India lives in a moral Vacuum. Bold Surgery is needed to treat the diseased heart of a nation which was once great. It is a vast subject which has to be looked at politically, socially and economically. In order to create renaissance in India, Seven pillars are very important, which may be called as Seven pillars of Redesigned India.

A Sense Of National

The first and foremost of the seven pillars is a sense of national identity, but it have not been found after 38 years of independence. We have millions of Bengalis, millions of Maharashtrians, millions of Northerners and Southerners- but very few Indians. Parochial loyalties and communal fanaticism are the order of the day. They are a sure prescription for national disintegration.
The defences of our democracy may be impregnable from without, but they are dangerously vulnerable from within. The Poets, the Patriots, the Prophets and the Rishis who have loved India deeply and intensely have predicted that Indian will acquire a sense of national identity and unity in the forseeable future.

Sri Aurobindo said:
I believe firmly that a great and united future is the destiny of this nation and its peoples. The power that brought us through so much struggle and suffering to freedom , will achieve also, through whatever strife or trouble , this aim…as it brought us freedom, it will bring us unity. A free and united India will be there and the mother will gather around her sons and weld them into a single national strength in the life of a great and united people.

Maintenance Of Law And Order

The Second pillar is the maintenance of law and order, which is the basic duty of every government. Law and order has broken down in most parts of India. It is true that the government is on the horns of a dilemma as in a Greek tragedy; whichever way they decide, they would be wrong. If they do not call out the army, they would be unable to cope with disorder and bloodshed. If they do call out the army fairly frequently, the very survival of democracy would be endangered.

In order to have an honest and efficient police force, it is importance that it should be fully insulated from political domination. But in reality , in ,most states the professional autonomy of the police force has been completely destroyed by political directives, political influences and political interferences. The only alternative is to make the police force as autonomous as the Judiciary or the auditor –general. The Government cannot seek to influence or give directives to the High courts or the Supreme Court or the auditor-general, and the police are entitled to the same professional independence.

A professional and honourable police force is valuable in every society, but it is invaluable in a society like ours which is marked by three characteristics- divisiveness, indiscipline and non-cooperation. Look at our divisiveness. We must have something to divide us- religion, language, Caste or whatever. If we have nothing to divide us, we would invent something which can possibly feed our divisiveness. Indiscipline is somehow ingrained in Indian Character.

We are all individuals, and not the citizens of a cohesive society. The way we behave with total carelessness about public property, the propensity to walk on the road rather than on the footpath, the motorist making the maximum noise with the horn in the silence Zone- are some of the regular, maddening manifestations of our total lack of discipline. Disorderly and undisciplined conditions are fatal to development.

Non-Cooperation is the other distressing feature. People love not to co-operate with the forces of law and order. When we were fighting for our freedom ,non-cooperation was a valuable weapon. But the persistence of this habit after we became a republic is most reprehensible , whether it takes the form of non-payment or evasion of taxes or any other form.

Family Planning

The third priority of a redesigned India has to be family planning. India can never make significant progress so long as the population keeps on increasing at the present rate. Family planning is not only desirable but amounts to a moral duty both of the Government and the people.

It has been estimated that a couple at the level of subsistence must have an average of 6.3 children in order to have a reasonable chance that one son survives till the father is sixty –five years old. There is also the other unfortunate fact that in parts of India female infanticide is prevalent as a means of restricting the size of the family. There is no gainsaying the fact that the problem is fraught with enormous difficulties. However, methods –humane but firm and effective have to be found to restrict the rise in our population.

Education:

The fourth pillar is Education .It is closely linked to the necessity of family planning- the lowest birth rate is in Kerala where the level of education is the highest. Education is at the heart of the matter. Confucius wrote,  If for ten years , Plant a tree. If for one hundred years, teach the people. Literacy is not enough. It is good to have a population which is able to read, but infinitely better to have people able to distinguish what is worth reading.

Education is a subject included in the concurrent list; but it is vital that value- based education should become a national preoccupation. In 1983, the commission for excellence in education, appointed by the U.S Government, warned the American people in its report,  The Nation At Risk.

The educational foundations of our society are presently being eroded by a rising tide of mediocrity that threatens our very future as a nation and a people.
Our self- complacency is too overpowering to permit us to entertain such a self- critical thought.

Constitutional Integrity:

Constitutional integrity , which must be sharply distinguished from constitutional fundamentalism, may be named as the fifth pillar. While Pakistan has gone, in for religious fundamentalism , India’s besetting sin is secular fundamentalism. We interpret our constitution as if it were an exercise in grammar.

We are intelligent enough to know full well that we are abusing and mocking at the constitution by merely construing it literally . e.g When issuing ordinances, or when the centre dismisses Governors or governments of States. But we are so lacking in intellectual integrity that we pretend to have complied with the Constitution.

Egalitarianism:

The Sixth Column of a redesigned India should be egalitarianism. Fecund egalitarianism is in sharp contrast to the moss- grown ,outworn creed of Socialism. India would be the first country in the world to call itself not socialist but egalitarianism. We are in desperate need of a new route –map. Today, India is the poorhouse of Asia; it can and should , become the powerhouse of the Continent. When a country is bumping along the bottom, there are only two ways to make the economy buoyant change the policy and change the policy.

Egalitarianism means the investment of human and material resources in an imaginatively planned manner which can contribute to the vitality and progress of the whole nation, keep it in the mainstream of self- generating growth and development, raise the standard of living of the masses ,and enhance the quality of life. While ideological socialism is within the reach of any fifth-rate politician, the translation of egalitarianism into action demands intellect and knowledge, character and dedication of a very high order.

The late Mr. G.D.Birla once said:
 I am interested in anything that created more wealth ,more employment . I am a capitalist, but I believe in a Socialism which means equal opportunity more employment ,and fairer standard of living for everyone. Socialism does not mean socializing poverty but raising the quality of life for one and all.

Socially Responsible Business

 Socially responsible business  may be termed the seventh pillar of a redesigned India. What a transformation one could effect in this country if only business houses were socially responsible! As Vinoba Bhave pointed out to a group of Businessmen some years ago, in ancient Indian society , the businessman was looked upon with respect for many centuries. He was considered to be next only to the king.

The king was known as Shahenshah while the Businessman was known as Shah. People confidently left their property with the businessman, when they went for a yatra (pilgrimage). If they died, they were confident that the businessman would make a fair distribution among the heirs. If they returned, they were equally confident that the businessman could be trusted to return safely all their properties.

Conclusion
Today the malpractices of many businessmen have made society hostile to the class. Let the business community try to recapture that image of honour and integrity which made the trader the repository of implicit public confidence in centuries past. Therefore , all these seven pillars together can create a new renaissance for shaping India's Culture,traditions and future.

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