Indian people have amazing ability to course correct

Let’s begin with an Indian child in 1966.

It was an August afternoon in Mirzapur. The family of a government officer was about to have lunch when his daughter (4) and son (6) started crying. The red chapatis were the culprit. The wheat from the US was meant for poultry feed in that country. Even that was available to the lucky few. We were suffering from a massive drought, turning farmland into dust bowls.

Records suggest India produced 72.3 million tonnes (mt) of grain in 1965-66. This was why Indira Gandhi sought food aid from US President Lyndon B. Johnson the moment she became the prime minister. By comparison, in the 2024-25 fiscal year, India produced 353.95 mt of grain. The nation’s journey from the begging bowl to agricultural self-reliance is inspiring.

Indira’s predecessor, Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri, who led the country during the second Indo-Pak war, gave the slogan ‘jai jawan, jai kisan’. But one of his less-discussed clarion calls can inspire even today. He asked people to skip one meal every week as the country faced a grain shortage. My parents immediately made it their routine and told us children not to waste food as many didn’t have even a few morsels to survive. The practice became our family tradition. Thousands of families still follow the ritual, proving that leaders do have the power to change society.

Let’s move ahead to 1988.

A girl was born in Varanasi Railway Locomotive Factory hospital while Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi addressed the country from the Red Fort. The father, a young editor, was serving in another city. As all phone lines were either busy or out of order, he received one of the most important news of his life many hours later.

When information travels within seconds to any part of the world, that may appear prehistoric. Mobiles and the internet didn’t exist then. A fortunate few had landlines. Even they had to book a trunk call and wait for hours to get through to another city. Getting a phone connection meant years of waiting or seeking “blessings" from a member of parliament or the communications minister.

Today, the same country boasts the second highest number of mobile phone users in the world after China. From tech-savvy professionals in metro cities to the tribals in the jungles of Abhujhmad, the impact of the technology has been transformative.

Recap from 1978 till date.

From the 1970s through the 1980s, everyone felt the country would be torn asunder. The Kashmir insurgency was still a decade away, but Punjab was already on the boil. According to a research paper, the Pakistan-backed reign of terror claimed 11,694 lives between 1980 to 2000. A total of 1,784 personnel from Punjab Police and other central police forces either laid down their lives in the line of duty or were grievously injured. In 1982, Jarnail Singh Bhinderawale and his violent gang took control of the Harminder Sahib. Two years later, “Operation Bluestar" was initiated to flush them out of the premises. It led to the assassination of Indira Gandhi by her trusted Sikh bodyguards.

Our heads still hang in shame when we remember the atrocities meted out to the Sikh community in the aftermath of the 31 October 1984 assassination. In those fateful months, we felt as if the mindless hatred towards Sikhs would snatch this courageous community from our fold. But what unfolded was completely different. Society closed ranks and showed once again that the Indian people have an amazing ability to course correct voluntarily.

In those days, many Northeastern states were suffering from insurgency. It seemed the country would break apart. Except for the neighbour-sponsored terror in Kashmir, the scourge of terrorism has been wiped out from the rest of the states. The Maoist insurgency, a clear and present threat a decade ago, is breathing its last.

Our journey reflects a resolve unmatched by any nation. On 15 August 1947, we gained Independence from the British, and today we have surpassed their economy. Our relentless progress will transform us into the third-largest economy in the world in a few years.

That’s the reason I laugh at people who talk of India breaking apart. If we can negotiate dark days in the past, we can surely tackle them in the present. We’ll face challenges in our journey ahead. All we need to do is take a vow to deal with at least one social vice on Independence Day.

Shashi Shekhar is editor-in-chief, Hindustan. Views are personal.