As an Indian, and now as a politician and a government minister, I've become rather concerned about the hype we're hearing about our own country, all this talk about India becoming a world leader, even the next superpower. In fact, the American publishers of my book, "The Elephant, The Tiger and the Cell Phone," added a gratuitous subtitle saying, "India: The next 21st-century power." And I just don't think that's what India's all about, or should be all about.
身為一名印度人,一名政治家, 也是一名政府部長, 我愈來愈關心 關於自己國家的討論, 這些討論全是在談印度正成為世界領袖, 甚至是下一個超級強權。 事實上,美國出版商在我的書 《大象、老虎和手機》上, 多加了一行副標題,寫著 「印度:下一個21世紀強國」 但我認為,這無法涵蓋有關印度的所有層面, 而印度也不應只是如此。
Indeed, what worries me is the entire notion of world leadership seems to me terribly archaic. It's redolent of James Bond movies and Kipling ballads. After all, what constitutes a world leader? If it's population, we're on course to top the charts. We will overtake China by 2034. Is it military strength? Well, we have the world's fourth largest army. Is it nuclear capacity? We know we have that. The Americans have even recognized it, in an agreement. Is it the economy? Well, we have now the fifth-largest economy in the world in purchasing power parity terms. And we continue to grow. When the rest of the world took a beating last year, we grew at 6.7 percent.
真正使我擔憂的是,領導世界的概念 在我看來早已過時, 讓人想到007電影 和吉卜林的詩歌。 成為世界領袖的要素究竟是什麼呢? 若是人口,我們正邁向世界首位, 2034年就會超越中國。 是軍事力量嗎?那我們有世界第四大的軍隊。 是核子武器嗎?我們知道我們有, 美國也已在一份協定當中 接受了這一點。 是經濟力量嗎?我們是目前 世界第五大經濟體, 這是按購買力平價計算的, 而且正持續成長。去年,其他國家面臨了重大衝擊, 我們卻成長了6.7%。
But, somehow, none of that adds up to me, to what I think India really can aim to contribute in the world, in this part of the 21st century. And so I wondered, could what the future beckons for India to be all about be a combination of these things allied to something else, the power of example, the attraction of India's culture, what, in other words, people like to call "soft power."
但我仍覺得,這些都無法成為 我心中印度真正能對這個世界, 這個21世紀作出的貢獻。 我想知道, 印度所邁向的未來, 能否是上述事物與其他東西的結合, 比方說, 印度文化的吸引力, 也就是一般所說的「軟實力」。
Soft power is a concept invented by a Harvard academic, Joseph Nye, a friend of mine. And, very simply, and I'm really cutting it short because of the time limits here, it's essentially the ability of a country to attract others because of its culture, its political values, its foreign policies. And, you know, lots of countries do this. He was writing initially about the States, but we know the Alliance Francaise is all about French soft power, the British Council. The Beijing Olympics were an exercise in Chinese soft power. Americans have the Voice of America and the Fulbright scholarships. But, the fact is, in fact, that probably Hollywood and MTV and McDonalds have done more for American soft power around the world than any specifically government activity.
軟實力的概念是由一名哈佛學者所提出, 他是約瑟夫‧奈,是我的朋友。 這個概念很簡單,因為時間關係,我就簡短解釋, 軟實力基本上是一國吸引其他國家的能力, 這個吸引力來自其文化、其政治價值觀, 以及外交政策。 許多國家都在進行這項工作。他本來寫的是美國, 但我們知道法國文化協會 就是法國的軟實力,英國文化協會亦然。 北京奧運是中國軟實力的展現, 美國則有美國之聲和傅爾布萊特獎助學金。 不過,事實上, 好萊塢、音樂電視網和麥當勞 對美國影響世界的軟實力作出的貢獻, 可能大過任何的政府活動。
So soft power is something that really emerges partly because of governments, but partly despite governments. And in the information era we all live in today, what we might call the TED age, I'd say that countries are increasingly being judged by a global public that's been fed on an incessant diet of Internet news, of televised images, of cellphone videos, of email gossip. In other words, all sorts of communication devices are telling us the stories of countries, whether or not the countries concerned want people to hear those stories.
