IP Infrastructure

In the beginning, there were two nations. One was the vast, mighty, and magnificent empire, brilliantly organized and culturally unified, which dominated a massive swath of the earth. The other was an underdeveloped, semi-feudal realm, riven by religious factionalism and barely able to feed its illiterate, diseased, and stinking masses. The first nation was India. The second was England. ~ Alex von Tunzelmann?in her book?Indian Summer

? Rahul Dutta | November 6, 2022 | 10th Issue

Introduction

It is a well-known fact that there is nothing mightier than time. Across the great Himalayan range, two civilizations, China and India have flourished for centuries. These two civilizations virtually ruled international trade from the first A.D. (trade accounted for 33% of its GDP in the seventeenth century). It may be noted there are no records of bitterness or war between these two civilizations during these seventeen centuries. The wisdom accumulated over time was perhaps responsible for such mature behavior which was focused on the well-being of the people and endeavoring to bring prosperity.?

In agriculture-centric civilizations, trade was based on free will and mutual consent. In India, the economic structure was supported by well-established institutions of knowledge, patronage of art, science & technology, and commerce. The ancient Indian temples are examples of the epitome of knowledge, art, and culture.?

The East India Company having a charter granted by their Royals first landed in India in 1608 AD and in the year 1615 Sir Thomas Roe secured trading permission from Emperor Jahangir. Mr. Shashi Tharoor?in his legendary book?An Era of Darkness, informs that Emperor Jahangir's son Emperor Aurangzeb's total income was $450,000,000, more than ten times that of his contemporary Louis XIV. Emperor Aurangzeb's 50-year reign was a narrative of iron rule and highhandedness towards the native Hindus. Forced conversion, kidnapping and forced marriages of girls, and murder for refusing to convert to Islam were common during his time. Even then the entrepreneurship survived and made Aurangzeb 10 times richer than Louis XIV.

The apologist British colonialism History hides the real tales of turning coats of traders to the rulers of British India. When East India Company was established in 1600 AD, the British share was just 1.8% of the world GDP, while India was generating 23%. The license to trade in India opened a jackpot for the British as between 1757 and 1900 British GDP increased in real terms by 347 percent, and India by a mere 14 percent.

India saw three classes of invaders. First, who came, looted and massacred, and went back with their bounty. Second, who came with the intent to loot but realized that looting in perpetuity is better than the Rulers and thus settled here. Third, came traders, astonished by the wealth of the nation, who failed to carry out profitable trade due to the poor quality of their products, eyed ‘opportunities’ to rule, looted the country and its resources, impoverished the country, and went back dividing the country.

The rise and fall of India was due to its unmatched power to create prosperity. Ancient Hindu literature?Maha Upnishadphrase?Vasudhav Kutumbkam?(the whole world is one family) is embodied in the Indian ethos.??This under lying philosophy has led the Indians to hardly perceive any one as their enemy. This cultural ethos is responsible for creating intellectual property infrastructure and a robust trade and commerce system.

The Silk Route

The journey of international trade is interwoven with international relationships, peace, and security. Its ultimate objective is to nurture trading interests.?The Silk Road was a network of Eurasian trade routes active from the second century BCE until the mid-15th century. Spanning over 6,400 kilometers. The Silk Route played a central role in facilitating economic, cultural, political, and religious interactions between the East and West.?During the Han dynasty in the 3rd?century BC, China used military force to ensure the safety of?the Silk Route. The?ancient Silk Route helped China and India to carry out almost half of the international trade for centuries till the arrival of the?industrial revolution.?

Much before the Columbus discovery, the developed countries of yesteryears, China and India, had all means including the technology to make?big merchant ships. Needless to mention that the British discovered the shipbuilding industry in India which they simply destroyed after learning the technology behind shipbuilding.?

The Modern Silk Route: Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) of China

The rise of modern China is because of the opening of the Chinese economy to the world in the 1970s. Ambitious China has initiated a?$ 900 billion ambitious project?Belt and Road Action Plan,?popularly known as the?modern Silk Route?to serve its business interests in 68 countries covering 68% population of the world and covering one-third of the global GDP.

