As an Indian, and now as a politician and a government minister, I've become rather concerned about the hype we're hearing about our own country, all this talk about India becoming a world leader, even the next superpower. In fact, the American publishers of my book, "The Elephant, The Tiger and the Cell Phone," added a gratuitous subtitle saying, "India: The next 21st-century power." And I just don't think that's what India's all about, or should be all about.

作为一个印度人，一名政治家, 一位政府部长我越来越关注有关自己的国家报道，所有这些报道都是关于印度将成为世界的领头羊，甚至是下一个超级大国。事实上，我的书《大象，老虎和手机》被美国出版商，加了一条无必要的副标题—《印度：21世纪的接替者》。而且我并不认为那就是印度未来的所有或者应该成为的。

Indeed, what worries me is the entire notion of world leadership seems to me terribly archaic. It's redolent of James Bond movies and Kipling ballads. After all, what constitutes a world leader? If it's population, we're on course to top the charts. We will overtake China by 2034. Is it military strength? Well, we have the world's fourth largest army. Is it nuclear capacity? We know we have that. The Americans have even recognized it, in an agreement. Is it the economy? Well, we have now the fifth-largest economy in the world in purchasing power parity terms. And we continue to grow. When the rest of the world took a beating last year, we grew at 6.7 percent.

事实上，我最担心的是世界的领导观念会是非常陈旧的。这让人联想起007的电影和吉卜林（生于印度孟买，英国作家及诗人）的诗歌。什么才是世界领袖？如果按人口来说，我们正朝着排行榜前列航行。2034年我们将超过中国。抑或是军事实力？那么，我们有世界第四大军队。还是核能力？我们知道我们有。美国人已意识到这一点，在(签订)协议中。又或是经济发展情况？那么，我们已是世界第五大经济体按平均购买力计算。当世界其它地区去年经济惨遭滑铁卢时，我们依然继续增长。我们增长了百分之六点七。

But, somehow, none of that adds up to me, to what I think India really can aim to contribute in the world, in this part of the 21st century. And so I wondered, could what the future beckons for India to be all about be a combination of these things allied to something else, the power of example, the attraction of India's culture, what, in other words, people like to call "soft power."

但是，不知何故，所有的事一起呈现出來，我都不认为，印度为21世纪做出了真正的贡献。所以，我想知道，未来对印度来说意味着什么是这些东西的组合结盟还是别的什么，让我来举一个体现实力的例子，印度文化的吸引力，换句话说，很多人喜欢称之为“软实力”。

Soft power is a concept invented by a Harvard academic, Joseph Nye, a friend of mine. And, very simply, and I'm really cutting it short because of the time limits here, it's essentially the ability of a country to attract others because of its culture, its political values, its foreign policies. And, you know, lots of countries do this. He was writing initially about the States, but we know the Alliance Francaise is all about French soft power, the British Council. The Beijing Olympics were an exercise in Chinese soft power. Americans have the Voice of America and the Fulbright scholarships. But, the fact is, in fact, that probably Hollywood and MTV and McDonalds have done more for American soft power around the world than any specifically government activity.

软实力是一位哈佛学者提出的一个概念，约瑟夫·奈，我的一个朋友。这个概念很简单，因为时间的限制，我在这里很简短的介绍一下，它本质上是一个国家能够吸引别人的能力由于其文化，政治价值观，及外交政策。而且，你知道，很多国家都在这样做。这实际上是在初步刻画一国家，如法兰西联盟宣扬法国软实力，还有英国文化委员会。北京奥运会是中国宣扬其软实力的鲜明例子。美国人有美国之音和富布赖特奖学金计划。但是，实际上好莱坞，MTV和麦当劳对美国软实力传播作出更大的贡献且超出了世界上任何政府为此举办的各种特别活动。

So soft power is something that really emerges partly because of governments, but partly despite governments. And in the information era we all live in today, what we might call the TED age, I'd say that countries are increasingly being judged by a global public that's been fed on an incessant diet of Internet news, of televised images, of cellphone videos, of email gossip. In other words, all sorts of communication devices are telling us the stories of countries, whether or not the countries concerned want people to hear those stories.

因此，软实力是真正展现的东西部分原因是由于政府的实力，但部分原因是跟政府毫无关联。在我们仙剑生活的时代中，我们或许会把它称之为TED时代，我想说，各国正日益受到全球公众评判，如互联网上不断提供的新闻，电视图像，手机视频，电子邮件的说三道四等，换言之，我们如今可以通过各种通信设备以得知一国家的信息不管相关国家部分是否希望人们获得这些信息。

Now, in this age, again, countries with access to multiple channels of communication and information have a particular advantage. And of course they have more influence, sometimes, about how they're seen. India has more all-news TV channels than any country in the world, in fact in most of the countries in this part of the world put together.

今天，拥有通讯及多重信息渠道的国家将享有特别的优势。当然，他们有着更大的影响力，有时，可以颠倒黑白。印度的新闻电视频道比世界上任何一个国家都多，实际上是世界上的大多数国家的新闻电视频道的总和。

But, the fact still is that it's not just that. In order to have soft power, you have to be connected. One might argue that India has become an astonishingly connected country. I think you've already heard the figures. We've been selling 15 million cellphones a month. Currently there are 509 million cellphones in Indian hands, in India. And that makes us larger than the U.S. as a telephone market. In fact, those 15 million cellphones are the most connections that any country, including the U.S. and China, has ever established in the history of telecommunications.

