Time and again many of us ridicule our selves by saying, we have invented ‘zero’ so we are still in the firm position of it… and some say all good things about the country and sweep all dirt under the carpet, we have continues endeavors of reaching the goals by the committees who draft and review the five year plans since the dawn of independence, well when we got our independence, I’m reminded of a catastrophic event that occurred in Japan on 6th and 9th of august 1945 When a Enola Gay (B-29 Superfortress bomber ) dropped bomb which literally destroyed country and was almost after two year on August 15th 1947 we got our independence where are we now? And where are they? When we compare our growth with Japan!! , I was told that people of Japan carry their national pride in whatever they do, and that requires lot of character strength.
The point here I’m trying to make is not on the numbers that they have achieved, status they gained or infrastructure they have built, all I’m trying to say is that ‘how did they do it?’ well one may ponder for a while and say they have better Politician…!! I for one don’t know, but my take on this is that why blame the politician alone for the good-or-bad of the country. I would say that is the passion of the Japanese people that has brought them to these heights, the value they believe, and the culture they follow, has got lot to do with it.
For any development there are two key requirement A. Intellectual assets, which acts as long term capital and B. Emotional assets (character-strength) which acts as working capital question to the be asked is do we have these two requirement, I’m sure about the former one not so sure about the latter.
We have IITs, IIMs, and many other institutes prestigious institutions which are honing the intellectual capital no doubt about it, right to education Act will also act complimentary to it. But my question is simple, do we have the working capital, are we honing the character, are we helping the young minds to develop their character stronger enough? To some extent yes. But when you see the problem in microscopic view the picture looks a bit deferent, religious intolerance is in a growing rate, respect for cultural values are slowly evaporating (following cultural it is at personal discretion nobody can force one), for instance if the culture is totally evaporated in person he/she belongs to the respective country only ethnically but not culturally so how good is that?
Character building:
Character strength could be developed in many ways and the process is called character building, we need to understand our culture and start respecting them, I’m not trying sound like fundamentalist or a fanatic, but my point is very simple culture is one fabric that keeps the nation together, hence it is important, not only we preserve it but also to respect it. The values that the nation believes principle that nation follows are all the outcome of one simple element culture!! The moment we start disrespecting our culture it is the disrespect for the nation and we often forget this fact.
We had great leaders in the past, who all showed us importance of character and culture I strongly believe that if we are independent nation today that is only because of heroic efforts of those leaders who understood and emphasized on culture and character strength by benchmarking the standard for the coming generation in the freedom struggle, India is a country which never waged war against any nation, followed the principle of non violence ant truth, displayed high degree of respect to religious value, practicing the philosophy of ‘unity in diversity’ by all these one thing is evident that is India is country with High character strength
But today…Problem what India is facing is not lake of funds it is lack of leaders-with-character and character strength in citizen.