因此軟實力是真正展現出來的東西, 部分是因為政府力量, 但部分則與政府無關。 今天,我們生活在資訊時代中, 我們或許稱其為TED時代, 我會說國家逐漸受到 來自全球大眾的評斷, 人們每天不斷接收網路新聞、 電視影像、 手機影片、電子郵件中的八卦流言, 換句話說,各種通訊設備 都在告訴我們各國的消息, 不管這些國家是否願意讓人知道這些訊息。
Now, in this age, again, countries with access to multiple channels of communication and information have a particular advantage. And of course they have more influence, sometimes, about how they're seen. India has more all-news TV channels than any country in the world, in fact in most of the countries in this part of the world put together.
現在,在這個時代,同樣地, 能夠增加溝通和資訊管道的國家, 就擁有特定的優勢, 當然有時也較能影響別人對它們的看法。 印度的電視新聞頻道, 比任一國家都還多, 實際上是多過世界各國所有的新聞頻道總數。
But, the fact still is that it's not just that. In order to have soft power, you have to be connected. One might argue that India has become an astonishingly connected country. I think you've already heard the figures. We've been selling 15 million cellphones a month. Currently there are 509 million cellphones in Indian hands, in India. And that makes us larger than the U.S. as a telephone market. In fact, those 15 million cellphones are the most connections that any country, including the U.S. and China, has ever established in the history of telecommunications.
但這樣仍是不夠的。 要擁有軟實力,就要與外界連結。 也許有人會說,印度已經成為 一個與外界達成驚人連結的國家。 我想你們已經聽過這些數字, 我們每個月賣出1500萬支手機, 目前印度有5.09億 手機用戶, 使印度電話市場大過美國。 事實上,每月1500萬支手機的銷量, 在任何一個國家, 包括美國和中國, 在電信史上都不曾達成。
But, what perhaps some of you don't realize is how far we've come to get there. You know, when I grew up in India, telephones were a rarity. In fact, they were so rare that elected members of Parliament had the right to allocate 15 telephone lines as a favor to those they deemed worthy. If you were lucky enough to be a wealthy businessman or an influential journalist, or a doctor or something, you might have a telephone. But sometimes it just sat there.
但也許有些人不明白, 我們花了多大力氣才有今天。 要知道,我在印度長大, 當時電話非常稀有, 少到當選的國會成員權利 是可以把15條電話線 分送給他們認為重要的人。 如果你正好是名富商, 或是具影響力的記者、醫生等等,你或許就能有部電話。 可是,有時候電話只能成為擺飾。
I went to high school in Calcutta. And we would look at this instrument sitting in the front foyer. But half the time we would pick it up with an expectant look on our faces, there would be no dial tone. If there was a dial tone and you dialed a number, the odds were two in three you wouldn't get the number you were intending to reach. In fact the words "wrong number" were more popular than the word "Hello." (Laughter) If you then wanted to connect to another city, let's say from Calcutta you wanted to call Delhi, you'd have to book something called a trunk call, and then sit by the phone all day, waiting for it to come through. Or you could pay eight times the going rate for something called a lightning call. But, lightning struck rather slowly in our country in those days, so, it was like about a half an hour for a lightning call to come through.
過去我在加爾各答讀高中, 我們看著這台機器擺在玄關, 但當我們拿起話筒, 一臉期待, 話筒裡卻常常沒有撥號音。 如果聽見撥號音,你撥個號碼, 有三分之二的情況是你無法打到正確的地方, 其實聽到「空號」的時候比聽到「哈囉」還多。 (笑) 如果你想打電話到另一個城市, 例如從加爾各答打到德里, 你得打一種長途電話, 然後坐在電話旁一整天,等你的電話接通。 或者你也可以付8倍的費率 打「閃電通話」, 不過在當時的印度,「閃電」的速度似乎也比較慢, 所以「閃電通話」要接通也得花上半小時。
In fact, so woeful was our telephone service that a Member of Parliament stood up in 1984 and complained about this. And the Then-Communications Minister replied in a lordly manner that in a developing country communications are a luxury, not a right, that the government had no obligation to provide better service, and if the honorable Member wasn't satisfied with his telephone, could he please return it, since there was an eight-year-long waiting list for telephones in India.
