The eternal aspiration that liberty and justice should reign was summed up in the Magna Carta negotiated between King John of England and the rebel sticks. It is the “ultimate ideal” that inspires.

The said compact ordered that no free man should be seized or imprisoned, or stripped of his rights or property, or outlawed or exiled, or deprived of his position in any way, and that we would not proceed neither by force against him, nor will we send others to do it. so, except by the lawful judgment of his equals or by the law of the land and to no one we will sell, to no one will deny or delay right or justice. Signed on June 15, 1215, it laid the foundation for due process and these immortal words became the fundamental norm of classical jurisprudence.

In 1789, the rallying cry of the French Revolution – Liberty, Equality and Fraternity – inflamed a million minds and immeasurable mutinies for centuries. It embodies the fundamental impulse of liberation struggles according to which the people are sovereign and must be masters of their destiny. Not a decadent feudal lord, imperialist or colonialist and not essentially in that order.

The quintessential square of inspiration therefore consists of the ability to dream the impossible, the vision to articulate that dream, the pragmatism to execute the vision and the courage to persevere in the face of adversity.

The 20th century was lit by colossi who gave confidence, courage and direction to their people. The man who had the most vivid dream in a race-torn America was Martin Luther King Jr. when he declared on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial on August 28, 1963: “I dream that one day, on the hills reds of Georgia, the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit together at the table of brotherhood… I dream that my four grandchildren will one day live in a nation where they will not be not judged by the color of their skin. their skin but by the content of their character. I have a dream today…”.

This speech delivered during the tumultuous days of the civil rights movement finally placed a black man in the White House in January 2009, 46 years later. This speaks to the power of a dream.

Two years and eight months before King’s historic speech, young U.S. President John F. Kennedy delivered his inaugural address on Friday, January 20, 1961, once again describing an inspiring vision. “Now the trumpet calls us again – not to call us to take up arms, although we need to; not as a call to battle, even though we are besieged – but a call to bear the burden of a long twilight struggle, year after year, “rejoicing in hope, patient in tribulation” – a struggle against the common enemies of man: tyranny, poverty, disease and war itself…”.

A vision that ultimately became the harbinger of some of the greatest advances at every level that have alleviated tyranny, moderated poverty, and diminished disease. The practical implications of this vision led to the birth of the APRAnet in 1962, which gave birth to the World Wide Web or the Internet as we know it today in 1991.

Then there was courage 22 years earlier. As Britain stood alone in its darkest hours, with Europe having fallen to the Nazis and the island across the Channel next in line, Prime Minister Winston Churchill rallied the spirits of his people in this time of extreme adversity. Addressing the House of Commons on June 4, 1940, he defiantly declared: “We will go to the end, we will fight in France, we will fight on the seas and oceans, we will fight with confidence and growing strength in the air, we will defend our island, whatever the cost, we will fight on the beaches, we will fight on the landing grounds, we will fight in the fields and in the streets, we will fight in the hills ; we will never surrender…”

It was the day Operation Dynamo – the evacuation of Allied troops – ended, bringing 338,000 of them back to British shores.

There could be no better examples in ancient, medieval and modern history of ideas that ignited many rivers and redoubts with a spirit of resilience and determination.

The men and women who led India to freedom and presided over the incubation of our great democratic experiment were not only animated by most of these ideas and ideals, but had also imbibed, absorbed and assimilated many of the upheavals tectonics that they had triggered.

Today, as India once again regresses into identity politics – of religion and caste – what it needs is an uplifting vision and unifying ideas that rise above these divides in an uplifting act of national renewal. Dogmas of division must give way to canons of compassion and cohesion.

Today’s world finds itself on the cusp of four fundamental transitions: a Westphalian evolution from a physical world to a hybrid world between physical and virtual civilization, a technological shift from the 3rd to the 4th industrial revolution, a shift energy from hydrocarbons to renewable energies and climate change from the predictable to the extreme. The big idea that will get us through the era of tectonic transformation is conspicuous by its absence. The old order has overtaken the new one which has not yet been born. It’s the age of monsters and the world is ruled by pygmies.

Manish Tewari is a lawyer, three-time MP and former Union minister. The opinions expressed are personal.