Historical perspective

Dear Madam,

I read your cover story titled Law enforcement with a great deal of interest (IBLJ, July/August 2009). It records the frustration of many practitioners and clients regarding the Indian legal system and enforcement in general. I think to appreciate the problems facing India one has to look at the historic development of the nation.

Pre-independence (1947) more than one generation of Indians lived under a colonial power, which during its rule completely changed India and the way India governed itself. From small monarchies spread across the nation, the British gave India a common colonial platform. The generation which lived in these times became quite alive to the fact that they would not rule but be ruled and serve. It was not by choice as an option was never given. Despite over two decades of colonization by Britain, the Indian mind could not be colonized and it only took the courage of one man (Mahatma Gandhi) to bring the entire nation together and make the colonizer quit India: one of the rare non-violent rebellions against a highly powerful colonizer. India had done it differently from what the world was used to seeing. During the entire period of colonization, wealth creation was not an option. In fact, the wealth created by previous inhabitants was now siphoned off beyond the Atlantic to the little island called Britain.

Post independence, India became a nation which was to be governed by a people who had become quite accustomed to be being governed. The minds that ruled, in their best wisdom, thought it fit to call India a sovereign socialist democratic republic. The socialist approach ensured that India was neither capitalist (with strong businesses running the show) nor communist (with a strong government). The Indian economy therefore grew (if one could call it that), for a majority of its independent life (from 1947 onwards at least till 1991) as a socialist economy, with a clear mandate that if any wealth is created it shall be distributed amongst the people. A stringent licence Raj ensured that neither was wealth created nor distributed. The term “third world” was perhaps the most appropriate word that defined the country and indeed the country defined the term. Indian business had to literally hibernate during this period, as did international business by simply choosing to stay away.