August 25, 2025

On August 24, 2025, the famous academic Prof. Pratap Bhanu Mehta delivered a powerful lecture on "India’s Vision for 2047" during the D. S. Borker Lecture Series. Instead of daydreams and lofty plans, he stressed hard-hitting realities. "We must focus on big problems like poverty, authoritarianism, communalism, and ecological crisis," he said, warning that ignoring these will make all plans useless. The lecture reflected deeply on India's future as it nears 100 years of freedom. Prof. Mehta pointed out that many existing visions for 2047 miss urgent problems and fail to see three main goals: ending human suffering, becoming a truly developed nation, and protecting our constitutional values of liberty, equality, and fraternity. He hit a strong note about democracy: "Civic life depends on sincerity, shared facts, and reasoned debate." According to him, democracy cannot survive if these basics collapse. He also critiqued how party-based politics is full of conflicts and partisanship, calling for "a new institutional imagination" to create structures that encourage negotiation instead of fights. Talking about India’s place in the world, Prof. Mehta said the freedom struggle is not fully over. India still needs to rise as a key player in a fair world order. He suggested thinking of South Asia as one strong, moral region to fight outside threats together. One of the most striking parts of the speech was his take on India’s civilisational identity. "The rise of Hindutva nationalism," he said, "is the single greatest assault," because it reduces our rich civilisation to ethnic identity and ignores universal spiritual values. He urged Indians to remember the deeper philosophy and spirit behind our culture. In a hopeful end, he defined spirituality as seeing the world with truth and awareness at its heart. Prof. Mehta hoped that by 2047, India will live up to Sat-Chit-Anand — meaning reality, consciousness, and bliss — showing a nation proud, wise, and true to itself.

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Tags: Pratap bhanu mehta, India vision 2047, Poverty, Democracy, Ecological crisis, Hindutva nationalism,