According to Wikipedia,” The American Dream is the national ethos of the US, a set of ideals including representative democracy, rights, liberty, and equality, in which freedom is interpreted as the opportunity for individual prosperity and success, as well as upward social mobility for oneself and children, achieved through hard work in a capitalist society with few barriers”. The term was made famous in 1931 and since then has been used quite often in everyday life.
I first heard the term “The American Dream” from a professor at SUNY during my PhD when he quoted an immigrant scientist in the department who moved to the US amidst tension in his native land and made exceptional progress in his career at SUNY publishing more than 1000 papers. In his words, the immigrant scientist had lived a true “American Dream”. Perhaps, the American dream has changed over the years with passing generations, but as an outsider and someone not familiar with the topic, I won’t comment on it.
Sometime back I asked if there existed an “Indian Dream”? While searching online, I didn’t find any specific answer but an article in The Times of India where the author suggested the Indian Dream comprising “a modern India, a moderate India, a middle-income India, and a well-managed India”.
I think that in a country with so much diversity and the largest number of spoken languages across the globe, education is the only common thread that can promote individual prosperity and success. With more and more emphasis on schooling, now even rural areas are seeing growth in school-going children who are living the “Indian dream” by grabbing opportunities. The newer generation is fast-paced and technologically savvy. Thus, with changing times, Indians are creating advanced technological innovations to solve local problems. In the last decade or so, a greater number of Indians have connected to the internet than ever imagined.
With the government supporting startups, there are many unicorns in the Indian startup ecosystem with many great minds bringing forth solutions to local problems. Many higher education institutions have been set up in the last decade with improved infrastructure and opportunities.
To make an “Indian Dream” real, we as Indians have to devote our best without compromising on our minds and bodies. The article that described “Indian Dream” emphasized Indians being satisfied with a moderate lifestyle, however, I disagree with this notion. Even in airports, Indians of different socioeconomic backgrounds travel than what I had seen 15 years back. Indians don’t want to settle with the moderate but want the best of the best lifestyle. This is primarily the reason why many Indians emigrate in search of a better and more fulfilling lifestyle.
While it’s a long shot considering where India is currently, but a level playing field for all would be my ideal “Indian Dream” which takes ahead everyone in some capacity. This dream can be fulfilled by improving the literacy rate across the nation. We can only reduce the differences! After all, not all fingers are of the same size!
Hopefully, our constitution will invoke the idea of an “Indian Dream” sooner than later!