In the infinite jargon of the English lexicon there has always been an expression that has piqued

many a person’s curiosity. It has so steadily crept into one’s daily concordance that in three winks, it
has kicked started an entirely new trend that has been the rage of all discussions, whether it is
discourse, dialogue, or diatribe! In hindsight, it is quite the wonder how society has been taken by
storm with this term, almost like somebody exerting their ‘superpower’!

Aside from the evident insinuation, the word ‘superpower’ is being thrown around in all kinds of
conversations, ranging from the idiotic rabble of preschoolers to the complex discussions of trained
professionals, so much so that it has engulfed the nation in one fell swoop. However, the most
striking effect of the word seems to be when it is used during the raging debates that are prevalent
on TV, where news professionals, historians and economists alike ponder about in a seemingly
inarticulate manner,

“What must our country do to become a superpower?”

Ironically enough, their ponderings only grow to be byzantine.

The question above seems plain at first sight, childish, almost. However, it seems to have the most
paradoxical structure to answer. Firstly, how does one define ‘superpower’? If a working definition
of a ‘superpower’ can be derived, are there any real – life to take pointers from? Even if one did
exist, what must our country do to emulate success on that scale? There many factors to take into
account when thinking this way. Gradually, it becomes a labyrinth of convoluted thoughts of ideas,
so big that there is no feasible answer to arrive at.

So, how does one go about it?

If we were to define a superpower, are we looking at a nation’s performance economically? Or the

societal structure and lifestyle of a country? How the land is comprised of? Wildlife and topography?
Or perhaps the nation’s military wealth? All of the above are undoubtedly important to the
development if a country, but if one were to look hard enough, the missing piece unravels itself,
making the picture abundantly clear.

The people make the country.

Therefore, it is expedient to define a superpower based not one, but a combination of such factors
in order to truly gauge the worth of a nation, as what is most important is how – well melded the
nation is as a whole.

Now that we’ve cleared step one, all we need is a working example of a real – life superpower and
we’ll be all set and ready to go. There are multiple examples of the stated, however, including the
apparent world’s ‘true’ superpower, the USA, and other countries like China too. However, the way
their resources are managed are drastically different and the problems that we currently face, like
overpopulation and the like, have never really occurred in foreign countries.

Nonetheless, we must come up with a benchmark that can truly be considered a superpower that
has existed in real life, similar to the sociologic and economic landscape of our country currently.
That sounds easier said than done, and is obviously a herculean task. Sardonically, however, all we
have to do is no further than look into the past.
Now envisage, an extensive period ago, how the entirety of the world might have looked like.
Civilization was just starting to walk, and the topography was incomparably different from what it is
today. The Mayans and the Egyptians had just gleamed the idea of building a civilization, and had
barely begun to come up with a working society. An entire continent was still in its’ Dark Age, and
the world was, for all intents and purposes, still a bud. Now focus on an isolated subcontinent
located in the trenches of southwest Asia, completely cut off from the world. One must expect this
land to, similarly, rear on the primitive edge, right?

The truth could not be farther off. The civilization of this land was sprawling, abuzz with all kinds of
activity, filling its’ lush, beautiful terrain in a splendor. Entire societies’ flourished, filled with
magnificent cities and chaotic order. This civilization had achieved an insurmountable growth in the
fields of science, art, and philosophy and was literally cracking the code to study the universe while
the rest of the world didn’t even know how to count. The air was filled with the distinct aroma of
earth shatteringly fragrant spices and the common folk threw gold to feed the pigeons, as the
backdrop raised on the illustrious zenith of the golden age of India.

In hindsight, there was no actual need to be an imitation of a ‘superpower’, for our country already
was one. The first one. The only question that needs to be asked is, how do we regain that glory?

Especially in a covid – ridden society post the modern equivalent of the apocalypse, where every
country has almost insurmountable difficulties to overcome, becoming a functional nation with a
working society itself makes you a ‘superpower’. However, in order to truly recover that splendor,
our country must focus its’ drive on the truly important things.

In the short term, vaccination drives and covid precautions are necessary to battle the pandemic,
but why stop there? While we’re at it, we start truly developing our nation, one step at a time, by
revamping all of our policies towards longtime problems, like education, where we must focus on
instilling core values and propagating creative thinking and indigenous research. Low rate of
employment is also a major issue, which can be combated with a revision of our fiscal policies and
outreach. As we gradually reconstruct all of our short – term and long – term issues, suffice it to say
that there might be other students in the rest of the world writing about how they could make their
nation a ‘Superpower” like India!