Demanding that art works, etc, be returned to their origins may be less foolish than bemoaning past subjugations as wrongs by others, but both represent that flawed, immature nationalism we are lately manifesting in more serious ways; also, that refusal to learn from history is holding us back as a nation. "It is your fault we were conquered, now make amends." Colonialism was an obscenity, nor can the positives it might have brought justify or mitigate it. But the question to ask is: why did we get subjugated? What capabilities could they employ that we lacked? And why are we still lagging behind?
The common excuse is that colonialism didn't just set us back but stunted us: we had all the capabilities - and more - but they were stifled. Even were that valid, such self-exculpation typifies our continuing refusal to adapt to the existing world and times. It also evades the first question: we were defeated by our own faults. This is not to indulge our other favourite pastime of self-flagellation, but simply point to the only basis for progress.
Much though it hurts, the brutal reality is that our last spell of foreign rule did not result from conquest. No vast armada, no overwhelming hordes, no greater power invaded to vanquish us; we were taken over bit by bit, largely if not wholly thanks to ourselves; even in guile and intrigue, small numbers of adventurers from continents away got the better of us. If we insist on revising the past, let us at least tell ourselves: never again; instead, we persist in the faults that felled us.
Our colonisers defeated us for many telling reasons. Organisation, discipline, objective assessments as distinct from personal whims, systematic planning and execution,better weapons and fighting techniques - all acquired by a readiness to benefit from modern knowledge, all still neglected, even rejected, by us. Modernity consists in the extent to which you are open to using advances in knowledge to improve life. We prefer imagining we have known everything for millennia, all we need is going backwards.
Some of our ancestors reacted by deciding to learn from the victors. Howsoever politically incorrect it may be nowadays to say so, it was the elements in our society that modernised this way that laid the foundations of modern India - in professions, in learning, in governance, and most importantly in our Constitution. Doubtless they made mistakes, had some wrong ideas, need a further modernisation as well as changes to suit today's Indians. What we do not need is obscurantist distortion of the good things we made our own.
In the management of our affairs of state and society, especially governance, we have been reverting to old, self-destructive ways. Individual members honourably excepted, not one institution, not the Three Estates, much less the Fourth, nor the professions vital to society - civil servants, lawyers, doctors, teachers, business professions - rate above low or minus in the qualities the want of which defeated us: objectivity, conscientiousness, self-control, steady methodical hard work.
Marginal, if bloody, exceptions notwithstanding, nobody these days occupies other countries; but there are other instruments of domination - and of undermining nations. We may not be about to be invaded, but both our territorial integrity and our nationhood face real dangers. As glaring as our neglect of them, these require a highly efficient apparatus of technical capabilities, special skills, traditional and new instruments of power, above all strategic thinking and planning. Just mentioning these essentials shows how alarmingly we lack them, increasing our vulnerabilities by falling back to the bickering, factiousness, distractions from duty, the obsession with the personal that cost us so much.
We are not alone in finding our institutions and methods inadequate to handle the increasingly complex challenges of our times. All states, of all kinds, face this problem; but serious ones are making serious efforts. It is our disregard of serious thinking, our increasing immersion in pettiness, that is the greatest threat to our future. This Kohinoor claim, silly by itself, becomes notable because the government, reversing its stand under (imagined) public desire, shows how unreason gains ground.
Others also want what they claim as their exclusive heritage. Greece pursued the Elgin Marbles even more vehemently - and uselessly. But how do we really care for our heritage? Our museums are dust-laden mausoleums, minimally visited; archaeological sites are vandalised; beautiful sculpted stones are used to build roads. Government funds may be too little, but what keeps people from looking after what is around them? Our art abroad is not only better-kept but better appreciated, one of the greatest assets of our much-vaunted soft power. A diamond in our former ruler's crown of course is different, but claiming it is no less part of a futile fight against our own past. Why not claim the whole Peacock Throne from Iran - or forbid the use of zero without royalty to us? No need to labour absurdity.
Facing numerous similar demands - from the relics of Tipu Sultan to the entire India Office Library - Prime Minister Nehru rightly noted: "we must stop quarrelling with history." It is even more vital to stop denying our future. In our situation, leadership makes all the difference. Tired of the cliche "politics is the art of the possible", Girja Shankar Bajpai, born 125 years ago this month, used to say, "maybe, but leadership is the art of making things possible." Whatever its other performances, this government has shown admirable vision and finesse in recasting our approach to the world; it, and other leaders, need to recast our approach to ourselves. On the former, its greatest difficulty is that our delivery mechanism is so rusted; the greatest difficulty on the latter is too many minds are rusted. One hopes it will be possible to revive the role of reason amongst ourselves. Else Meredith's words will apply: "In tragic life.../ No villain need be! Passions spin the plot:/We are betrayed by what is false within."
The writer has been Ambassador to Pakistan, China, and the US, as well as secretary at the ministry of external affairs
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