'It Is Easy To Lapse Into Populism...'

PM's remarks at Harvard Alumni Meeting on March 25, 2006.

I am truly delighted to be amongst you today to inaugurate your Conference, andto share the dais with such distinguished personalities, and my dear friendsLarry and Amartya, whom I have the honour and I am proud to call as my friends.The list of participants at this Conference is a fair reflection of both thequality and the number of Harvard alumni with roots in India.

I would like to use this opportunity to pay my tributes to successivegenerations of American scholars who have kept interest in India alive in theUnited States. I recall the days of John Kennedy and the Peace Corps where alarge number of young, idealistic American youth came, served in very difficult,distant parts of our country and brought to those areas a ray of hope. Then,there was a period of hope. India had just become independent. There was a lotof enthusiasm that we are going to write a new page in the history ofdevelopment. And I recall the contribution of Prof. John Kenneth Galbraith, thescholars at the M.I.T and other distinguished American scholars who gave toIndian development process the initial push. Later on, I recall in the early1971, when India was faced with a flood of migrants from Bangladesh because ofthe atrocities being committed in that region, the American establishment stoodsilent, but it was the strong resurgent voice of the American academic communitywhich spoke the truth and told the world what was happening in that unfortunatecountry at that time. I therefore, deem it a great pleasure and privilege torenew our contacts, contacts between the American academic community and thegovernment and the people of India. When I see before me such a distinguishedalumni, I recognize the need what a great contribution they have and they willmake to further propelling the processes of social and economic change in ourcountry.

India is firmly set on a growth path of 7-8 per cent every year. It is ourambition to ensure that this process of growth is sustained in the framework ofan open society and an open economy. It is our conviction that the growth isimportant, but growth acquires its true significance only if it is accompaniedby social justice and where no one has contributed most forcefully to arestatement of this essential truth than my friend, Amartya Sen. I am therefore,truly delighted that he is here to inaugurate this new saga of adventure andenterprise that Larry Summers has launched this evening.

I am of course, a product of the “other” Cambridge and my own personalassociation with Harvard is more vicarious, than direct. While I did not havethe good fortune of being a student at Harvard, I did make in my lifetimeseveral good friends who were trained at Harvard. Much has changed since myyears in the academic world and the interaction between Harvard and India hasexpanded greatly. Larry Summers has made a very handsome contribution to thatprocess and I thank him from the core of my heart.

I greatly welcome the increased financial, intellectual and emotionalinvestment of Harvard alumni and this great institution in India. I am certainall of us stand to benefit from such exchanges.

Harvard’s global brand image is widely recognized as being based on acommitment to excellence. But Harvard’s commitment to liberal values andhumanism is less well known. And yet, so many of you gathered here today,reflect so eminently, both strands of Harvard’s personality â€" a commitmentto excellence and a commitment to liberalism, a commitment to humanism. I dobelieve that a commitment to excellence does not preclude a commitment toliberalism and humanism. I will return to this theme in a while.

I believe in any developing economy and modernizing society, it is incumbentupon its social, political and business leaders to combine a commitment toexcellence with an equal, if not greater commitment, to equity and access ineducation. This is a challenge for policy makers to which my friend Amartya hasdrawn our attention so forcefully through his persuasive and powerful writings,for which we are all very grateful to him. It is easy to lapse into populism, orelitism and pursue policies that may have sectional appeal in the short run, butare harmful to a nation in the long run. The challenge before policy planners isto arrive at a golden mean, which makes both excellence and equity walkhand-in-hand together.

Blending a commitment to excellence with a commitment to equity is thereforea challenge with which modern democratic societies must contend. Liberal opinionis often suspicious of making excellence a principle, for it sees this aselitism. Indeed, excellence does entail elitism because it is based on thenotion of a performance pyramid. However, government can and must balance theelitism of meritocracy by facilitating those at the bottom of the social pyramidto rise to the apex of an academic pyramid. Having made that transition, andhaving acquired capabilities and skills, the socially and economically lessprivileged can scale the social ladder. That is why I entirely agree withAmartya Sen, when he says that education is one of the most important means ofcreating and enhancing human capabilities and empowering our people.

Our Government is committed to promoting excellence and improving access toeducation for our citizens. To some, this goal may appear contradictory, sincethe pursuit of excellence is sometimes seen as being at the cost of access. Wein India have had an interesting debate on the need for academic institutions tostrike a balance between the pursuit of excellence and the objective ofproviding access. Offering scholarships based on merit and means is one way ofdealing with this challenge.

Our Government has sharply increased the number of scholarships being offeredto students, particularly for higher education, and especially for lessprivileged sections of society. Our specific focus has been on the mostdowntrodden segments of society, on economically under-privileged groups andreligious minorities. In this whole area of affirmative action, India has provedto be a very versatile laboratory.

I have myself been a beneficiary of the scholarship system. Many of mygeneration, from my social background, would not be where they are today withouthaving had an access to education through the scholarship route. I therefore,have every reason to believe that in a liberal democracy, Government must investin human capabilities through scholarships to widen access to high-qualityeducation. However, even as we facilitate access to high-quality institutions,we must ensure that quality itself does not suffer. This is a challenge for allthose who manage educational systems.

