What is a strong nation? Is it one where a few people move from strength to strength, or is it one where the vast majority have access to education, healthcare, work, opportunities and a social ethos that allow them to live a life of dignity and fulfil their potential? Conversely, what makes a nation 'weak'?
Can we see strength as happy citizens, social cohesiveness, freedom to speak out, resilience and cultural influence?
The questions are not quite as philosophical as they may seem as the country celebrates its 73rd Republic Day. The Narendra Modi government constantly uses the word 'strong' to brand its vision for the country and the word 'weak' to denigrate political rivals and their vision.
How does one unpack repeated use of the words 'strong' and 'weak'?
The statements of the prime minister and his colleagues offer telling clues. Earlier this month, Modi said talking about and fighting for "rights" in the 75 years since Independence and forgetting "duties" had kept the country "weak" and that the next 25 years would be for hard work, sacrifice and "tapasya".
In October 2017, while speaking at an event in Lucknow, then Union home minister Rajnath Singh had said that India had become a strong country under the leadership of Prime Minister Modi and the Bharatiya Janata Party. He said, "India's borders are completely safe, and China has started to understand that India is no more weak. Its strength has grown."
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In April 2019, while addressing rallies at Sambalpur in western Odisha and Bhubaneswar, Modi said, "No one had listened to India earlier when it pleaded for peace. However, now the entire world is with us after witnessing our strength. Only the strong and powerful can talk about peace. No one listens to a weak nation."
Here is a view from the pavement. On a bitterly cold Delhi afternoon last week, I stopped for a chat with Shiv, a cobbler I have known for some time. We talked about this and that, and as always, we landed up exchanging a word or two about his life. Life had become harder than usual for Shiv - he lost his son last year, did not have much work, went back to his village, was in debt, and customers are few and far between. "Who wants to get bags and shoes repaired when they are going out much less?" he wryly said. I asked him about his thoughts for the future. Did he feel the country was becoming stronger? Shiv did not immediately reply. After a slight pause, he broke into a familiar, toothy grin. "I am not educated. I dropped out of school. What is a country but its people? Do I look strong to you?"
Shiv is one among the millions of what academics call the 'urban poor'. A recent survey by People's Research on India's Consumer Economy (PRICE), a Mumbai-based think-tank, between April and October 2021, has this to say – the annual income of the poorest 20 per cent of Indian households had been rising since 1995 but plunged 53 per cent in the pandemic year 2020-21 from their levels in 2015-16. In the same five-year period, the richest 20 per cent saw their annual household income grow 39 per cent. The survey covered 200,000 households in the first round and 42,000 households in the second. It was spread over 120 towns and 800 villages across 100 districts. Even among the poorest 20 per cent, those in cities have been hit harder than their rural counterparts.
There is other data that points to growing inequality and the précarisation of those at the bottom. A recent report by Oxfam India flags important points about India's inequality crisis – the number of Indian billionaires grew from 102 in 2020 to 142 in 2021, the worst year yet for India during the pandemic, the report notes. This was also the year when the share in the national wealth of the bottom 50 per cent of the population was a mere 6 per cent. The Oxfam report also refers to the FAO report on The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World. That report says there are over 200 million undernourished people in India. There are other disturbing insights in the Oxfam report - the life expectancy of a Dalit woman is approximately 15 years less than that of an upper-caste woman.
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Additionally, research suggests that relative to upper-caste Hindus, Adivasi life expectancy is more than four years lower, Muslim life expectancy is about one year lower, and Dalit life expectancy is more than three years lower; economic status explains less than half of these gaps.
Arguably, India is not the only country where the poor have been bludgeoned by the pandemic, nor is India the only country with glaring inequalities. But at a time when the poor, like my neighbourhood cobbler, find themselves in an increasingly vulnerable position for no fault of theirs, what message are we giving out when we say talking about rights paves the way to a weak nation?
Strength is not an abstract term. The strength of a country is based on the strength of its people. The Constitution of India guarantees certain fundamental rights. When these rights are violated, an Indian citizen can go to court, at least in theory. In reality, there is a huge backlog of cases, a lack of awareness about legal rights and millions of Indians are denied their fundamental rights.
Shiv, like every other Indian, has a right to live with basic dignity. He also has a right to speak out. And as an Indian citizen, I have the right and the duty to point out when I see the violation of rights of people who are less privileged, increasing fragility and deepening inequalities around me. Only by doing so – by talking about people's fundamental rights enshrined in the Constitution and other rights like healthcare, education, nutrition and decent work – can a citizen lead a life of dignity.
We have a strong country only when our citizens lead lives of dignity, when they can hold their heads high. By muting rights talk, we weaken the Republic of India.
(The author is an independent journalist and columnist)
Disclaimer: The views expressed above are the author's own. They do not necessarily reflect the views of DH.
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