After Deng-isms, some Teddy-isms for our next Prime Minister

Most of us have lived with one reality all our adult life, viz that America is the sole surviving superpower on earth. We blithely assume that America was always a strong and great nation. But this extract from Fareed Zakaria’s seminal book, The Post-American World, should disabuse us of that notion:

In late 19th century, America was beset with domestic “drag factors” which were holding up its emergence as a global superpower (much like India today!). By 1890, it had overtaken Britain as the world’s leading economy, but was a second rung military power. Its army ranked 14th, after Bulgaria - its navy was one-eighth the size of Italy’s even though its industrial strength was 13 times Italy’s. Washington was a small, parochial town. America was a weak state. Presidents like Theodore Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson seized upon crises like the world wars and great depression to lead the country into a position of unrivalled global strength.

I believe that the United States and India have much in common because of their shared values of democracy and enterprise – and if America could seize the crises of the late 19th century, India can similarly transform today’s gloom into tomorrow’s triumph. All we need is our own Teddy Roosevelt in the Prime Minister’s Office. ( Read my earlier column on Deng-ism here )

Theodore ‘Teddy’ Roosevelt was the 26th president and served two terms from 1901-09. He considered himself a ‘steward of the people’ and was known for the ‘Square Deal.’ He was also called the “trust buster”, smashing America’s “robber baron” monopolies with ruthless reforms.

Though a Republican he tried to regulate businesses and curb the monopoly power of the oil and railway corporations. Many have drawn a parallel between America of that time and present day India, in that corporate greed and political corruption drew middle class people, especially women, out of homes and into public service. A woman journalist exposed the price-gouging business practices of Standard Oil, which led to the enactment of anti-monopoly legislation. A book on the horrible conditions of Chicago slaughterhouses led to food safety legislation and the establishment of the Food and Drug Administration. Massive immigration (26 million) from Europe and crowded city slums forced an enquiry into the causes of poverty, leading to several policy prescriptions: minimum wages, sanitation and workplace safety. Thousands of women’s clubs across the country inspected schools, brought free lunches and lobbied for free kindergartens and school playgrounds.

India is going through similar tribulations today. Anna Hazare’s anti-corruption movement coerces the government to give teeth to the Jan Lokpal Bill. The Nirbhaya rape compels lawmakers to draft a new legislation for women’s security. Social inequalities force elite schools to reserve a quarter of their seats, which are then distributed free to poorer children in the world’s largest school voucher program. But these changes are reluctant drops in an ocean of stalled reforms.

To the Hamilton Club, in Chicago, in 1899, Teddy Roosevelt said: I wish to preach not the doctrine of ignoble ease, but the doctrine of the strenuous life, the life of toil and effort, of labor and strife; to preach that highest form of success which comes, not to the man who desires mere easy peace, but to the man who does not shrink from danger, from hardship, or from bitter toil, and who out of these wins the splendid ultimate triumph.

As our next prime minister grapples with the curse of crony capitalism, he should remember that ‘The prime need is to change the conditions which enable these men to accumulate power which it is not for the general welfare that they should hold or exercise’. Without prosperity and ethical values there can be no greater society. Teddy Roosevelt said ‘No country can long endure if its foundations are not laid deep in material prosperity which comes from thrift, from business energy and enterprise, from hard, unsparing effort in the fields of industrial activity; but neither can any nation progress ever truly great if it relies upon material prosperity alone.

‘Speak softly but carry a big stick,’ was Teddy Roosevelt’s attitude to foreign policy. That’s exactly what our next prime minister should aim for!

And here is the final inspiration for a leader who wants to achieve big things: ‘Far better it is to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs, even though checkered by failure, than to rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy much nor suffer much, because they live in that grey twilight that knows neither victory nor defeat.’

Postscript: Some readers have written in confusing Teddy Roosevelt with Franklin Delano Roosevelt (FDR), who was the 32nd president from 1933 to 1945. Unlike Teddy, FDR was a Democrat. He was elected four times but did not live to complete the last term. FDR steered the country though the Great Depression and World War II. His ‘New Deal’ of massive public spending and social security measures is said to be based on the Square Deal. FDR taxed the wealthy and imposed controls on banks and public utilities. Though stricken by polio at the age of 39, and paralysed chest down (before becoming president), he largely succeeded in keeping his disability private.

While this article is strictly about Teddy-isms, there is plenty from the FDR saga to inspire our next Prime Minister too. ‘First of all, let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself – nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror, which paralyses needless efforts to convert retreat into advance.’ This extract from FDR’s first inaugural address on 4 March, 1933, is a personal favourite. It is a variant of what I said about Indian leaders in my book: ‘There is only one risk for India, and that’s the lack of confidence that India’s own leaders have in its abilities and destiny.’