Beyond the Rose-Tinted Glasses: Why India's Past Was No Golden Age

It's baffling how often we encounter a peculiar strain of nostalgia these days – a yearning for an Indian past that, to those of us who lived through it, feels utterly alien. This isn't just a harmless glance backward; it's a dangerous romanticization of an era marked by economic hardship, limited freedoms, and a pervasive sense of stagnation.

To put it plainly, the much-vaunted socialist 'golden age' was anything but.

For decades, India was shackled by policies that promised equality but delivered widespread poverty and scarcity. I remember vividly the sheer struggle of daily life: the endless queues for basic necessities like cooking gas, cement, sugar, and milk.

Getting a telephone connection or a car was a Herculean task, often requiring years of waiting and navigating a maze of bureaucratic hurdles. This wasn't some quaint quirk; it was the suffocating reality of a command economy that stifled enterprise and innovation at every turn.

The socialist mantra preached self-reliance, yet it created a nation dependent on permits, licenses, and the whims of government officials.

Entrepreneurs, the very people who could have driven prosperity, were viewed with suspicion, their ambitions curbed by draconian regulations. This wasn't just about economic policy; it permeated the social fabric, creating a culture of scarcity where aspiration was often seen as a vice.

And let's not forget the political climate.

While some wax lyrical about the "values" of that period, they conveniently overlook the stark realities of curtailed freedoms. The infamous Emergency of 1975-77 stands as a stark reminder of how easily democratic institutions can be undermined. Newspapers were censored, critics jailed, and fundamental rights suspended.

This wasn't an anomaly; it was an extreme manifestation of a system that often prioritized state control over individual liberty.

The true turning point, the actual moment when India began to breathe and thrive, came in 1991. It was the visionary leadership of Prime Minister P.V. Narasimha Rao, with Dr.

Manmohan Singh as his Finance Minister, who dared to dismantle the License Raj and open India's economy to the world. Their reforms were met with resistance, but they laid the foundation for the vibrant, dynamic India we see today – an India of unprecedented opportunities, technological advancement, and a burgeoning middle class.

So, when I hear politicians and intellectuals mourn the loss of our socialist past, or worse, advocate for a return to those policies, I can't help but feel a profound sense of exasperation.

Are we truly so eager to forget the lessons of history? Do we want to condemn future generations to the same struggles we endured? The comforts and conveniences many now enjoy – from readily available consumer goods to global connectivity – are direct fruits of those reforms, not legacies of the era they romanticize.

It's time to put away the rose-tinted glasses.

India's journey forward has been propelled by embracing reform, not by clinging to a past that, for all its supposed ideological purity, delivered little but hardship. Our future prosperity depends on a clear-eyed understanding of our history, recognizing that progress demands looking ahead, not backward with misplaced nostalgia.