Indians have their own free state for the first time.

Even when we did have free areas and resisted invaders there was no one united state. Before that Guptas or even Mauryas never came close.

Remember Europeans are still trying to create their own free united state even today.

State is a technology. Modern state is a modern technology. Without advances in communication, transport and computations- the kind of state we have would not have been possible.

This has led to social and economic changes in the entire world. India is not unique in this regard.

Econ growth is impossible without a modern state. India’s state capacity and industrial complexity is definitely above its per capita income right now which is also why I think being bullish on India is a no brainer.

But wealth changes societies also. Gender + other hierarchies.

The more “modern” a state the greater the chances of both economies of scale and the diseconomies of scale.

We cannot blame it on our stars. We make our own destiny. Nothing is strictly pre-ordained even though there are patterns and trends.

The government is *not* the problem.

Since a large part of the Indian Intellectual Internet Right a decade ago were basically quasi libertarians who had problems with Islamism (me too), it was easy to blame the government - UPA being in power didn’t help. But an admin is partisan, a state is near permanent. Own it.

But over time I gave up -isms and this silly left right binary.

Some US conservatives had also tried to talk about “national greatness” when the Reagan-Thatcher idea became too dominant with Clinton-Blair. Mocking the state became a serious handicap.

We are much further behind.

We can not afford to mock our democratic, united India state. It is perhaps the biggest blessing of, by and for Dharma.

We have to own it, improve it, struggle with it, make it accountable. The state is separate from society but it is not manned by aliens. We run it. Only us.