As India begins its 64th year as a republic, it is also being transformed as a western country, with the organizing principles of its politics and society rooted in the European Enlightenment. In Indian imagination, the West is viewed as a geographic concept, covering mainly the United States, Britain and parts of Europe. However, the reality is otherwise. Several countries, notably Australia, New Zealand, Japan and South Korea, are situated in the east, but in terms of their values and politics are firmly part of the West. Conversely, countries such as Russia and some in Latin America are geographically in the West but cannot be called a western country as their citizens do not enjoy the social and political freedoms available to free people in the West.

French author Guy Sorman traces the conception of the West to 25 centuries ago when the Greeks perceived themselves as Western, as opposed to the Persians, who were seen as Orientals. It was also in ancient Greece that man began imagining himself as a rational being, realizing that individual endeavor, rather than inherited beliefs, shape human life. The ideas of rationality and enlightenment travelled through the Romans to Britain and later to America and India. The very word ‘India’ came from Indus, used by Greeks to denote the territory beyond river Sindh. Today the milestones on Indian roads that show distance to our destination, or the spoons, forks and knives that we use as cutlery, have Roman roots.

Some key principles that define the West — for example, individualism, liberty and democracy — also inform the foundations of the Indian republic. The system of governance in the West, also practiced in contemporary India, is not based on religions or ideologies, as it is, for example, in Saudi Arabia and North Korea. In a western country, each citizen has a right to hold top positions, unlike in non-western countries such as Pakistan, where a Pakistani Hindu or Christian cannot even hope to become head of the state. In contemporary times, India and South Africa are emerging as western nations in terms of their values and political ideals.

Pondering over how societies progress, French sociologist Emile Durkheim argued that modern societies derive consensus from differences while traditional societies were based on consensus originating from similarities of beliefs and identities. Consensus in India today is derived from differences and is moderated by political parties, media and a secular commentariat — not by religions and castes. Some countries in the West are religious states, notably the UK, but their societies are secular with no role for religion in policy-making. India and the US are predominantly religious societies, but the state is secular. A secular Indian republic nurtured by Jawaharlal Nehru has, in political scientist Sunil Khilnani’s words, “etched itself into the imagination of Indians in a way that no previous political agency had ever done”.

From the mid-1700s onwards, as America became independent, its British rulers began searching for new colonies, arriving in India. Both America and India have emerged as products of the European Enlightenment. They defeated Britain to win independence but did not reject the principles of individual liberty, equality and democracy left by the colonists. India shares some defining principles with the West, for example, the rule of law and a justice system blind to caste and religious divisions; a civil service that treats people as Indians, not as Brahmins or Muslims; English language that connects Indians globally; freedom of the Press, a multi-party system and democratic governance. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, speaking at Oxford in 2005, noted how the founders of Indian republic — Jawaharlal Nehru, Mahatma Gandhi and B R Ambedkar — were “greatly influenced by the ideas associated with the age of Enlightenment in Europe”.

It was good for India to lose the 1857 war. If the British had not won, Indians would have been ruled by kings, queens and nawabs for a few centuries more. Caste, sati and other Hindu religious orthodoxies and Islamic rule would have dominated our lives. A British victory meant that an entirely new set of factors were introduced into our society, for example, the railways that broke the barriers of caste, or the parliamentary democracy that the founders adopted, guaranteeing a host of political and social liberties. During the past six decades, democracy in India has led to an unprecedented social and political empowerment of Dalits and women.

Few Indian writers grasp the positive consequences of the Fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 for India. Prior to that, Indian imagination was fettered by the Soviet model, a version of which known as Nehruvian socialism crippled policy-making. The Fall of the Berlin Wall vastly unshackled the Indian mind, ushering in an era of reforms that have unleashed unprecedented economic growth in India over the past two decades. As a result, India is being seen globally as a great power, capable of anchoring the international state system and strengthening the global economy in coming years.

However, a major obstacle has been a congenital Indian trait not to use power even when terrorists threaten us from abroad. “In 3,000 years of our history people from all over the world have come and invaded us, captured our lands, conquered our minds… Yet we have not done this to any other nation. We have not conquered anyone,” remarked A P J Abdul Kalam at a seminar in Hyderabad in 2005. Kalam felt that this unwillingness to use power abroad was “because we respect the freedom of others”. He is right, as India did not stay in Bangladesh despite winning the 1971 war. However, an inherent unwillingness to use power abroad when India is not a party to a conflict is changing. Now, Indian women, rifles strapped on their back shoulders, can be seen patrolling peace in faraway lands such as Liberia, on missions authorized by the international community. In the past, leftist writers have viewed the West as colonial in intent, but western nations are no longer colonizers. As India finds its respectful place internationally, as a western country it is acquiring a new sense of purpose and a willingness to use power as a force for good.