By Anil Raturi
It is very important for any country to make the best use of its talent. For doing so, it needs to build a system that spots, nurtures and rewards talent.
The most successful method for attracting talent has been the lure of handsome monetary renumeration. Talent, generally, follows wealth!
Up to the fifteenth century, China and India were the richest countries. Together, they accounted for more than half of the world’s GDP.
Until then, Europe had always been poorer than the East.
The limited modes of transportation, then, did not facilitate migration of talent on a scale which the present opportunities thrown up by globalisation do. However, even then, allured by the promise of riches, adventurous and talented people travelled to the East.
In the 14th century, gunpowder reached Europe from China. The Europeans built guns-cannons and embarked on plundering voyages.
The Dutch, Spanish, Portuguese, French and British all competed for the wealth of the East. In trying to reach the East through the then uncharted seas, they discovered the Americas!
The cruel plunder of South America by the Spanish is unmatched in history. The British prevailed in North America.
The innocuous British East India Company, trading with India, courtesy Jehangir’s “firman” given to Thomas Rowe, went on to become the owners of half the world’s GDP! It had an army greater than that of England!
Perhaps the greatest crime India has committed is that it allowed its own conquest! It was a result of the sins of its ruling elite. Mired in its regressive notions of caste and creed, the elite created a
non-egalitarian and divisive society, which was weak and susceptible!
Mario Puzo, the celebrated author of ” The Godfather”, begins his book with the following quote from Balzac:- ” Behind every great fortune lies a great crime!”
The full quote appears in his 1835 novel Le Père Goriot and is, “The secret of a great success for which you are at a loss to account is a crime that has never been found out, because it was properly executed!”
The post 15th century prosperity of Europe rests on the plunder of colonies. After annihilating the natives, on 4th July 1776 (the day of American Independence), USA, ironically, became the champion of liberty, as the first modern Republic!
Conveniently burying their unprecedented crimes of violence under legalese of Democracy!
The USA, Canada, and Australia profited from gaining huge virgin lands. Their natural wealth became an attraction for talent from across the world. These vast lands needed to be inhabited. Mainly, they allowed European migrants. America imported African slaves, while others used indentured Asians.
On its Independence in 1947, India was poorer than when it was conquered. The average longevity of its people was about 30 years! Ninety percent of its population was poor and illiterate! The nation had no capital to invest!
It is remarkable that despite such squalor, the country was able to establish the IITs, IIMs and other world class institutions! Brilliant Indians were produced by these colleges. However, the poverty of the nation could not retain its own talent!
Post 1970s, the Americans cleverly through their HIB visa selectively inducted Indian professionals.
In those days, India couldn’t offer these professionals prospects commensurate with their talents. Their migration was famously called the “brain drain”!
In its selfish interest, the greedy West forced “globalisation” down the throats of lesser developed countries. With its markets saturated, it wanted new ones to propel its economic growth. Through WTO, etc., it facilitated the free movement of goods and services.
In the last three decades, the world has been a witness to American MNCs utilising cheap labour of China and other countries for manufacturing their products and making global profits. At the same time, limiting production in native USA only to high and strategic technology!
However, the forces of “globalisation” in the age of internet brought many unwanted side-effects for the West. It facilitated, like never before, the free flow of technology to the developing countries and also helped them to shorten the learning curve!
To the West’s chagrin, China quickly became its serious trading competitor! (Others are following suit.)
The scale of migration of non-whites to the West that ensued in the last three decades is unprecedented. It has changed the homogenous societies of Europe in an unrecognisable manner. The nations of Europe are now, for the first time, confronting the disconcerting discord inherent in multicultural societies! Something India has been familiar with over millenniums!
Having reaped the benefits of “globalisation”, the West, now, wary of the unwanted side effects, is closing its doors on free movement of goods and services!
‘Anti-globalisation’ is the latest subterranean refrain of the developed world. It has cultivated a large white population that has been living on the fruits of the cheap labour provided by the developing world. This population is inadequately educated and is habituated to living beyond its means– on credit cards, loans, dole, etc.
The Western Economies are now bursting at the seams, having raised the levels of quality of life beyond the sustainable!
No wonder there is a common right wing sentiment against talented immigrants discernible in these societies!
Despite all its imperfections, India is now witnessing, in every field, what V S Naipaul called “A Million Mutinies Now”!
For the first time in centuries, true capital formation — commensurate with its natural bounty–is being accumulated by it.
Unless it becomes sadistic and axes its own legs, in a few decades, the rise of India seems inevitable!
We may or may not be there to see it!
However, all objective parameters certainly seem to suggest the inevitability of India’s return to prominence!
Inequalities will certainly remain. However, in due course, dignified existence to the poorest will also certainly come!
Creation of wealth will not only create a current for reverse migration of Indian talent but will also perhaps bring the whites knocking at our door once again!
A return to the fifteenth century situation – a dejavu!
(The author is a retired IPS officer)
