Now India is known as a country whose brain power has ‘ingenuity’ and the unique capability of ‘frugal engineering.’ It also has model corporations like the Tata Group, which have a charitable trust as is majority shareholder, and understands the true meaning of ‘stakeholders’ and ‘shareholders.’ Companies like Fabindia have shown that artisanal collectives can compete with the mass production of China, and still keep India’s delicate social balance intact. The economic success of a poor, democratic country is enough to threaten the terrorist way of life. But what really gives them sleepless nights is India’s accessible dreams. It is possible in today’s India, to go from rags to riches in one generation. There’s confidence, there’s education, there’s increasing equality.  

This is fuelled by the exuberance of India’s entertainment industry. Bollywood still produces mostly musical family fare but its stories have morals and are a handbook on how traditional, multi-religious and ethnic societies traverse the thorny path into the modern era without losing their identities. When terrorism strikes, Bollywood will show Muslims to always be the most loyal of friends. When traditionalists revolt against western cultural domination, Bollywood will tell the tale of a girl who lives in America and wears a short skirt, but can still fall in love with a son-of-the-soil and be a devoted wife in small town India. Television also unites this diverse India: talent from Kashmir to Meghalaya to Kerala dream of becoming the

Indian Idol.  

The Taj and the Oberoi symbolized this India of accessible dreams. Accessible to Indians, but also to nations like India — poor, traditional societies, some re-emerging from the dark years of colonialism or misguided socialist policies or autocratic rule, looking for affordable, democratic, socially acceptable development models which will give them hope for a bright future. Exactly what the terrorists don’t want.

... contd.