Page 146 - Swatantrata to Atmanirbharta : Lokmanya Tilak’s legacy

not be allowed to exploit India’s ancestral wealth as they bring
no prosperity to the local people. The narrative questioned the
growth model of ‘trickledown theory’.
In 2017, POSCO decided to quit the project after 12 years
of mammoth and herculean effort of trying to convince
stakeholders about project’s benefits, a tortuous land acquisition
process, constant political confrontation, environmental
tangles, and ambiguity about allotment of mines. India lost a
great opportunity of becoming a world leader in the global steel
market, at a time when the world demand for steel was rising.
Right-thinking intelligentsia should ponder over this episode
of POSCO project and take steps to intellectually counter the
negative ‘narrative’ of keeping India poor and backward.

SUMMARY AND REFLECTION
Reviewing the experiences narrated in the preceding sections,
many thoughts about - sense of justice and respect for democratic
principles, geopolitical foresight in the interest of India, and
making the country self-sufficient by economic development –
crowd the mind. Lokmanya was fighting for swarajya which
meant self-rule and working for surajya which meant an
economically sustainable and judiciously governed State. Many
aspects such as social harmony and entrepreneurship come into
play while creating surajya. Such aspects, after Independence
have been either ignored or undermined. This attitude has
harmed Indian society and India. Right-thinking people must
take inspiration from Lokmanya’s ideals and turn back the tide
of this harmful attitude.
In the Lucknow pact, for ensuring communal harmony,
Lokmanya enunciated the principle of equality and mutual
respect and responsibility of majority and minority communities
all over the country. Post-Independence, this principle was
overturned, and appeasement politics took root. This has
resulted in rights of some citizens being greater than those of
others.

For example, minority religious and educational institutions
have been given rights of exclusivity and autonomy, which
are not given to Hindu’s institutions. This has resulted in

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