It was around 2016 when the bull passed the bear for me. As an Indian-American, most of my fellow diaspora had a dismal view of India. During my prior visit in 2012, I saw a broken society, state, and, most importantly – people. I still remember the shame in my heart, a flustering heat traveling between my chest and stomach. Excuses abounded in my head for India’s condition. Colonialism, corruption, something-something white people (look, I was an impressionable college student back then), etc… But deep down, I knew the issue was internal. It was Indians. It was us. And despite being born in America, I could not run away from the melanin in my skin, from my heavily accented parents, from my alien kaleidoscopic religion, from a culture that at times is a loud announcement on the five senses. In a way, I saw the destitution of India as a reflection of me.

I grew out of this dramatic introspection with time, or perhaps I ran away from the painful reality. Two years later, my parents told me that a new Prime Minister had been elected in India, and this time, it would be different! They said he was the reason for the only non-dysfunctional thing I saw during my last visit to India, a pristine highway that looked more at home on I-95 than in Gujarat. I, of course, dismissed it.

I was reminded of the prison from The Dark Knight Rises; it was called The Pit. It is a desolate and torturous place, ironically also filmed in India amongst the decaying forts and step-wells of a once glorious past. The hope of the sky above kept the prisoners going in that abode of doom. Every so often, a prisoner would climb the walls and crevices of the circular open-air prison until they reached a fateful jump. They always tied a rope in case of a fall so that they would not be smashed into oblivion on their descent. Only one person made it out before Bruce Wayne’s eventual leap of freedom. As Bruce would learn later, the leap had to be made without the safety rope but with the risk of death. It was in 2016 that I realized that India was now being made to make a similar leap.

The Trimurti: Indra Amongst Men

Good things come in threes. Out of sheer boredom at work after recently graduating, I started to peruse Reddit and came upon the happenings in India. As many who go to that site know, r/india is now a leftist shithole, but back then it wasn’t as bad. I kept learning more and more, migrating to other forums (shout out to r/indiaspeaks), reading articles, eventually graduating to books, and growing fascinated about how India was changing, especially policy-wise (I did a degree in economics in college). Here, I came upon the first good thing and reason to be bullish on India – Narendra Modi.

Yes, we are getting political. But we must do so considering the progress made by a person whom Ray Dalio calls “India’s Deng Xiaoping.” I’ve written extensively about why Modi is the Special One. So, I’ll try to be as brief as possible in my praise.

Firstly, Modi captured the imagination of Indians not seen since leaders like Indira Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru. With one more successful term, he will ascend to the ranks of Mahatma Gandhi. His now fatherly connection with the average Indian allows him to push change in India in a way few others could ever. Actions in banking, infrastructure, space exploration, national security, investment incentives, welfare, technology, foreign policy, and so many across the board have transformed India not just now but, more importantly, lay the ground for a brighter future. While he has indeed stumbled, such as with failed reforms to land, labor, and agriculture, still, net-net, Modi has opened India up in a magnitude not seen since Prime Minister Narasimha Rao’s golden liberalization of 1991.

The combination of stability, cultural revivalism, and economic reformation makes Modi a generational leader poised for the perfect opportunity. I’m well aware I’m being blatant and partisan, but a functioning state and society need a visionary leader to establish foundations and execution. Who else better for India than a man whose name means Indra Amongst Men?

The Trimurti: A Golden Sparrow

I’ve read hundreds of primary accounts from Greek, Roman, Chinese, Korean, Arab, Turkic, European, and many other historical foreign visitors to India. So many describe a wealthy and wondrous land. A place of pilgrimage and profit. A destination rather than a destitution. A golden sparrow.

Colonialism was indeed catastrophic, but what happened after wasn’t exactly an economic masterclass. And I get it. Socialism was in vogue at the time. But it built an addiction to the government and an aversion to private enterprise. For a culture that has historically worshipped wealth and been the center of trade routes by way of Silk or sea, this is surely an anomaly. In America, the most entrepreneurial nation to ever exist, Indians are emblematic entrepreneurs. From 7/11’s to Silicon Valley, from motels to medical practices, Indians know business. Now is the time India gets to business. Luckily, a tidy macroeconomic scenario has been built by Modi and company.

