The tone of this speech was set by this ad by Telekom Italia featuring Mahatma Gandhi.
Translation of Italian text in the ad If he could have communicated like this, what would the world be like today?"
The footage used in the ad is from the original speech, given at the Inter-Asian Relations Conference in New Delhi, April 2, 1947, and had Gandhi speaking to over 20,000 people.
“What I want you to understand if you can, that the message of the East, the message of Asia, is not to be learnt through European spectacles, through the Western spectacles, not by imitating the tinsel of the West, the gun-powder of the West, the atom bomb of the West. (start of the ad) ‘If you want to give a message again to the West, it must be a message of ‘Love’, it must be a message of ‘Truth’. I want to capture your hearts. Let your hearts clap in unison with what I’m saying, and I think, I shall have finished my work. Therefore, I want you to go away with the thought that Asia has to conquer the West. Then, the question that a friend asked yesterday, ‘Did I believe in one world?’ Of course, I believe in one world. end of the ad) And how can I possibly do otherwise, when I become an inheritor of the message of love that these great un-conquerable teachers left for us?”
This, explains in essence not just what India can do, but what India has done.
Before Indian can win, India should be proud of what India is. We apologise all the time for being Indian. When we have to deal with the Japanese, we spend time learning the Japanese culture and its nuances. How much to bend, how to sit, how to present your business card etc etc. The Chinese on the other hand don’t give a damn. They speak to you in Chinese and bring an interpreter along!
But we make excuses. We become a nation of critics. We spent so much time and energy on critical analysis and criticisms that we fail to realize that the same energy can be converted to innovation and excellence.
Half the things that are sold across the planet are because there is confidence in the product. There are products made to suit the markets and there are products to which the market suits itself. Like for instance the iPod. It wasn’t the first of its type in the market. But there was so much hype that the market wound itself around it. Before that there was the Sony walkman and discman which was the hip thing to have. The question is what we choose to do. China chose a different path. In choosing to ape china we may not be able to do what we do, best. China chose to be first a mass manufacturer. Whatever is out there in the world they made it cheaper and in great quantities. But not necessarily in same quality but similar enough. India is suited to be the latter. We need to be focused on creating product that he world will find itself attracted to. Perhaps based on innovation and excellence. You don’t need to be more technocratic to produce this. We need to be more simplistic to produce this.
Global leadership is first about us being proud of who we are and where we come from before we take on any mantle of leadership. The world can already be found in India. If we as a nation with so many languages, cultures and traditions can come together, there is hope for the world. All of the major religions of the planet except for three from Middle East, come from India. We are the world’s largest democracy. A living example of what the world can aspire to be. No doubt there are a lot of defects in the way we do things. There are many things we cannot be proud of in India. But these things do not in any way detract form the fact that we still are what we are- An Indian.
This is the message that should reach people before even they meet us. In every field that we are talking about here, we are not reinventing the market. We pride ourselves on being the backroom operation of the world. We need to overshoot the mark. Just like the Italians define design. The world’s best cars today are Italian by design. Lamborghini, Ferrari, Versace…all carry a message. All come from Italy. For precision engineering u go to Germany.
At one time Japanese reproduced and remanufactured. But they overshot that. Today Lexus doesn’t challenge Ford. It challenges BMW.
We go to acquire an MBA from Harvard, Yale, Stanford, Cambridge. In the process we also acquire their tradition, culture and code of attire, and bring them home. Did Gandhi become less of an Indian by going to study in UK?
India can do it the minute India can be proud of who we are and where we come from. It’s a powerful thing to say, we have helped shape this world in many ways unconsciously. There was Vivekananda at the turn of the century. Gandhiji half way thru the century.
Through our music and arts we have already made our presence felt out there. There was Ravishankar in the 70s. Bollywood came a decade or two later. But is that enough? Is it more accidental than incidental? The only time we can be proud of what we do is when we can do it to the best of our ability. It is not enough that we provide a product or service. But we have to be the best at doing whatever it is that we do.
If a guy picks up a watch and says – Hey it’s a Swiss watch! That says everything. So what does Made in India mean to the rest of the world? That is where it starts.
Global Leadership, ladies and gentlemen, is not about changing the world. Its not about India collectively investing $7.5bn in foreign acquisitions in 2006. It starts right here. It starts with us being the best in whatever we aspire to do. It’s not enough that we just provide a service, create or remanufacture a product. We need to go beyond. Not to make products to suit the market but for the market to suit our products.
There are so many things that are done in India, made in India, crafted in India that the rest of the world is not even aware of. It begins with the fact with they don’t even know what is Indian. More tourists go through Bangkok airport than come into India. There are more hotel rooms in Bangkok than in all of India.
