As India and China rise with their consumerist middle classes in a world of finite energy resources, it is easy to imagine that this century will be ravaged by the kind of economic rivalries and military conflicts that made the last century so violent.
In any case, the hope that fuels the pursuit of endless economic growth -- that billions of customers in India and China will one day enjoy the lifestyles of Europeans and Americans -- is an absurd and dangerous fantasy. It condemns the global environment to early destruction, and looks set to create reservoirs of nihilistic rage and disappointment among hundreds of millions of have-nots.
Many intellectuals and activists in India and China grapple with this challenge of modernity every day, knowing well the disasters that lie in wait if they fail.
In the meantime, we in the West will do well to dismantle the illusions of neo-orientalism, the most powerful and far-reaching yet of the many accounts of the Orient shaped by Western self-perceptions and self-interest. For peace in this century depends on India and China finding a less calamitous way of becoming modern.
Pankaj Mishra's new book is Temptations of the West: How to Be Modern in India, Pakistan and Beyond.
RSS