The Belt and Road project of China is its biggest foreign policy bet to dominate 68 nations in Eurasia wherefrom the route passes by. Launched in 2013, ‘One Belt, One road’, is an initiative by China that assumes global leadership by China. As per?the Economist, July 17th,?2021 issue, the present US President Mr. Joe Biden believes that China is less interested in coexistence and more interested in dominance. Many countries are alarmed by China’s ‘wolf warrior’ diplomacy. This is the difference between the ancient Silk Route and the present ‘One Belt, One Road Initiative (BRI).

China has signed more than?170 BRI cooperation agreements with 125 countries?and 29 international organizations across the globe. China has already invested $800 billion in the BRI.?

This is of course emulating the past for winning more and more shares in international trade. The only difference between the ancient and the modern Silk route is China’s yearning to dominate to such an extent that competition is nullified. This is based on the rise of China as the highest IP application filing country. The rise of Chinese business and industry is funded by the Chinese Government. When a State steps into the shoes of traders and commerce players, the ecosystem of the game rules crumbles. States are meant to make rules, regulations, and laws for the entire ecosystem for its territories and then ensure its compliance. The real valuation position of the Chinese business empire is opaque for this reason. However, this has resulted in prosperity for its citizens and is a big win for the welfare measures of China.

The attempt to assume a global leadership position has been met with stiff resistance. Under the US leadership, other developed countries have tried many attempts to initiate a counter-global infrastructure plan but they have come to a cropper. The latest counter project was the launch of a $600 billion?Partnership for Global Infrastructure and Investment?in low and middle-income countries by the G7 countries in the next 5 years.??This amount is much lesser than the?Chinese $800 billion investment in BRI.?

It is for the first time in modern history, the dominant developed countries are joining hands to emulate the Chinese foreign policy initiative.

Between the two Silk Roads

When Britishers came to India as traders, they found technically sound technologies in metallurgy resulting in flourishing iron and steel production. The entire coastline was equipped with ship-building technology. The English machine-made fabric was no match for Indian cotton and silk fabric. Indians excelled at mathematics, physics, medicine, mining, metallurgy, fabric tech, and even ship-building technology. India-made steel ‘wootz’ was renowned as the world’s finest. The Indian currency was the strongest in the 17th century. The indigenous banking system was well-established to cater to even international trade.?

The entire ecosystem of trade and commerce was systematically destroyed by the British.?Mr. Shashi Tharoor?in his legendary book?An Era of Darkness, mentions that?the Bengali Novelist Bankim Chandra Chatterjee wrote of the English who could not control their greed?and from whose vocabulary the word morality had disappeared. Greed and morality are still alien to the modern business world.

Conclusion

The developed economies are saturated because only a small fraction of the world’s population lives there. New means are being devised to counter this. The infrastructure initiatives in this regard appear as if history is getting repeated. The British built railroads in India to swiftly transfer the resources to England. Global connectivity through both soft and hard infrastructure is not in the spirit of the ancient Silk Route or the World Trade Organization (WTO). If Chines BRI is blamed for dominance, the competitors ‘Partnership for Global Infrastructure and Investment’ is also a similar attempt under different leadership. It can be concluded that new means of colonization are being devised in the guise of trade with the aim of cornering global resources besides establishing global hegemony.?

East India Company was bought by an Indian Sanjeev Mehta. During British Raj, British establishments in India use to sport signs saying Indians and dogs were not allowed. Being expelled from Watson Hotel in Bombay, Mr. Jamsetji Tata build one of the world’s finest hotels Taj Mahal. The tide of time has turned once again and this time it is India rising. With this background, it is ironic that an Indian-origin person Mr. Rishi Sunak has been appointed as the Prime Minister of Britain. Mr. Rishi Sunak has moved into 10 Downing Street with his wife and dog. Now an Indian-origin person with his family and dog lives in the British Prime Minister's House.?