Does Mauryan Empire has a role in present situation of India

This post was written in response to following question on Quora-

What would be the current position of India if there were strong rulers of the Mauryan Empire who were able to maintain their rule over India and defend it from all subsequent invasions that we faced?

I do not think that would have made much difference. All over the world there have been great empires in different ages, ruled by different dynasties. I do not think few more stronger generations of Mauryans could have made any difference. Even after Mauryans there have been large empires but none of those was of all India character. 

Other strong kingdoms:

The thing that could have saved India was if we were able to meet last onslaught of middle east invasion and that happened more than 1000 years after Mauryans. In between there have been many glorious dynasties in east (Pals), West (Rashtrakuts), North (Harsha) and South (Cholas) to mention few. But when crucial time came we did not have anybody.

Marathas:

Marathas were last hope which could have made the fate of India different as they could have saved us from British loot, but then they lost to Ahmed Shah Durrani of Afghanistan. 

Reasons:

There are various reasons for these changes and surprisingly those were more economic and social than political. 

Most important of those was rigid caste system. And this did not arise in one day. It did not even became rigid in one day. It has different political and economic history altogether. According to Adam Smith, known as father of economics, as any society progress there is division of labour for more efficient production. And that is how this caste system started. Slowly it became so rigid that it divided the society and divided society became so weak that anybody could invade and defeat it and then started a long downward spiral. We are still struggling against it. Only solution was social reforms.

 - Social Reforms:

And it is not that social reforms did not take place. Time to time social reforms happened. There were Gautam Buddha, Mahavir Jain, Guru Nanak Dev etc. But at a crucial junction we became a rotting society largely around 17th and 18th century.

Conclusion:

So the present situation is because of two periods. One in 12th and thirteenth century when we lost to outsiders decidedly and then in 17th - 18th century where we could not do any social reform and lagged behind in technology for the first time while Europe moved fastest after its social reforms in 16th and 17th century.

Final Solution:

Way ahead is to come out of caste system at present, spread education and reform our education system drastically to make it value based and bring it away from McCaully (system of producing useful slaves for British empire). And we have our last chance now.

Is Narendra Modi Strongest Leader We Have In Our Living Memories In India?

Can't agree more!!!

If you look at Indian politics after independence he is the only PM who derived his power from the people directly (One of my closest friend says he is strongest leader India had have after Chandra Gupta Maurya some 2300 years ago, I agree will that but will not go for or against it here).

Before I go into details I would like to say that all leaders/politicians/PMs have something in them to reach there, supported by circumstances and conditions.

Nehru was having strongest grip on power in India. But he owed his rise to his rich and famous father and them blessing of Mohandas Gandhi. Once the state machinery was in his hands he had formidable control. He was only PM who could have managed to be dictator but he was not strongest as the country behind him was not as strong as India of Today.

Lal Bahadur Shastri was again too much dependent on Congress party. Although he proved to be strong leader but his tenure was not very long.

Indira Gandhi owed her position to being daughter of Nehru. She managed to win elections and side-step her opposition within the party and managed to have dictatorial power after imposing emergency.

Morarji Bhai Desai was PM but he was leading a faction ridden party. He was not even the boss of his own party. Same goes for Narsimharao, V P Singh, Chandra Shekhar, Devi Gauda, Gujral etc.

Rajiv Gandhi had most formidable mandate till date but again he was there not because of his talents but because of being from family of former PMs.

Manmohan Singh was proxy at the best. Sonia Gandhi was much more powerful than him and he served at her mercy.

Atal Bihari Vajpayee was there but he was too much dependent on his allies. He had to be very cautious all the time.

And then comes Narendra Modi. He rose from lowest echoleons of the society. Rising through the ranks. Understanding people at different levels. Gaining experience of governing the state before being PM, won the election for his cherishma, winning a victory which was totally his own victory. Became first non-Congress PM where party and government is under his control with popular backing by people without being son/daughter/relative of any powerful person. He is the man who has vision and necessary support to implement his vision. Thus he is the strongest leader India have in our memories or anytime after independence.

Indian Influence in Past and Future

This post was generated to an answer of a question on Quora. Innocent looking question was, "When will India rise up and rule the world like it did in the ancient times?"

First thing is India never ruled the world. We had our sphere of influence because of our trade and cultural links. Whole of Indo-China (Far East Asia including Indonesia, Laos, Vietnam, Thailand, Cambodia, Malaysia etc.) had Indian culture to varying extent. Buddhism was greatest export of Indian culture. Powerful empires like Srivijaya empire in Indo-China was very close to India culturally.

Please remember India never colonised any country. Wherever our ancestors went they carried their culture of tolerance and value system base on dignity of life. Today in post colonial world everybody is talking of these things and that is good for whole humanity.

Here it is to be understood very clearly if one country is prosperous and powerful, world will be influenced automatically. We are moving in that direction slowly coming out of rut and degradation that British Raj brought to us. We have many people with low self esteem and "Gora Sahib mentality" ruling top echelons of Indian intelligentsia for almost 70 years in post independence India. But with advent of new nationalistic government in Delhi things are again moving in right direction. Evacuation in Yemen is telling example of extension of this soft power of India. And this soft power will carry positive influence of India across the world again.