事實上,我們的電話服務 差到曾有國會成員在1984年出聲抱怨。 當時的通訊部長高傲地回應, 表示在開發中國家, 通訊是奢侈品,而非權利, 政府沒有義務提供更好的服務。 如果這位仁兄不滿意他的電話, 能否請他繳回, 因為印度還有一大票人排隊等著要。
Now, fast-forward to today and this is what you see: the 15 million cell phones a month. But what is most striking is who is carrying those cell phones. You know, if you visit friends in the suburbs of Delhi, on the side streets you will find a fellow with a cart that looks like it was designed in the 16th century, wielding a coal-fired steam iron that might have been invented in the 18th century. He's called an isthri wala. But he's carrying a 21st-century instrument. He's carrying a cell phone because most incoming calls are free, and that's how he gets orders from the neighborhood, to know where to collect clothes to get them ironed.
現在,快轉到今天的印度, 你們看到的是每月銷售1500萬支手機。 但是哪些人持有這些手機則是最讓人驚訝。 你知道嗎,如果你到德里郊區去找朋友, 你會在小路上看到一名推著車的小伙子, 車看起來像是16世紀的設計, 手中使用的燃煤蒸汽熨斗 則可能是18世紀發明的, 他被稱作isthri wala,但他卻帶著21世紀的工具, 他帶著一支手機,因為大部分來電是免費的, 他就是靠手機來接當地的生意, 知道去哪收集要燙的衣服。
The other day I was in Kerala, my home state, at the country farm of a friend, about 20 kilometers away from any place you'd consider urban. And it was a hot day and he said, "Hey, would you like some fresh coconut water?" And it's the best thing and the most nutritious and refreshing thing you can drink on a hot day in the tropics, so I said sure. And he whipped out his cellphone, dialed the number, and a voice said, "I'm up here." And right on top of the nearest coconut tree, with a hatchet in one hand and a cell phone in the other, was a local toddy tapper, who proceeded to bring down the coconuts for us to drink.
有天我在家鄉喀拉拉, 到一名朋友的鄉下農莊, 離城鎮大約20公里遠, 那天很熱,他問我:「嘿,想喝新鮮椰子水嗎?」 在熱帶的夏天裡,那是最好、最營養清爽的飲料, 所以我說好。 他掏出手機,撥了號碼, 有個聲音說:「我就在上面。」 接著就在最近的椰子樹上, 有個人一手拿著小斧,一手拿著手機, 是個當地賣椰子水的, 開始把椰子帶下來給我們喝。
Fishermen are going out to sea and carrying their cell phones. When they catch the fish they call all the market towns along the coast to find out where they get the best possible prices. Farmers now, who used to have to spend half a day of backbreaking labor to find out if the market town was open, if the market was on, whether the product they'd harvested could be sold, what price they'd fetch. They'd often send an eight year old boy all the way on this trudge to the market town to get that information and come back, then they'd load the cart. Today they're saving half a day's labor with a two minute phone call.
漁民出海時也帶著手機, 抓到魚的時候,他們就打電話給沿海的市集, 看看哪裡可以賣到最好的價錢。 過去農人得辛苦大半天, 才能知道市集有沒有開, 如果開了, 還得知道他們的作物能不能賣、價格如何。 通常他們會派個8歲小男孩做這項苦差事, 先到市集去打聽消息, 再回來裝載貨物。 現在他們省了半天勞力,只要花兩分鐘打電話就好。
So this empowerment of the underclass is the real result of India being connected. And that transformation is part of where India is heading today. But, of course that's not the only thing about India that's spreading. You've got Bollywood. My attitude to Bollywood is best summarized in the tale of the two goats at a Bollywood garbage dump -- Mr. Shekhar Kapur, forgive me -- and they're chewing away on cans of celluloid discarded by a Bollywood studio. And the first goat, chewing away, says, "You know, this film is not bad." And the second goat says, "No, the book was better." (Laughter)
這種下層階級的權力提升, 就是印度達成訊息連結的真正結果, 而如此轉變,是今天印度邁向的目標之一。 不過這當然不是印度唯一正在傳播的東西。 你們都聽過寶萊塢,我對寶萊塢的態度可以用 兩頭山羊在垃圾場的故事來約略說明─ 抱歉,夏喀爾‧喀普爾先生─ 兩頭羊嚼著一罐寶萊塢電影院丟棄的膠卷。 一頭羊邊嚼邊說:「這電影不錯。」 另一頭說:「不,我覺得書比較好。」 (笑)
I usually tend to think that the book is usually better, but, having said that, the fact is that Bollywood is now taking a certain aspect of Indian-ness and Indian culture around the globe, not just in the Indian diaspora in the U.S. and the U.K., but to the screens of Arabs and Africans, of Senegalese and Syrians. I've met a young man in New York whose illiterate mother in a village in Senegal takes a bus once a month to the capital city of Dakar, just to watch a Bollywood movie. She can't understand the dialogue. She's illiterate, so she can't read the French subtitles. But these movies are made to be understood despite such handicaps, and she has a great time in the song and the dance and the action. She goes away with stars in her eyes about India, as a result.
