To rival China, Sridhar Vembu says India must revive its civilisation, not just its GDP. In a post on X, Vembu says the real transformation begins when a nation sees itself not as an economy, but as a civilisation ready to rise again.
“The Chinese never thought of it merely as ‘developing the economy’. They thought of their national project as ‘reviving their great civilisation’,” Vembu wrote, drawing a parallel with the arcs of Japan and Korea, both of which underwent cultural and economic awakenings before taking their place on the global stage.
This, he said, is the one idea India must urgently internalise.
“This crucial point is so easily missed in purely economic discourse. It is about the culture and the civilisational mindset as much as it is about technology and industry.”
For India to truly develop, he argued, its people must believe they are at the beginning of a civilisational revival—not just another GDP expansion cycle. “We are not just growing the GDP and meeting quarterly numbers, as important as those may be in the short term,” Vembu wrote.
He said India’s 1,000-year history of domination and plunder—what the Chinese refer to as their “100 years of national humiliation”—has left a deep psychological scar. “We must look beyond it, as hard as that is,” he added. Only then can the nation maintain the morale and endurance needed for long-term transformation.
He also urged readers to understand what China endured to reach where it is today. “Please read the history of China, of the last 100 years,” he wrote. “Study the Great Leap Forward era 1958–62, when Mao asked poor farmers to make steel in their backyards and when about 30 million people perished as they killed landlords and intellectuals and the poor starved to death.”
He went on to describe the decade-long Cultural Revolution from 1966 to 1976, when schools and colleges were shut and patriotic citizens were denounced as landlords, intellectuals, or “capitalist roaders”—many persecuted or killed. “So much sorrow and heartbreak. So much human sacrifice to Maoist frenzy,” Vembu wrote.
And yet, China revived. “They survived all that and somehow revived their nation,” he added, pointing out that even Deng Xiaoping “didn’t have it easy at all” and barely survived three purges.
“We Indians have had it far easier,” Vembu said. “I am not saying ‘easy’ in absolute terms, but compared to what the Chinese endured, it was much easier. We need to keep this perspective. The Chinese story is an inspiration.”
That shift in thinking, Vembu believes, also changes how citizens respond to the system. “We will not complain about this shortcoming or that bad tax policy. We will not even complain too much about the corruption of our fallen political system.”
He pointed to China again, where entrepreneurs have faced all the same challenges—plus the risk of disappearing if they fall out of political favour—and yet stayed the course.
“Let’s resolve to ourselves that what we are working on is nothing less than the revival of our great civilisation,” he wrote.