There is another reason for concern, and that is the rising cost of educationin these modern times. The impact of this on meritorious students, particularlythe less privileged, can be mitigated of course through scholarships. We should,I believe go beyond our Constitutional obligations to support certain sectionsof society, where means and social origins are the criterion for scholarships.We must devise complementary schemes based on merit-cum-means to rewardexcellence, while maintaining schemes that widen access. I believe that theprivate sector and the wealthier strata of society can do more to fundscholarship programmes.

Private initiative can and must supplement public investment, which isvitally necessary in the sphere of education. However, we must make adistinction between public investment, public support and governmentalfacilitation, on the one hand and over-regulation, on the other hand.Paradoxically, our educational system faces the conflicting threats of anarchicgrowth in quantitative terms and moribund stagnation in qualitative terms. Weneed a balance between populism and over-regulation; between unbridledmarketisation and excessive bureaucratization. We need an educational systemthat is modern, liberal and can adapt to the changing needs of a changingsociety, a changing economy and a changing world. I sincerely hope that Harvardwill be a pace setter in helping us to evolve such an educational system.

It is in this context that I would like to revisit the issue of liberalvalues. I do believe that in the modern world, educational institutions mustmake an explicit commitment to liberal values. All societies contain elementspredisposed to extreme views, and others inclined to narrow and sectarian views.Such groups seek to use education as a means to increase their political appeal.It is here that mainstream institutions must act to inculcate a liberal and apluralistic perspective on social, cultural, economic and political issues.

I believe the great strength of multicultural democracies such as India andthe United States is that we have both nurtured and fostered a liberaltradition. My own party, the Indian National Congress, has always stood for theliberal values of inclusiveness, pluralism and diversity. An eminent scholarfrom Harvard in fact, put forward the theory of the “clash ofcivilizations”. This idea has since caught on across the world. However, Idisagree with the theory. In my view, the history of the 20th century and, Idaresay the 21st, will not be seen as the age of a clash of civilizations. Ibelieve history will remember these years as a period in which humanity made the“confluence of civilizations” possible and I do believe that intellectualshave a very powerful role to make this happen.

I admit that in today’s world, this still requires considerable effort toachieve. But I do see this process taking place only within the framework ofopen and liberal societies. It is true that today, many countries are passingthrough a phase where the liberal “Middle” is buffeted by the illiberal“Right” and “Left”. Ideologies of hate, ideologies of differentiation,ideologies of discrimination do seek dominance in many societies. By portrayingreality in black and white, such ideologies ignore the varied shades of graythat I believe actually define reality.

I would therefore urge that the time has now come for us to defend thisliberal space. In ancient India this liberal perspective was defined by theconcept of “Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam” â€" The Whole World is One Family. Thisconcept stands in contradiction to that of a “clash of civilizations”.Indeed, the very “idea of India” was constructed on the foundations of aninevitable confluence of civilizations. Constructing a modern Republic on thisbasis has not been an easy task, given the complexities of India’s manydiversities. But it is a tribute to our founding fathers that they succeeded increating a liberal, modern nation state, in which all diversities find theirplace and where ideology need not be such a divisive issue. We have had ourshare of failures, but broadly, we have remained true to the vision of theleaders of our Republic and those who led under Mahatma Gandhi’s leadershipour struggle for freedom.

Thus, I firmly believe that the emergence of India is an idea that has amessage for the world as a whole. This is particularly so, as our increasinglyborderless world promotes the evolution of more multicultural societies.Therefore, the rise of a modern, self-confident India, with one billion peopleliving lives of dignity, in peace and amity despite reflecting the diversitiesof the world, is an experiment whose success has great salience to the globalcommunity. Thus, I believe it is in our collective interest to promote theconfluence of civilizations over the alternative of a clash of civilizations. Itis in this context that I would urge that the magnificent experiment that isIndia needs the support of all right-thinking members of the evolving globalcommunity.

In the ultimate analysis, it is not high rates of economic growth alone thatwill ensure social and political stability and cohesion. A better economic lifemust be accompanied by the strengthening of liberal values and pluralism. Yourconference aims to reflect on the social, political and strategic aspects ofSouth Asia’s development. As I have suggested, the underlying strength of thisregion historically is its commitment to pluralism and liberalism. The Indiansub-continent has been home to all religions and philosophies of the world. Forcenturies, this land has assimilated all those who have come here in pursuit ofvarious quests. Our history is replete with instances of clashes of outlooks,values and beliefs. But our history also shows that over a period of time, therehas been a confluence of contending views.

Today, when I see political battle lines being drawn, between “Left” and“Right”, between “Us” and “Them”, I derive courage from the factthat our civilization has always been based on the liberalism and pluralism of“Unity in Diversity”. This has been and will remain India’s strength andour message to the world. I hope you will reflect on these ideas among others inyour deliberations. With Amartya here, I am sure your conference will beadequately argumentative!