我一直認為書通常都比較好, 話雖如此, 其實寶萊塢現在 正藉著某方面在全球傳播印度特色和印度文化, 不只是在美國和英國的印度僑民之間散佈, 也搬上了阿拉伯、非洲、塞內加爾和敘利亞的銀幕。 我曾在紐約遇到一名年輕人, 他不識字的母親住在塞內加爾的村落, 每個月搭一次公車到首都達卡, 就為了看一部寶萊塢電影。 她看不懂對白, 因為不識字,所以她看不懂法文字幕。 不過就算是這樣的人,也一樣能了解電影內容, 她非常享受片中的歌舞和動作, 透過明星,她得到了關於印度的印象。
And this is happening more and more. Afghanistan, we know what a serious security problem Afghanistan is for so many of us in the world. India doesn't have a military mission there. You know what was India's biggest asset in Afghanistan in the last seven years? One simple fact: you couldn't try to call an Afghan at 8:30 in the evening. Why? Because that was the moment when the Indian television soap opera, "Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi," dubbed into Dari, was telecast on Tolo T.V. And it was the most popular television show in Afghan history. Every Afghan family wanted to watch it. They had to suspend functions at 8:30. Weddings were reported to be interrupted so guests could cluster around the T.V. set, and then turn their attention back to the bride and groom. Crime went up at 8:30. I have read a Reuters dispatch -- so this is not Indian propaganda, a British news agency -- about how robbers in the town of Musarri Sharif* stripped a vehicle of its windshield wipers, its hubcaps, its sideview mirrors, any moving part they could find, at 8:30, because the watchmen were busy watching the T.V. rather than minding the store. And they scrawled on the windshield in a reference to the show's heroine, "Tulsi Zindabad": "Long live Tulsi." (Laughter)
現在,這種情況愈來愈多。 再說阿富汗,我們知道阿富汗對世上許多人來說 是如何嚴重的安全威脅, 而印度在那裡沒有駐軍。 你知道過去7年,印度在阿富汗最大的資產是什麼嗎? 是這件事: 你無法在晚上8點半打電話給阿富汗人。 為什麼呢? 因為那時是印度的電視連續劇, [印度語]經過Dhurrie語配音後,在Todo頻道播出的時間。 那是阿富汗史上最受歡迎的電視節目, 每個阿富汗家庭都想看, 他們的生活在8點半時完全停止運作, 就連婚禮也會暫停, 讓賓客可以聚在電視機前看節目, 結束後再把注意力轉回新人身上。 犯罪率在8點半時上升。我讀過一篇路透社的報導─ 路透社是英國媒體,所以這不是印度的宣傳─ 報導中提到,Musarri Sharif地方的搶匪 如何偷走一輛車的雨刷、 輪蓋、側視鏡, 以及所有拿得走的東西。這都在8點半時發生, 因為守衛忙著看電視,沒有注意店鋪。 搶匪還在擋風玻璃上寫跟劇中女主角有關的字句: 「Tulsi Zindabad」:「Tulsi萬歲」 (笑)
That's soft power. And that is what India is developing through the "E" part of TED: its own entertainment industry. The same is true, of course -- we don't have time for too many more examples -- but it's true of our music, of our dance, of our art, yoga, ayurveda, even Indian cuisine. I mean, the proliferation of Indian restaurants since I first went abroad as a student, in the mid '70s, and what I see today, you can't go to a mid-size town in Europe or North America and not find an Indian restaurant. It may not be a very good one. But, today in Britain, for example, Indian restaurants in Britain employ more people than the coal mining, ship building and iron and steel industries combined. So the empire can strike back. (Applause)
