
Zoho founder and chief scientist Sridhar Vembu on Monday called for a deeper cultural and civilisational approach to India's development, urging people to look beyond GDP metrics and short-term economic performance. In a detailed post on X, Vembu said India's true progress lies in embracing a civilisational revival, much like what China pursued in its rise to global prominence.
"The Chinese never thought of it merely as 'developing the economy'. They thought of their national project as 'reviving their great civilisation'. This was the exact phase Japan went through earlier and then Korea," Vembu wrote in response to a user who asked how China rose from a peasant economy in the 1980s to a manufacturing giant with global military strength.
Vembu argued that purely economic discussions often miss the bigger picture: the role of culture and civilisational identity. "The only way India develops is for our people to embrace the idea that we are at the cusp of a civilisational revival. We are not just growing the GDP and meeting quarterly numbers, as important as those may be in the short term," he said.
"We must first believe we have a civilisational heritage of which we are worthy and proud descendents. Our 1000 year history of being invaded, dominated and plundered (the Chinese use the phrase "100 years of national humiliation") has often made us fatalistic but we must look beyond it, as hard as that is." he added.
Vembu said this mindset was necessary to maintain morale and sustain long-term national projects. "If we have that mindset, we will not complain about this shortcoming or that bad tax policy. We will not even complain too much about the corruption of our fallen political system. Let's resolve to ourselves that what we are working on is nothing less than the revival of our great civilisation."
He pointed out that Chinese entrepreneurs faced far more extreme challenges. "The Chinese entrepreneur has faced all of the above and on top of that they faced being disappeared if they fell out of the Party's favor," he said. "Let's resolve to ourselves that what we are working on is nothing less than the revival of our great civilisation. That belief gives us the will power and endurance to get it done," Vembu concluded.
Responding to a user who said India's constitutional systems often "beat the optimism out of Indian classes" and that systemic reforms must precede revival, Vembu urged perspective based on China's own history. "Please read the history of China, of last 100 years. I have studied it in depth, both pre and post 1949 'liberation' (their term)," he wrote.
"Study the Great Leap Forward era 1958-62, when Mao asked poor farmers to make steel in their backyards and when about 30 million people perished. Then followed the national nightmare of the Cultural Revolution of 1966-76...when all schools and colleges were closed—for 10 long years," he said.
"So much sorrow and heart break... good patriotic Chinese denounced as landlords or intellectuals or 'capitalist roaders', persecuted or killed. Deng Xiaoping didn't have it easy at all. He himself barely survived 3 purges. We Indians have had it far easier. We need to keep this perspective. The Chinese story is an inspiration," Vembu said.