Mostly I am a cribber. And cribbing about what India has achieved or failed to achieve is easy. It doesn't need a professional cribber to tell you that, you all know the faults, the failure and the hurts. What most don't remember is what we have achieved. And on Independence Day, it is time to remember what we have achieved.
Today, when most Indians have mobile phones, some have access to the internet, fridges, cars or two wheelers, when you can buy 'foreign' at a local mall, grab an air ticket for Goa with a quick surf, we forget where we were as little as 30 years ago.
My tale has to be a personal one; there are many to record the historical one.
The 60s and 70s were a time of stress. Two wars, one a defeat and the other a deadlock, followed by the worst drought since independence left the country if not shattered, at least very disturbed. Rationing and devaluation followed the wars and the Bihar famine; the middle class was reduced to poverty, the poor were in even worse shape.
The impact was visible in the political and social strife that followed. The Naxalite movement in Bengal brought that state to its knees, the Congress lost huge ground across North India and Indira Gandhi's promise of
Garabi Hatao fizzled away with the huge burden of the Bangladesh war. The early 70s were a time of endless
gheraos, bandhs, marches, rioting and police firings. The JP movement in 1974-75 captured this disillusionment, beginning as an anti corruption movement in Bihar, Jayaprakash Narayan took this across the country; the massive railway strike in May 1974, its brutal suppression, were precursors to the Emergency. That, and the shambolic Janata government, left us where we were at the start of the decade. Nowhere.
Most Indians were not born then, and those who were probably don't remember. This was a country where everything was in short supply. In the 60s, there was almost no LPG available, and most houses lit a coal
choolah or stove twice a day. When LPG did come, the politicians and bureaucrats grabbed the first connections and the rest registered in that endless queue, and continued to use coal or kerosene or wood. Even those who had connections often had to wait to get refills. My married life started with my sister-in-law ordering LPG and us using it.
Rationing was a way of life. You had to have a ration card - without it, no sugar and very expensive wheat and rice. In Delhi, milk came from the
gualla or if you very lucky, you had tokens which allowed you two or three bottles of milk. Even Mother Dairy is a creature of the 70s. In the 80s, if you were not rich, you bought off the ration card, or at Super Bazaar; Mother Dairy then became the source of vegetables. Butter was a real luxury. And during the monsoon, it would disappear. We had to make do with cans of European butter (that came from the EU food mountains as aid) sold by Super Bazaar to supplement Amul.
Transport was impossible. There were no traffic jams because there were no cars. Premier and Hindustan Motors had a near monopoly (the Standard Herald was the exception) and produced fewer than 50,000 cars a year. These again went to politicians, bureaucrats and the rest of us booked and patiently waited, or bought in black. The second-hand market was king, and many a bureaucrat made money selling their quota cars. I bought my first car for Rs 20,000 in 1980; it was a six year old Premier Padmini. Flying was next to impossible unless you had a good job or were a student which entitled you to a concession. Trains were like today but without
taktal, with tickets impossible to get unless booked months in advance or through a tout. Going abroad was a dream that few had; and the film title Round the World in 7 Dollars summed up the reality; that's what you got at the airport if you were travelling abroad - $7!
Telephone? Forget it. There were the same political bureaucratic priority, followed by quotas for doctors, retired bureaucrats, accredited journalists, etc; it was an endless list which kept most out. Until OYT (own your telephone) came along. Five thousand rupees and if the exchange had the capacity you got a phone, otherwise, you were in the queue. I got my phone in 1987.
And nobody, nobody, thought or even dreamt of buying a flat.
Things began to change in the mid-80s. Maruti triggered the car revolution. Suddenly, it was possible to dream of having a 'modern car' in a reasonable period of time - two or three years. Of course, you could cut that waiting time by paying a premium (black). The Asian Games brought colour television, and television programming (of which we were a part) triggered enormous social change. Advertising evolved and Limca, Maaza and Maggi changed food habits. Television also changed politics. For the first time, politicians had to confront the camera and be responsive in real time.
The reforms of 1991 and those under the BJP later in the decade ensured much more change. The digitial revolution which began with computers in the late 80s triggered the Infosys-TCS-Wipro revolution in programming and outsourcing. My company bought its first 386 (wow) for Rs 1 lakh!!!! And it changed the way we did business. With Munimji or Tally, accounts became a cinch.
But the biggest change was the mobile phone. Independence Day 1995 saw the mobile really arrive in India. In 20 years, we have more than a billion subscribers. Nothing has changed the life of Indians across all classes as much as this. From simple calls and SMSes, to buying air tickets and transferring funds, it has been the real game-changer.
Home loans, car loans, ATMs and internet banking have upended a once-stodgy, bureaucratic and unresponsive banking system, where going to the bank meant standing in queue to cash your cheque, another queue to deposit it, and an endless wait if you wanted a loan.
And if anything that has really changed it is waiting. We waited and we waited for phones, gas, cars, and we queued and we queued at ration shops, banks, railways counters, to pay our telephone, water and electricity bills, etc. Life was a long, often hot, wait. Today, it generally ain't.
So while we haven't solved the problems of corruption, poverty, Kashmir and Bastar, and many more (and History will not forgive us if we don't), we can on this Independence Day say thank you for what we have managed to change.
(Ishwari Bajpai is Senior Advisor at NDTV)Disclaimer: The opinions expressed within this article are the personal opinions of the author. The facts and opinions appearing in the article do not reflect the views of NDTV and NDTV does not assume any responsibility or liability for the same.