這就是軟實力,就是印度正透過 TED的「E」發展的東西: 我們的娛樂(entertainment)產業。 當然這也適用於其他部分─我們沒時間講太多例子─ 但我們的音樂、舞蹈、 藝術、瑜珈、草藥醫學,甚至飲食都正發揮影響。 像是印度料理餐廳大量增加的時候, 我第一次到海外留學,那是1970年代中期。 現在就我所見,每個歐洲或美國的中型城鎮, 都能找到一間印度料理店,雖然可能不是很道地。 不過,以現在的英國為例, 在英國,印度餐廳 雇用的人手比採煤、 造船、鋼鐵工業等的雇員加起來還多, 這樣帝國還能反擊嗎? (掌聲)
But, with this increasing awareness of India, with yoga and ayurveda, and so on, with tales like Afghanistan, comes something vital in the information era, the sense that in today's world it's not the side of the bigger army that wins, it's the country that tells a better story that prevails. And India is, and must remain, in my view, the land of the better story. Stereotypes are changing. I mean, again, having gone to the U.S. as a student in the mid '70s, I knew what the image of India was then, if there was an image at all.
但是,伴隨人們對印度漸增的興趣、 伴隨你我和眾人、 伴隨在阿富汗發生的故事而來的, 是在這個資訊時代的重要訊息, 也就是在當今世界, 不是擁有強大軍隊的一方勝利, 而是故事說得比較好的國家,才能獨領風騷。 我認為,印度是是故事比較好的國家,而且必須保持。 刻板印象正在改變。這裡要再次提到, 作為一名在1970年代中期的留美學生, 如果印度曾給人一種印象,我知道那印象是什麼。
Today, people in Silicon Valley and elsewhere speak of the IITs, the Indian Institutes of Technology with the same reverence they used to accord to MIT. This can sometimes have unintended consequences. OK. I had a friend, a history major like me, who was accosted at Schiphol Airport in Amsterdam, by an anxiously perspiring European saying, "You're Indian, you're Indian! Can you help me fix my laptop?" (Laughter)
現在,矽谷和其他地方的人 談到IITs,也就是印度理工學院, 就像他們談及麻省理工時一樣推崇。 這有時候會造成一些意外的情況。 我有個朋友,跟我一樣主修歷史, 在阿姆斯特丹的史基浦機場, 有個急得滿頭大汗的歐洲人跑去問他: 「你是印度人!你是印度人!可以幫我修理筆電嗎?」 (笑)
We've gone from the image of India as land of fakirs lying on beds of nails, and snake charmers with the Indian rope trick, to the image of India as a land of mathematical geniuses, computer wizards, software gurus. But that too is transforming the Indian story around the world. But, there is something more substantive to that. The story rests on a fundamental platform of political pluralism. It's a civilizational story to begin with. Because India has been an open society for millennia. India gave refuge to the Jews, fleeing the destruction of the first temple by the Babylonians, and said thereafter by the Romans.
印度的形象, 已經從躺在釘床上的苦行僧, 還有表演繩索特技的弄蛇人, 變成印度充滿數學天才、 電腦奇才、軟體專家, 但這也改變了印度在世界各地的故事。 不過,除此之外,還有更重要的東西。 印度的故事建立在一個基礎上, 也就是政治多元化。 這是個印度逐漸邁向文明的故事。 因為千年以來,印度一直是個開放的社會, 印度給予猶太人庇護,他們從摧毀第一聖殿的 巴比倫人手中逃離,後來又據說是從羅馬人那裡逃離。
In fact, legend has is that when Doubting Thomas, the Apostle, Saint Thomas, landed on the shores of Kerala, my home state, somewhere around 52 A.D., he was welcomed on shore by a flute-playing Jewish girl. And to this day remains the only Jewish diaspora in the history of the Jewish people, which has never encountered a single incident of anti-semitism. (Applause) That's the Indian story. Islam came peacefully to the south, slightly more differently complicated history in the north. But all of these religions have found a place and a welcome home in India.
