The India of My Dreams

Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high; Where knowledge is free; Where the world has not been broken up into fragments by narrow domestic walls; Where words come out from the depth of truth; Where tireless striving stretches its arms towards perfection; Where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way into the dreary desert sand of dead habit; Where the mind is led forward by thee into ever-widening thought and action– Into that heaven of freedom, my Father, let my country awake.Goes a poem written by rabindranath tagore, renowned writer, author nd poet, and more importantly, an indian who dreamt of a better india in the future. Well, talking of dreams, a dream is a sub-conscious psychic vision of the ‘Ideal’;coloured by personal affections and framed by the human yearning to reach what one wants. But for all the myriad personal fantasies and dreams,the only common dream born out of the heart of patriotic sensibility is that of the country of our dreams. And when the country at the heart of such a dream is as great as India,the dream is rather vivid,colourful and I daresay complex.The India of my dreams is nothing but an amalgamation of its ‘Indianess’ manifested in its past glory and promised in its gleaming future.

In other words, The India of my dreams is also the India of your dreams. India, being a country of social contrasts and enormous ethnic, linguistic and cultural diversity should be in a state where there would be no racism and regionalism. First of all, I would want to curb communalism, whatever its shape or form may be. All such tendencies, which fan the forces of separatism and disruption, have to be eliminated.Secondly, I want India to be scientifically and technologically advanced. I would like India to be at the apex of scientific and technological progress, and give due importance to science and information technology because modern age is an age of science and information technology, which with much ease control the developemental status of any country. All of us want India to become a respectable super power in the world, don’t we? The India of my dreams, again, would be an India that is self-sufficient in food.

All the barren lands should be cultivated for achieving self-sufficiency in food-grains. Agriculture should be given special attention because agriculture is the backbone of Indian economy. It provides employment to over 60 percent of the country’s work force and it accounts for over quarter of India’s GDP. It also contributes substantially to export trade. Another Green Revolution should be brought about by launching intensive agricultural programmes and farmers should be asked to use better seeds fertilisers as well as modern tools and implements.Another thing, which I would like to see in India of my dreams, would be the abridgement of the gap between the rich and the poor. National income should be distributed rationally among the all sections of the society.

Provision of food, housing and clothing to one and all should be given top priority in the India of my dreams. For achieving and accomplishing this, socialism should be the only remedy which, if practised sincerely, will really usher India into an era of economic equality. If these measures are taken with utmost sincerity, India will really be counted among the most powerful countries of the world .Then is the time that one can say that India has achieved the placed that Rabindra Nath Tagore describes in his lines that I told before I started talking regarding the subject. In this age of industrialization, the country is to be taken to the zenith of progress and prosperity. Industrial development plays a significant role in the growth process of developing countries. It helps in raising income levels and in absorbing rural surplus labour.

It is believed that prior to 19th century India was a great manufacturing country. However at the time of independence the industry was in bad shape.India’s literacy rate as per 1951 census was less than 20 percent. In over fifty seven years it has increased to about 65 percent. Despite all this commendable progress , a lot needs to be done to improve the living conditions of agricultural and industrial labor and the people working in unorganized sectors. Steps should be taken to stop crime and violence. Condition of women folk needs drastic improvement.

Women empowerment is the demand of a civilized society. Equal opportunities need to be given to the girl child for education and career development. Dependence on other counties should be a thing of the past.India of my dreams is a country where nobody is illiterate and nobody sleeps hungry, where there is no distinction on the basis of gender, religion or caste, where justice to a common man is neither denied nor deleted, where corruption in public life does not exist, where merit counts in every sphere of life, where jobs cannot be purchased, where the Shabad Kirtan from Gurudwaras, and Azan from Mosques, the Bhajans from Temples and chiming of the bells from churches merge and mingle and produce a harmonious, melodious, spiritual tune, loved by one and all.I dream of an India where every citizen feels safe and secure, where health facilities are provided to all . I dream of an educational system where every young dreamer is given his chance, and not chained by lack of seats or caste reservations. I dream that the lakhs of unemployed Indians are integrated into employement.

I dream of a socially, scientifically, economically better India . I dream of an India which every Indian can be truly proud of. To capture the essence of the India of my dreams I would like to end with a few lines from John Lennon’s ‘Imagine’: “U may say I’m a dreamer But I’m not the only one . ”I hope someday u’ll join us And India will be No. 1.