Term 1 consisted of “expanding the pie,” as the late mega-capitalist Rakesh Jhunjhuwala remarked, where welfare was significantly streamlined and digitized. The hopeless heaps of Indian masses, for the first time, have been receiving water, toilets, electricity, permanent housing, gas connections, roads, and various other basics that previous governments should’ve addressed during the 67 years between Independence and 2014. More infrastructure has been built in 9 years than the previous 67 years combined. This is as damning of India’s past as it is astounding of India’s present. Various thankless and cumulative reforms to India’s backend financials and a tight fiscal hawkishness have allowed India to weather the recent macroeconomic maelstrom of the world that otherwise would’ve resulted in apocalyptic inflation as seen in its neighbor or other emerging markets.

If term one was curing the sparrow of India of its various ailments, term two has begun the process of revealing its gold.

India is still Byzantine in too many avenues. But the endless knot of bureaucracy is slowly being unwound. Initiatives such as Make in India, Atmanirbhar Bharat, Start-Up India, and perhaps most importantly, the Production-Linked Incentive (PLI) scheme have catapulted investment into India. Competitive federalism has begun to emerge as states such as Telangana, Gujarat, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, and Karnataka are rolling out the red carpet for foreign and domestic investment.

Credit must also be given to private players who collaborated with the government. India Stack and much of India’s fantastic digital infrastructure would not have been possible without India’s old and new guard of Tech giants working with the government to create Aadhar, UPI, ONDC, and various other software present and on the way. Mukesh Ambani enabled India’s mobile and internet revolution. Gautam Adani is securing India’s various resource and key supply chain needs across the world. This public-private partnership, whether via chaebols, large MNCs, or start-ups, is essential in pushing a country forward.

There is an energy about India. A vivacious current that innervates one as they touchdown on the country and visit its burgeoning cities. It’s here that we find the final piece of our trinity, of our Trimurti: Indian people.

The Trimurti: India’s Golden Generation

If Independence is granted to India, power will go to the hands of rascals, rogues, freebooters; all Indian leaders will be of low calibre and men of straw. They will have sweet tongues and silly hearts. They will fight amongst themselves for power and India will be lost in political squabbles. A day would come when even air and water would be taxed in India.

-Winston S. Churchill

In some ways, Churchill was right. There has been a dearth in the quality of Indian leadership and elites for decades. Even today, feudal savagery and naked populist pandering are ubiquitous across all parties. But Indians today possess something their ancestors did not – the internet.

Older Indians possessed a “chalta hai” attitude where India would bumble along, unable to transform into something better. Success was accidental or karmic. A sclerotic fate gripped their spines into paralysis and timidity. The only way this trance would break is if jealousy arose in their hearts due to another Indian group advancing past them, usually by way of extorting the government of another populist benefit or concession.

Younger Indians see the world. They do not simply accept India’s dysfunctions. They are profoundly pained by it in a way their parents could not be. They see the success of the West, of China, and ask why India can’t achieve such. While many Indians enjoy global memes and culture, a new ascendent elite is reflecting on the lessons of the world. On Lee Kuan Yew, on Deng Xiaoping, on Theodore Roosevelt, and indeed even on Winston Churchill. They ask why India has made so many mistakes and what must be changed. What repetitions must cease so that India’s reputation can be free of stereotypes of open defecation, of wretched pollution, of human degradation?

This feeling of Indian inferiority will and is propelling young Indians to find solutions. Luckily, there is an element of cultural pride also pervading the land that prevents a spiral into self-hate and self-destruction. This twin process of self-reflection and self-confidence is most poised in young Indians who are tech-savvy, aspirant, and cosmopolitan. Young Indians are comfortable with diversity in a way few other people are. Both Indian and global diversity cross their minds. This comfort with difference is a powerful tool. It has allowed an expansion into the Anglophone world as Indian viewpoints, technology, culture, and exports assertively enter spaces previously devoid or even barred for them. Indians are one of the few non-Western cultures that can go toe to toe with Western English speakers who have a profoundly different worldview than them. This penetration into global culture and commerce is an essential aspect of not only India’s future but also the world’s.

Most importantly, young Indians want to build. They want to accelerate out of their situation. They possess a fire and hunger that few across the world can rival. Out of all the prior reflection comes animation. Young Indians want to create. They want to own. The age of the Babu and bureaucracy must give way to the era of the entrepreneur and enterprise. India’s demographic dividend is about to come into full effect. It will be these aspirants, those who want to go beyond the status quo into a future of optimism, pride, and acceleration, that will reap the results.

Leadership, economics, and people all align for something special. No better conditions will arrive despite the many present miseries in the country. Deficiency must not calcify doubt. India must now channel that long-dormant spirit of action and exploration that was unleashed thousands of years ago on the Kurukshetra. India must accelerate.