One of the most
common rejoinders of our failure to develop ourselves, at least among the Urban
Educated Indians, is a straight-on comparison with Japan, about how it was
destroyed by World War 2, and how it is now a developed country, taking on The
West on its own terms, standing tall among the committee of nations as a
developed country with a tremendous set of achievements in its past 60 years, a
nation with every comfort the West has, and more; whereas we stumbled from
mistake to mistake, resulting in a massive gap between the two of us.
From an outside
perspective, it seems like Japan and India were at comparable stages; 2
destroyed economies; and that today, Japan is years ahead. While the above
statement is completely true in every respect, it also hides the reality that
lies underneath. Let us peel away the above statement and take a look at the
reality of the situation, which goes a long way in explaining this riddle.
While we did make some mistakes, we cannot extrapolate those mistakes to the
complete story, not without looking at some underlying facts that tend to throw
rather a different light on things.
Just one statistic
is enough to drive home the difference between Japan and India - and that we
cannot compare the incomparables. The
literacy rate in Japan in 1929 was 43.8%, with over 90% enrollments in schools.
In India, in 2001, the literacy rate is 62.8%. Japan was at this level of
literacy around 1960 or thereabouts. Whatever economic strategy we took, we
would never have been able to catch up Japan, given this reality.
The net result of
this high level of education in Japan can be seen in the inventions that
happened between 1900 - 1945. Inventions and discoveries like The Power Loom,
Aberic Acid, B Vitamin, Portable ECG Machine, VectorCardiograph, Epinephrine,
Thiamine, Monosodium Glutamate, Japanese Typewriter, Electric Rice Cooker were
all discovered or invented by Japanese scientists between 1900 - 1950. These
are symptomatic of the overall climate in Japan in those days, as well as act
as indicators of the readiness and potential of the Japanese to innovate. For,
War can take away everything - but it cannot take away the basic indices of
Human Development; in which Japan in 1947 was already approaching developed
economy levels. War also cannot take away the culture of innovation and the
internal climate from the people.
It is thus a
complete fallacy if we compare India and Japan in 1947, or indeed today. The
Japanese were as ahead of us in 1947 as they are today. You cannot compare the
incomparables. In 1947, India was a new nation, whereas Japan was a colonial
power with established nationhood concept going back a century or more. India
was a shattered and demoralised new nation, who had achieved near-static GDP
growth between 1900 - 1945, whereas Japan had clocked a GDP growth rate that
fluctuated between -0.53 to as high as 15.85% in the run-up to 1939. There were
only 4 negative years; the others were between 4 - 16 %! Japan was the first
non-European country to Industrialise in 1868. Japan had hospitals, schools,
basic infrastructure in place; India had nothing. Japan had an educated
population with a per capita GDP that India enjoys today. In fact, as far back as 1868,
the Japanese per capita GDP was 740 dollars - and the Japanese were independent
to boot. It would not be wrong to state
that we are only today at the position where Japan was at in 1947!
It is thus no
surprise that Japan is where it is today. And, unless we set basic parameters -
Education, Health etc - we will never be able to catch up Japan - regardless of
the economic model we follow. The Japanese success is the demostrated success
of concentrating on the Human Development Indices. And the most critical
difference of all: Japan was a colonial power, India was not. It had access to
colonies, which it could harvest so that investments could be made in their own
country. This is a vital factor; for 80 years, the Japanese were brought up on
a diet of we-are-as-good-as-the-west; this fuels national sentiment and
confidence. Take this factor, add high education levels, and established record
of innovation - the result is there for all to see.
Japan is ahead
today because it was comparably ahead in 1947 - along any parameter you may
choose to assess. And I have not even considered the factor of diversity and
national size- and the attendant difficulties being faced by a diverse large nation as compared to a small
homogenous nation. I have not even started to look at the absence of the basics
of life and governance in newly independent India, or its security challenges,
its internal problems or its varied challenges. We could have done better with
better economic planning, yes - but that does not change the fact that Japan is ahead, primarily because it always
was ahead... as we shall see in detail in this series, as I move into the Mieji Restoration in the next part...
We
can be justifiably proud of our achievements, even while acknowledging our
mistakes. Our mistakes harmed only us, not anyone else – unlike The West, whose
mistakes destroyed civilizations and resulted – and still do result – in untold
and incalculable misery across the planet. We have developed ourselves, fought
our own battles, made and learnt from our own mistakes, paying for them
ourselves. And in the light of the status we were in at Independence, our
achievements are tremendous and a matter of intense, and thoroughly justifiable
pride and celebration! Be confident of this lovely miracle called India, of
this lovely, mesmerising and stunningly beautiful nation we call Bhaarat!
Jai
Hind!
{In the next part of the article, I shall look at the Japanese Mieji Restoration, and try and draw learnings for Modern India}
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