So in short we never ruled the world, we never wanted to rule the world but have influenced world positively and trying to get into that position again. may be it will take 50 more years and before that we need to sort out our problem of caste system, division of society, educate our people, remove poverty in the process and then we shall be very much there again.

Nahruvian Blunders

This post was triggered by following question on Quora.

What are the possible solutions to the Nehruvian Blunder? From a UN permanent seat, to solving the Kashmir Dispute, to settling borders with China, what is the way forward for India? 

Lets take one by one. 

UN Permanent Seat:

As for UN seat let bygone be gone. We can strengthen our country economically and militarily and stake the claim to our rightful position as our PM said that it is our right and all governments let by Congress or BJP worked towards it.

Kashmir:

As for Kashmir that is biggest blunder and it is bleeding India till date. 20% of valley population was chased out by fanatics and they are living as refugees in their own country unable to stake claim to what belonged to them. In my opinion best solution will be to divide J&K into three regions (Jammu, Kashmir and Laddakh). Give autonomy to Kashmir region and settle the ousted people there in fortified colonies. Withdraw the army and seal the borders completely till the time they understand futility of hosting terrorists. At the same time put pressure on Pakistan to give autonomy to the region under their control. Help the people indirectly in PoK. Waait for the things to boil till population realize the greater evil of being under Pak control. Then remove article 370 and take required measures as per requirements of the times.

Border dispute with China:

Make our economy and army strong enough to negotiate with China on equal footings. As of now after losing war of 1962 (another Nehruvian blunder), we are not in position to negotiate from position of equality.

So basically solution lies in development of our own country and people.

History of Post-Independence Indian Politics

It is long period but I would like to summarize-

Partition:
In 1947 when British were leaving India the country had only two major political parties viz. Congress and Muslim League. They could not reconcile their differences, consequently India was divided between India and Pakistan. India for Congress and Pakistan for Muslim league.

1947 - 57 and First General Elections in 1952:
First General Elections were held in 1952. As there was no major political party to fight against Congress as Muslim league had already taken part of India as Pakistan and was not in contention. Communist party became second largest party with 16 seats (against 364 of Congress). There were several other socialist parties but their effect was limited to certain areas. Bhartiya Jana Sangh (BJS) which was predecessor of current Bhartiya Janta Party (BJP) fought the elections but got 3 seats only. Politics was mostly politics of powerful and all the people who wanted to enjoy the privileges joined Congress for that to fill the vacuum left behind by Britishers and various kingdoms which were dissolved. But during this time lot of political activities were taking place and various parties were gaining ground in different parts of countries.

It was hoped that Communist party will be greatest challenger to Congress. But it was confined mostly to Bengal and Kerala. Here it is to be noted that even though Congress was only party with all India presence and recognition, still they did not get even 50% of the popular votes.

At top J L Nehru was dominating Congress party. He was already promoting his daughter Indira as M L Nehru has promoted JL Nehru. He got her elected to president-ship of Congress.

1957-75 Dominance is challenged:
In 1957 first elected communist government of the world came to power in Kerala state of India. It was first defeat for Congress in any major state. In 1967 DMK led by charismatic MGR came to power in Tamilnadu. Meanwhile Nehru had died in 1962 and Indira got hold of party and government after untimely death of Lal Bahadur Shastri. Now hold of dynasty was complete over the grand old party and several leader who felt suffocated in this new set up, they resigned Congress to form their own parties. Several parties were born and most important of those was Bhartiya Kranti Dal formed by Chaudhry Charan Singh in 1967, who went on to be prime minister of India.During this period several more states had shown doors to Congress and it was crumbling. In fact Indira Gandhi had divided the party to keep her hold on the party after being expelled by party president S. Nijalingappa in 1969. Till this time Congress and later on Congress (Indira) were comfortably dominating country at national level even though they had lost power in several states and no opposition was present at national level.

1975-1980 Emergency, dictatorship and first Non-Congress government at center. Whole opposition unites under the leadership of Jaiprakash Narayan naming itself Janta Party.

1980: BJP is born which went on to be first political party to face Caongress in more than one election at national level and ultimately becoming pole of alternative politics after 1989.

1980-1989: Another decade of Congress rise of first major opposition at larger scale in the form of BJP.

1989-90: Second non-Congress government. Janta Dal supported by BJP. It is first coalition government in true sense.

1990-91: First government supported by Congress from outside.

1991-96: First minority government lead by Congress.

All this while regional parties were rising. Lalu, Mulayam, Mayawati, Biju patnaik, Jayalalita, Mamta, Devi Lal, Bala Saheb created big regional forces.

1996-1998: Coalition governments supported by Congress just to stop BJP. Concept of political secularism gain popularity.

1998-2004: First non Congress government complete full term in office (1999-2004). Atal Bihari Vajpayee became first prime minister who was never associated with Congress in any form.

2004-2014: Return of Congress but just as leader of coalition. Families continue to dominate regional parties as well as Congress (where process started much earlier). Regional forces has achieved the peak.

2014........: Politics is changed decisively. First full majority non-Congress government in Delhi led by charismatic leader Narendra Modi. Congress, which was central script all these years is reduced to two digit. Defeated so badly that it can not even claim position of leader of opposition.

New era begins as country get first full majority government after 1984.