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TOLSI-PRAJNA
of the present government in Delhi. The agreement recently signed with Bangladesh on the sharing of Ganga water and the earlier agreement on the Mahakali Basin in Nepal are positive achievements. They are positive because they are generous to our small neighbours and they implicity recognize that our national interest are best safeguarded in actually contributing towards the prosperity and stability of our neighbours. Like us they are dependent on the same Himalayan watershed. They share the heritage of the Indian civili
ation. My experience tells me that winning trust and friendship through diplomacy is possible : on the other hand frightening our neighbours into docility has proved and will prove counter productive. We must give our neighbour the same respect that we demand from a great power like the United States.
But enough of the departure from the principles in our interna. tional relations. Our real strength and security depends on whether we can give a better life to our own people. Can we build what Galbraith in his last book calls “the Humane Society", a society where power is Bot abused and civil society is not at the mercy of corruption ? Fot the first time he says, there is no tangible manifestation of imperialism. A good society must be transparently responsible to its own people, for the welfare of its own citizens.
A humane and just society in today's world must also be geared to meet the ecological crisis facing the world. We in India thought we were too poor to pollute-indeed some in India, claimed the right to pollute as a method of ephancing our importance. This is a kind of post-cold war method of blackmail and attracting foreign aid. But the worst aspects of pollution crisis of breathing and of water is now on our door-step. They affect only our people. The waters of lakes in Udaipur are not potable: the roads of Delhi are promoting slow death in our capital. Many nations have taken effective steps but India with its gigantic problem of health is only now making up its mind to take steps. Our future, good or bad is largsly in our hands.
Crises are all arround us ; it is international, ecological and national. All these put together are, however, part of the moral crisis of the modern world. The real tragedy is that India's civilisational heritage for which our ancient sages had bequeathed prophetic answers was damaged if not jottisoned by modern day India after Independence. The respect for life, discipline, revulsion against extravagance, strong protest against corruption and against
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