You spoke on whether India will emerge as an Eastern Power or Western Power. What exactly prompted you to pick up this topic?
India is a great, emerging Asian power. The first was Japan and Japan chose a completely Western orientation. I will quote one of the great Japanese Meiji reformers, Yukichi Fukuzawa, who said Japan must leave Asia and join the West for progress and development.
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China, however, has no desire to leave Asia and to join the West. Sun Yat Sen (the founder of modern China) was all for learning from the West. So, the interesting question is whether India will emerge more like Japan or more like China. That is the question I am trying to answer.
So, what is the answer?
I am trying to give a very nuanced reply. It is not a simple one. There are many layers to it. First of all, what is the nature of the era we are living in? Are we still living in an era dominated by the West?
The second question, of course, is the relation between the East and the West, broadly speaking. Finally, what is the natural impulse of India and Indians in general? I am trying to answers these three questions.
Image: Chinese President Hu Jintao and his wife with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh at Rashtrapati Bhavan in New Delhi, November 21, 2006.
Photograph: Emmanuel Dunand/AFP/Getty Images
Also read: Why I am bullish about India
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