc is an envy of many developing societies and the figures are well trusted
in the Western world. Besides the planning effort, Mahalnobis set up the Indian
Statistical Institute, perhaps one of the finest in the world and the Journal
Sankhya that he started is one of International repute. Unfortunately such
efforts did not happen in other areas of S and T. The setting up of IITs with
help from different countries including US was a significant achievement. They
set a benchmark for other institutions as well as bring the intellectual caliber
of the country to the global arena. The US aided IIT Kanpur pioneered the
Computer Science area and the spin off effect is all over the country today. The
IT industry in India today perhaps is one of the best legacies of Nehru.
Nehru reorganized the states on linguistic lines much to the dismay of the
Westernized intellectuals in India but in retrospect it was a wise decision
since each of the rich languages of India flowered in its own way. Ordinary
citizens can communicate now with Govt offices through the computer in their own
language whether it is birth certificate or land records. The multi-ethnic,
multi- lingual democratic India is the envy of many developing countries today.
The later years of development saw a continuation of that effort. The space
program under Sarabhai and Satish Dhawan criticized by many as too expensive is
today India’s pride in the form of ISRO. The same goes for the efforts in the
defense sector under Abdul Kalam, the country’s current President. The
nationalization of both the banks and the insurance sector were or even today
being criticized severely but few care to look at the benefits it has given to
the poor and the rural India or the real
India. In the 60’s if one stepped out 12 miles outside of a big city there was
no bank at all and the private sector did not see a profit in going to the rural
areas! Through nationalization they were mandated to go the real India and if
there is a bank today in every village one has to thank the Govt of those days
for that decision. The same goes for Insurance.
In the 70’s we also saw the green revolution and the
milk (white) revolutions and the names of Swaminathan and Kurien who spearheaded
these efforts should be household names through our textbooks. If the country
exports food grains to day and can successfully withstand a drought and is the
world’s largest producer of milk, let us remember the heroes. Without state
participation these things were unimaginable. Would the private sector have
delivered the goods? Many constantly compare US where private sector has worked
wonders and India with its sluggish economy. But then one compares a nation of
200 years with one of 2000 years with the former starting on a clean slate with
the benefits of Industrial revolution and a much bigger land mass and natural
resources. The history of each country is different. So also is the comparison
with China that has done exceedingly well in terms of growth rate, but with a
big check on the democratic and personal freedoms of its citizens.
The next period of development under Rajiv Gandhi, though brief, saw the real
beginnings of opening up of the economy to the private sector both Indian and
foreign. Here a significant but little appreciated was the effort of Sam Pitroda
in the area of communications. When the MNC’s were eager to come in to
increase the “telephone density” in India based on the western model of so
many phones per capita, he came up with the idea of “telephone access” to
the average Indian. He developed the rural exchanges through the indigenous
effort of CDOT making easy access to phone to the common man through the nearest
grocery shop and the common man perhaps saw the first impact of computer
affecting his life. We also saw the computerization of ticketing in the Railway
system through the CMC, again a govt directed effort.
Looking back it was significant that after the exit of both IBM and Coca-Cola in
the 70’s, indigenous efforts spawned forth in both the areas. In early 80’s
when liberalization just started, firms like INFOSYS, TCS and WIPRO took the
lead in software and established benchmark in terms of world standards By
this time the Govt realized that the Indian economy had really matured to a
point where a level playing field was created. It was ready for real
liberalization and the economic reforms of 1990 were in tune with the time.
The fact that the government kept out of software was the realization that their
role is only to facilitate and not introduce more bureaucracy in the
post-liberalization era.
One can only speculate what Nehru would have done had he lived longer. At least
I would venture to say that he would have liberalized the economy perhaps
earlier along the line of countries like Japan where the state is an active
player but not a direct one. If one can level some form of criticism against the
development process of the past five decades, it is in terms of the neglect of
critical infrastructures of Water, Sanitation, Power, Transportation and Primary
education. Primary education was a state subject and those who made good use of
the federal grants have progressed. The same was true of land reforms. Self-
reliance even under globalization is a worthy goal to pursue. As the country
wrestles with the free market reforms having the luxury of a rather stable S and
T platform, it is good to remember the past, which made it possible at all. It
is important for the post-independence generation to realize why India developed
in its own unique way with democracy, secularism and a good space for private
sector.
________________________________________________________________________
(M.A.Pai
is Professor Emeritus of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Univ. of
Illinois, Urbana -Champaign and was on the faculty of IIT Kanpur from 1963-1981,
being a Dean of R and D from 1976-78. He maintains the web site www.indusscitech.net
devoted to S and T news about and relevant to India)