Happy Birthday India!

August the fifteenth 1947 is a date that will be forever in the memory of the people of the Indian sub-continent. It was the date when India was partitioned. Partition does not sound too bad a concept. But in the case of India it forced people to choose, tearing asunder thousands of years of integration to rip families and communities apart. It triggered one of the largest migrations in world history some five million people took to the road leading to terrible violence with the death of some half a million people.

So when later on this year this year the 60th year of independence of India and Pakistan is celebrated it will be tempered by the cost. Partition continues to divide the great states of Bengal and the Punjab and there is still the running sore of Kashmir. Today many of these divisions are still represented in the communities here in the Midlands. Many modern young people find it hard to believe when you look at the scale of India, a continent within itself with a population almost three times the European Union, that it was once ruled from a small island on the North West coast of Europe.

Despite that painful birth today India is on the move its economy is turning in consistent annual growth rates of eight and nine per cent. No mean feat in a country of over a billion people. The reforms of successive governments have at last begun to unleash the vast talent of India’s people. Sure there are problems, as any country would face undergoing an economic revolution, multiplied by the shear scale of the country. But the fact that they have been able to retain their secular democratic state during this revolutionary process is a great achievement.

It is worth remembering even all these years after partition that the Muslim population of India is greater than the total population of Pakistan. And despite the fact that Britain was responsible for the disaster that was partition there is still tremendous goodwill towards Britain. As well as the railway network we left them something else that helps to unite India, the lingua-franca of the modern global economy - English.

Today there are more people speaking English in India than the entire population of the United States. Listening to the great Sunil Gavasker, one of India’s greatest ever cricketers, on Test Match Special it’s a bit chastening to hear that he speaks better English than I do. This is not just true of the best Indian sports people it also true of India’s leaders in business and politics. Hardly surprising when you think of the competition they face to get to the top in such a vast nation.

The best of India are very good indeed their top people are fantastically articulate, have a global view and are very well educated. Not always characteristics that our leading politicians and business people have. This is way beyond our everyday perception of who and what Indian’s are. Yes they run the Curry House on the High Street, but they are also many of our best medical consultants. Yes India has some of the world’s poorest people but it also has some of the richest.

Sixty is a time of maturity and it is time that the relationship between Britain and India became more mature. Today it is India that is the superpower and we need to have a different relationship with this great nation. India is a land of opportunity and the challenges it faces in accommodating economic growth and the social and cultural changes that will come in its train will bring great opportunities. Many people and businesses here in Birmingham and the West Midlands have special links with India which offer us a chance to exploit these new opportunities but only if we drop the patronising tone of the past and enter into a modern relationship with the new India.

Multicultural Birmingham is a great Indian City. We need a set of new institutions to celebrate our partnership with the new India. As the former colonial power they know more about us than we know about them. There is no doubt that Indian style is having a big effect on British fashion and design. How about a new gallery for contemporary Indian art including a cinema complex for Indian movies? How about a new joint venture between a major Indian University and one of Birmingham’s universities’s to create an Institute dedicated to Anglo-Indian understanding? Giving us greater insight into modern Indian politics, culture, law and business.

As a post-industrial City Birmingham seems to be looking for a new purpose - well there will not be a single purpose - there will be many but one of them could and should be as a gateway to India.

After all we have already adopted their cuisine. More popadoms anyone?