'Development Is Trickling Down As An Unintended Side Effect'

With over two decades of professional and personal experience in South Asia and the Indian subcontinent in particular, writer journalist Daniel Lak's forays into the country's political progression are incisive and well wrought. Motivated by the impetus to represent India's rapidly changing dimensions — devoid of stereotypes and in acknowledgement of its increasing global outreach — the author maintains a critical approach even through a striking optimism about India's future in Mantras Of Change(Penguin India, 2005) as well as India Express(Penguin India2008). As a journalist, he has operated in over 30 countries from the West to the East, from BBC to The Nepali Times, and has recently ventured as a political filmmaker. Daniel Lak explains to BW Online's Alokita Datta, his observations regarding India vis-à-vis the West and the many sectors within the country that demand attention for both recognition and rectification.

Your book Mantras Of Change was about India 'in a flux', the emergent forces and the new face of India. Is India Express part of an evolution from there?
I hope so. The first book was also a bit of a reporter's memoir of India. I wrote this book with the intention of acquainting people all over the world, (since it has been published in the UK, the US, Japan, Canada and also in India), with what was currently going on in India. This book is meant to have a conversation with people in other countries, who read the newspapers, watch television and have some awareness of what is happening here but may not know the details or be able to find explanations as to why and how India is emerging as a World Player.
 
In India Express, when you proclaim India to be the next 'liberal superpower', what are the different aspects/areas that you feel have contributed to this process?
In this book, I go over issues like the structure of society to liberal democracy, constitutional rule of law, fundamental rights of citizens. A liberal superpower is one that doesn't project military force.

Instead, [democracy] has a global role to play. As an economic player, someone who helps form the rules of trade and discourse, plays a leading role in multinational organisations such as the UN, World Bank, and is diplomatically active in resolving regional and global conflicts. India fits all these criteria. I wanted to make this argument that this country is not in a corner somewhere but is, in fact, playing a leading role in their lives [people in the West].

You seem to condone coalition governments in India. What would be your overview of their performance?
Well, there have only been coalition governments in India since 1996. However, during this time that the best growth figures have been posted and also some of the most sweeping economic changes effected. There is a lot with regard to coalition government. It's a de facto devolution of central authority. It may be a strong argument to make that India's post colonial government setup strong centre weak state, is not very workable in a country this large.

Since your research encompasses historical, official information and statistical figures along with extensive fieldwork and interviews, to what extent are the figures quoted on paper actually manifest at grass root level?
There are still huge things to be done at grass root level. I suppose development is trickling down almost as an unintended side effect. The public works programme introduced by this government is probably the first example of a central government in India since the economic reforms taking the question of the world poor seriously. Extending education to their children, access to primary health care facilities would assure people that government policies are working. State governments need to realise this more than the centre.

Who in India are/will be the agents of facilitators of this new wave that is gripping India?
At every level there are groups. The expansion in literacy is a big development. It was almost unsung for twenty years. When we talk about the middle class, we are not necessarily talking about people in cities trying to get their children higher education, (the existing elites) but people in mid sized towns who've set up small businesses. The fact is that amazing things are happening all over the country.

Agricultural changes, in Punjab have created, for lack of a better term, a world of bourgeoisie that is different from the traditional land owning elites of the countryside. These are people who have businesses that deal with agricultural services, sell cars. If you just drive through places like Ludhiana, you see a very different India from what people see outside the borders or even within. There is no one force in anything in India. It's because there are so many movements happening Agriculture is shifting from subsistence towards a supermarket move. The farmer may have to change and become more organised and efficient (as in Punjab).

Will globalisation not regiment or monopolise the diversity (that you talk about) in India?
Globalisation is a new terminology for something that has been going on for hundreds of years. I don't think there is a culture of globalisation. It is not French or British. What it does produce is a system of equitable work places, results oriented economic processes, the need for law in all spheres, (business law). One of the things that make India interesting for business people to invest in is a court system that works at least with regard to corporate law. Unlike China for instance, it doesn't work. It is corrupt and you have to use influences in the Communist Party to work through problems.

What was it that interested you to come to India as a journalist to begin with?
I visited Pakistan, India, and Nepal as a traveller when I was in my 20s. When I started working as a journalist with the BBC in the 1980s, I wanted to cover South Asia even when I was in England. The work of British journalists like Mark Tully and Derek Brown of the Guardian inspired me I was posted to Pakistan (1992-1995) which was as lively a story as it is now! I came to India started working around 1997, when the Kargil war broke out.

Last year when I was in Kashmir, filming for German French-Canadian documentaries, we were up on the line of control. These films are about Afghanistan, Pakistan and Kashmir, based around the lives of terrorists (though I would call them extremist Islamic groups) their ideas and origins. We concentrated on Kashmir, the struggle in the 1990s and how it came about after the Afghan war. If you were to look at western media it is projected as if it all started after 9/11. A journalist's job is to add to the context, which is what we tried to do. This book is also an attempt in that regard.

alokita(dot) datta(at)gmail(dot)com