Until the world comes to India it’s hard for India to go to the world. We want to go everywhere and do everything. We have to first let the world come in here. Today we are in the area of satisfying needs but we are not in the area of satisfying excellence.
Ultimately India has to open up. And in opening up only them we will be able to match and meet the rest of the world.
What is bad for you is also good for you. Anything in excess is bad. The only antidote to venom is within the venom itself. Protectionism has never worked anywhere in the world. In any economic model. Be it the Soviet Union or China. The more you build walls around it, the more people will find a way around it. When u look at history, areas where prohibition was imposed, was where they had highest consumption of alcohol.
Gandhiji put it best when he said, 'I do not want my house to be walled in on all sides and my windows to be stuffed. I want the cultures of all lands to be blown about my house as freely as possible, but I refuse to be blown off my feet by any.'
I grew up in awe of India. The India that was sold to me as a child was a colourful imaginary powerful place. The land of my ancestors. The India that I envisioned in my mind was a land of grandeur of ancient temples, mystical landscapes, the Ganges, the Himalayas, the Brahamaputra, the beauty which I still stand in awe of today. The India that filled my very being. That made me so proud of being Indian. Although I had not set eyes on this land until I was 12 yrs of age. I still remember the excitement of getting off the ship NSS Chidambaram. Putting my feet for the first time on Mother India. I landed here in Chennai. The year was 1973. As I stood on the gangplank the first thing that struck me was in looking around how everyone looked and sounded like me! You have to understand I am coming from Malaysia where basically we are a minority. We represent about 12% of the population and in the parts of the country where I had lived, to even meet another Indian on occasion was a rarity and a welcome sight. So for me it was a major paradigm shift to realise that there were a lot of us around. And to hear my native tongue being spoken all around me brought a rush of feeling that I still continue to feel to this day. And I was able to see past the rubbish, the smell, the stench and all of the other things around me and I felt standing there in the midst of that port, for I had reached the land of my forefather, the land of Gandhi, of Radhakrishnan, of Vivekananda, of Gurunanak, of Kabir, of Shahjahan and Akbar, of Ashoka of Buddha. And so many others. And it continues to fill me and that is what I carry, where I am whoever I talk anywhere in the world. First and foremost they should know that I am proud to be an Indian. They will know it even before they come into my presence and they will def know it in my presence. But most importantly they will know it even as they leave me or as I leave them. And that integral part of me has what always given me the pride the strength, the confidence to do what I do. If I can share that with you today and I f you can carry that forward with you in this conference then we have truly embarked on the journey of making India not just a global leader but making India awaken. For when India awakes, the planet will truly tremble.
To quote Tagore,
Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high
Where knowledge is free
Where the world has not been broken up into fragments
By narrow domestic walls
Where words come out from the depth of truth
Where tireless striving stretches its arms towards perfection
Where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way
Into the dreary desert sand of dead habit
Where the mind is led forward by thee
Into ever-widening thought and action
Into that heaven of freedom, my Father, let my country awake.
I would like to close with part of a speech I gave in Aug 2004 in India for Independence day which sums up everything that I believe in, as an Indian.
“Indianness is a spirit and it lends itself to a myriad of interpretations. From banal inanities to world class achievements. But the essence of the spirit is captured in the lyric – Saare Jahan se achcha, Hindustan hamara….whoever you are, whatever you do, wherever you are, be proud to be Indian.
The wars of today are won and lost long before a single shot is fired. The real power today is economic strength. Iraq and Afghanistan had been lost long before the advent of troops. The troops merely helped to complete the debacle. The mighty Soviet Union with its numerous satellite states fell without a single shot. As did the monolithic Berlin Wall. Whatever happened to the impenetrable Iron Curtain? The UN has been effectively muzzled. First through GATT and then again by WTO. NATO has been overshadowed by the EU. Even the military might of China and US quaver before the OIC or APEC. Germany, Japan, Taiwan, South Korea and even city states like Hong Kong and Singapore exert great influence over global affairs well beyond their military might due to economic clout.
India is not bound by Kashmir & Kanyakumari, it is a consciousness and a concept that spans 4000 years. It has permeated the planet, we are felt but not feared in distant lands stretching from the Pacific Isles to the Poland, and from Jamaica to Japan. We have won our victories not in the battle fields of blood and gore but rather in the minds and hearts of man. Our supposed assault weapons have been embodied in part are our music and culture, our creative arts, philosophy and spirituality. Yoga and Ayurveda has permeated the planet today.
This heritage is embodied in our spirit. Our key strategic weapon, the oneness of man as envisioned by Gandhi, casteless, classless, colorless, creedless and countryless. The skirmishes have begun long ago, as the first Indians left the Motherland to settle in the far corners of the world. Let the battle be engaged, for we shall prevail. This is our Millennium! This is India and I am Indian.”
