Towards the Infinite Sunrise

A statement of intent

77 years and a few days ago, at the stroke of the midnight hour, India had its long-promised tryst with destiny, and our new nation awoke to life and freedom. As Nehru pointed out, however, we did not redeem our pledge wholly or in full measure — the full measure of freedom that is still denied to many, if not most of our countrymen. 

Indeed, ours is a country of courage and contradiction, of unsatisfied hunger and unselfish hospitality, of brotherhood and barbarism, of boundless invention and backbreaking inertia, caught between puranic pasts and fractal futures. It resists definition, spills over its boundaries, and jabs a paan-stained finger in the eyes of those who would seek to imprison it within the confines of one identity or another.

For those reasons, and despite them, I wouldn't want to have been born anywhere else, to live anywhere else, to be anything but Indian.

For those reasons, and despite them, I believe that the self-rule that is our birthright entrusts us with a bounden duty to work tirelessly towards a tomorrow where that full measure of freedom is rendered unto every Indian.

I speak, of course, of freedom of speech, and freedom from repression,

of freedom to live, and freedom from hunger,

of freedom of choice, and freedom from cultural constriction,

of freedom to work, and freedom from poverty,

of freedom to love, and freedom from bigotry,

of freedom to build, and freedom from stifling bureaucracy,

of free markets, and freedom from oligarchy,

and of other freedoms besides,

within our reach but not yet in our grasp.

But to see that tomorrow, we must loosen the grip of the forces that have kept the explosive creative energy of the Indian people bottled up for so long. We must unflinchingly assess the problems we face, the many obstacles arrayed ahead of us, and we must make policy, build technology, and create culture that catapults us into this future of our choosing.

On these pages, my collaborators and I seek to lay out a map for the winding road that lies ahead, to propose, step by step, a path forward through and towards unshackling each denizen of India.

The challenges that face us are immense, and the ride ahead will be bumpy, but if we can find ways to deftly navigate this treacherous terrain, we will live to witness the rise of our people as a thousand, a million, a billion splendid suns. And lo, we will sit by the shore of our ocean of souls and behold the fractal dawn, the infinite sunrise.