事實上,傳說事事懷疑的湯瑪斯,使徒聖湯瑪斯 在我的家鄉喀拉拉沿海上岸的時候, 那時大概是西元52年, 有個吹笛的猶太女孩在岸邊歡迎他。 到今天,這是唯一一個 在猶太人歷史上, 從未發生反猶太事件的猶太僑居地。 (掌聲) 這就是印度的故事, 伊斯蘭教和平來到南方, 北方的歷史則是稍微複雜了點, 但是,這些宗教全都在印度找到安身之所。
You know, we just celebrated, this year, our general elections, the biggest exercise in democratic franchise in human history. And the next one will be even bigger, because our voting population keeps growing by 20 million a year. But, the fact is that the last elections, five years ago, gave the world extraordinary phenomenon of an election being won by a woman political leader of Italian origin and Roman Catholic faith, Sonia Gandhi, who then made way for a Sikh, Mohan Singh, to be sworn in as Prime Minister by a Muslim, President Abdul Kalam, in a country 81 percent Hindu. (Applause)
今年我們剛舉行過大選, 那是人類史上規模最大的民主活動, 且下一次的規模還會更大,因為我們的投票人口 每年增加2000萬人。 但事實上, 上一次的大選,那是在五年前, 讓全世界看見過去沒有的景象, 由女性政治領袖贏得選舉, 她是義大利裔的天主教徒,桑妮雅‧甘地, 讓信仰錫克教的曼莫漢‧辛格 當上印度總理, 而且是經由身為穆斯林的總統卡蘭手中, 在印度教徒占總人口81%的國家上任。 (掌聲)
This is India, and of course it's all the more striking because it was four years later that we all applauded the U.S., the oldest democracy in the modern world, more than 220 years of free and fair elections, which took till last year to elect a president or a vice president who wasn't white, male or Christian. So, maybe -- oh sorry, he is Christian, I beg your pardon -- and he is male, but he isn't white. All the others have been all those three. (Laughter) All his predecessors have been all those three, and that's the point I was trying to make. (Laughter)
這就是印度,而且這相當引人注意, 因為四年後,我們都稱讚美國, 這個現代世界實行民主最久的國家, 實施超過220年的自由公平選舉, 但一直要到去年的選舉, 才打破“白人男性基督徒”的慣例。 所以,也許─噢抱歉,他是基督徒,原諒我說錯了─ 而且他是男的,不過他不是白人。 其他美國總統都包含那三項條件。 (笑) 在他之前的美國總統都包含這三點, 這才是我剛剛想說的重點。 (笑)
But, the issue is that when I talked about that example, it's not just about talking about India, it's not propaganda. Because ultimately, that electoral outcome had nothing to do with the rest of the world. It was essentially India being itself. And ultimately, it seems to me, that always works better than propaganda. Governments aren't very good at telling stories. But people see a society for what it is, and that, it seems to me, is what ultimately will make a difference in today's information era, in today's TED age.
但是,問題是, 我舉了這個例子, 不只是在談論印度,不是在幫印度宣傳。 因為到最後,選舉的結果 跟其他國家毫無關係, 本質上是關於印度本身。 而且最終,在我看來, 這似乎比刻意宣傳更有效。 各國政府不太擅長說故事, 但是人們看到的是真實的社會, 而我認為,這才能夠 影響今天的資訊時代, 影響這個TED年代。
So India now is no longer the nationalism of ethnicity or language or religion, because we have every ethnicity known to mankind, practically, we've every religion know to mankind, with the possible exception of Shintoism, though that has some Hindu elements somewhere. We have 23 official languages that are recognized in our Constitution. And those of you who cashed your money here might be surprised to see how many scripts there are on the rupee note, spelling out the denominations. We've got all of that. We don't even have geography uniting us, because the natural geography of the subcontinent framed by the mountains and the sea was hacked by the partition with Pakistan in 1947. In fact, you can't even take the name of the country for granted, because the name "India" comes from the river Indus, which flows in Pakistan.
