Essay, Paragraph or Speech on “Can India be a Superpower” Complete Essay, Speech for Class 10, Class 12 and Graduation and other classes.

Can India be a Superpower

For starters what makes a country a super power one could discern this from the characteristics of the countries which have been acknowledged as important powers in the second half of the 20th century. All of them (a) have a size able but manageable population (barring perhaps China) (b) are endowed with unity, political cohesion and stability (c) have structured their national economic orders which are efficient, competitive and productive (d) have trained manpower resources and high levels of technological capacities (e) have high levels of defence and military capacities and all are either in possession of or capable of nuclear and missile weaponisation and (f) practically all are democracies. Keeping these benchmarks in view the question arises is India capable of great power status in the 21st century ? The factors favouring us are (a) despite cogitation and Tension we are a democracy in which civil society is strongly committed to democratic institutions, (b) we have trained manpower resources ? (c) we have high technological potentialities, (d) we have defence capacities and military strength plus nuclear weapons and missile capacities. We are now a leading country in the world community in these respects the factors which can prevent us from becoming an important power are (a) our ineffective population control programmes, (b) high level of illiteracy and low levels of public health and educational facilities (c) we have yet to achieve genuine unity political cohesion and stability, (d) the quality of national policies as it is today is not conducive to these imperative requirements, (e) our economy, despite efforts at reforms and modernisation has a long haul ahead in becoming efficient, productive competitive and at the same time ensuring distributive justice for our vast population, (f) there is still little orientation towards\ cultivating a scientific temper and search in civil society in India. The government still plays a leading role in this particular sphere which can never be sufficient to meet national requirements or the criteria for an internationally acknowledged status, (g) we still have to carefully plan a pattern of strategic equations with other important power centres of the world to consolidate our position and to function in tandem with them to effectively influence global trends in Economic and Political Relations.

This particular exercise also involves fashioning a stable and peaceful relationship especially with our neighbours. The problem big or small that affect our relations with our important neighbours have to be resolved for us to move effectively into the international stage.

The hurdles that we have to cross and the problems that we have to solve are compounded by policy orientation of the great which have merged after the end of cold war while their declared objective is to create just political economic and technological world order, there are undercurrent in their policies which are discriminatory and which seek to perpetuate their exclusive dominance of the world. This is evident in the regimes which they are trying to put in place regarding transfer of technologies, investment flows, defence expenditure, world trade arrangement and environmental management. These are additional challenges which we have to cope with to emerge as an influential world power.

In India’s emergence as a great power then our fantasy or dream or is such a status within our reach ? I hold the view that India can be super power provided : (a) we consolidate our national unity and ensure our political stability; (b) we undertake a positive programme of public health and a public education; (c) we vigorously pursue objective of economic reform and modernisation, (d) we undertake programme to enhance our scientific and technological capacities on a continuous basis (e) we don’t succumb to inter national pressure and do not in any way reduce our defence, nuclear and missile capacities, (f) we concentrate our efforts to establish a cooperation and working relationship with all our neighoubrs. Our great power status can not be assumed only on the basis of our nuclear weapon, missile or military capacities. It is political stability and unity and economic and technological strength which should constitute the twin pillars of our power and influence.

The 21st century will witness the erosion of national boundaries and state sovereignty, as we have known these phenomena over the last 350 years. The technological and information revolution have profoundly trans-formed the constituent elements, state, power and inter state relation. We should be alert to the implementations of these trends in our domestic and internal powers. India’s aspiration to great power status is logical and legitimate in terms of its geo-strategic, demographic, ideological and social cultural characteristics. Great power status is practical possibility for India, if we engage ourselves to achieve this objective taking the above realities in account. It will, however remain a fantasy, if we believe that our past in itself can guarantee an important place for us in the world in future.