所以現在的印度,已不再 秉持種族、語言或宗教的民族主義, 因為我們的人民幾乎涵蓋所有種族, 我們也有世界上所有的宗教, 只有神道教可能例外, 雖然那其中包含一些印度教的成分。 我們的憲法中規定了23種官方語言, 曾在這裡換過現金的人, 也許會嚇到,因為盧比上寫了 許多種語言,全是用來表示面額。 我們擁有的就是這些。 我們甚至沒有地理條件來幫助我們團結, 因為次大陸的地理環境 被山與海包圍,而這個外框 在1947年被巴基斯坦的分裂打破。 事實上,你甚至不能把這個國家的名字看作理所當然。 因為「印度」這個名稱來自印度河, 而印度河位於巴基斯坦境內。
But, the whole point is that India is the nationalism of an idea. It's the idea of an ever-ever-land, emerging from an ancient civilization, united by a shared history, but sustained, above all, by pluralist democracy. That is a 21st-century story as well as an ancient one. And it's the nationalism of an idea that essentially says you can endure differences of caste, creed, color, culture, cuisine, custom and costume, consonant, for that matter, and still rally around a consensus. And the consensus is of a very simple principle, that in a diverse plural democracy like India you don't really have to agree on everything all the time, so long as you agree on the ground rules of how you will disagree. The great success story of India, a country that so many learned scholars and journalists assumed would disintegrate, in the '50s and '60s, is that it managed to maintain consensus on how to survive without consensus.
但是,重點是印度 是一個民族主義的概念。 這個概念是一片無垠的土地, 源自一種古老的文明, 因為共同的歷史而結合, 但最重要的是透過多元民主來長遠發展。 這是個21世紀的故事,也是個古老的故事。 而且這個民族主義的概念, 主張的是你可以包容各種差異,包括種姓、宗教、 膚色、文化、飲食、風俗、服裝、子音等等, 而且仍然團結,具有共識。 這個共識是個很簡單的原則, 就是在像印度一樣複雜多元的民主制度中, 你並不需要同意每一件事, 只要你遵守基本的規則, 知道如何表達你的不同意。 印度, 這個在1950和60年代,被許多學者專家和新聞工作者 認為會瓦解的國家,其成功的故事在於 印度努力維持了一項共識,就是「如何在沒有共識中生存」。
Now, that is the India that is emerging into the 21st century. And I do want to make the point that if there is anything worth celebrating about India, it isn't military muscle, economic power. All of that is necessary, but we still have huge amounts of problems to overcome. Somebody said we are super poor, and we are also super power. We can't really be both of those. We have to overcome our poverty. We have to deal with the hardware of development, the ports, the roads, the airports, all the infrastructural things we need to do, and the software of development, the human capital, the need for the ordinary person in India to be able to have a couple of square meals a day, to be able to send his or her children to a decent school, and to aspire to work a job that will give them opportunities in their lives that can transform themselves.
現在在21世紀崛起的國家是印度, 而我要在此強調, 如果印度有什麼值得讚美的東西, 那絕非軍事或經濟的力量。 那些都是必要的, 但我們仍有成堆的問題尚待解決。 有些人說我們是超級窮國,也是超級強權, 而我們不可能真的身兼二者。 我們必須擺脫貧窮,必須解決 國家發展的硬體建設問題, 像是港口、道路、機場, 這些我們必須進行的公共建設, 以及軟體方面, 例如人力資本,例如讓一般印度人民 可以每天吃得飽足, 有能力送他/她的子女 上一間好學校, 並且有志得到一份 能在他們生命中, 讓他們有機會翻身的工作。
But, it's all taking place, this great adventure of conquering those challenges, those real challenges which none of us can pretend don't exist. But, it's all taking place in an open society, in a rich and diverse and plural civilization, in one that is determined to liberate and fulfill the creative energies of its people. That's why India belongs at TED, and that's why TED belongs in India. Thank you very much. (Applause)
但是,我們必須克服這些挑戰,這是一項大工程, 我們不能假裝這些真正的挑戰不存在。 這一切都發生在一個開放的社會中, 在一個富裕、歧異而多元的文明當中, 這個社會必定要釋放並滿足 人民的創意能量。 這就是印度為何屬於TED, 也是TED為何屬於印度。 非常謝謝大家。 (掌聲)