但是，我们不止步于此。软实力必须与外界相连。可能有人会说印度已成为一个拥有惊人的信息链的国家。我想你们已经听到过这些数字。我们每个月销售1500万部手机。印度目前共有5.09亿手机用户。就电话市场来说，我们已超过美国。事实上，每个月1500万部手机的销售量就像美国和中国这样的电信市场大国，都没发生过。

But, what perhaps some of you don't realize is how far we've come to get there. You know, when I grew up in India, telephones were a rarity. In fact, they were so rare that elected members of Parliament had the right to allocate 15 telephone lines as a favor to those they deemed worthy. If you were lucky enough to be a wealthy businessman or an influential journalist, or a doctor or something, you might have a telephone. But sometimes it just sat there.

但是，或许你们还未意识到迄今为止，我们是如何达到这种水平的。你们知道，在我小时候电话可是一种稀有的东西。事实上，他们是如此稀有，以至于只有当选的议会议员才有权分享那些他们认为值得青睐的15条电话线。如果你有幸成为富商或是一位有影响的记者，或医生，或是其他有影响的人，你才可能获得一部电话。但是，有时只是坐在那里。

I went to high school in Calcutta. And we would look at this instrument sitting in the front foyer. But half the time we would pick it up with an expectant look on our faces, there would be no dial tone. If there was a dial tone and you dialed a number, the odds were two in three you wouldn't get the number you were intending to reach. In fact the words "wrong number" were more popular than the word "Hello." (Laughter) If you then wanted to connect to another city, let's say from Calcutta you wanted to call Delhi, you'd have to book something called a trunk call, and then sit by the phone all day, waiting for it to come through. Or you could pay eight times the going rate for something called a lightning call. But, lightning struck rather slowly in our country in those days, so, it was like about a half an hour for a lightning call to come through.

我高中是在加尔各答上的。我们默默的坐在大厅前注视着这个通话工具。但是，有一半的时间，我们会带着期盼的目光把它接起来，然而根本没有拨号音。如果有拨号音，你拨一个号码，三分之二的可能性是你根本不能打通你要拨的目的地。事实上，"错号"的声音要比"喂"的声音更为流行。（笑声）如果你想连接到其他城市，假设你想从加尔各答打到德里，你必须预订一种叫长途电话的服务，然后坐在电话旁等上一整天，直到线路为你开通为止。或者你可以支付比现行利率高8倍的使用费支付一种名为闪电呼叫的服务。但是，在那些日子里，就像闪电呼叫的这种服务也是相当的慢，当时，闪电呼叫服务大约需要半个小时才能打通。

In fact, so woeful was our telephone service that a Member of Parliament stood up in 1984 and complained about this. And the Then-Communications Minister replied in a lordly manner that in a developing country communications are a luxury, not a right, that the government had no obligation to provide better service, and if the honorable Member wasn't satisfied with his telephone, could he please return it, since there was an eight-year-long waiting list for telephones in India.

事实上，我们的电话服务是这样的悲伤以至于一名国会成员于1984年在议会中对此抱怨。而当时的通信部长以很高傲的态度回答在一个发展中国家通讯是一种奢侈品不是一项权利，政府没有义务提供更好的服务，而如果荣誉会员不满意他的电话，请他完全可以将电话退回，因为当时的印度，为了打电话，有8年之久的等待名单。

Now, fast-forward to today and this is what you see: the 15 million cell phones a month. But what is most striking is who is carrying those cell phones. You know, if you visit friends in the suburbs of Delhi, on the side streets you will find a fellow with a cart that looks like it was designed in the 16th century, wielding a coal-fired steam iron that might have been invented in the 18th century. He's called an isthri wala. But he's carrying a 21st-century instrument. He's carrying a cell phone because most incoming calls are free, and that's how he gets orders from the neighborhood, to know where to collect clothes to get them ironed.

现在，快进到今天，这是你所看到的，每个月1500万部手机的销售量但是，最引人注目的是谁携带手机。你们知道，如果你在访问新德里郊区的朋友，在小街你会发现一个运货马车家伙看起来就像是在16世纪设计的，挥舞燃煤蒸汽电熨斗可能已经在18世纪发明的。他被称为isthri wala。但他带着21世纪的工具。他携带手机，因为大部分来电是免费的，这就是他怎么从邻居那里拿到订单的，知道在哪里，收集衣服，让他们熨。

The other day I was in Kerala, my home state, at the country farm of a friend, about 20 kilometers away from any place you'd consider urban. And it was a hot day and he said, "Hey, would you like some fresh coconut water?" And it's the best thing and the most nutritious and refreshing thing you can drink on a hot day in the tropics, so I said sure. And he whipped out his cellphone, dialed the number, and a voice said, "I'm up here." And right on top of the nearest coconut tree, with a hatchet in one hand and a cell phone in the other, was a local toddy tapper, who proceeded to bring down the coconuts for us to drink.

有一天，我在喀拉拉邦，我的家乡。在一个朋友的农场上，离城里约20公里。它是一个炎热的一天，他说：“嗨，你想喝一些新鲜椰子水吗？”这也是在热带那种炎热的天气里，能喝到最有营养的和令人耳目一新的饮料所以我的回答是，当然了。于是他拿起了他的手机，拨了个号码，手机那边传来一个声音说，“我就在附近。”而且就在最近的椰子树的顶端，一个手里拿着手斧，另一只手里拿着手机是一个本地卖椰子汁的他井然有序地从椰子树上给我们带来新鲜的椰子汁。

Fishermen are going out to sea and carrying their cell phones. When they catch the fish they call all the market towns along the coast to find out where they get the best possible prices. Farmers now, who used to have to spend half a day of backbreaking labor to find out if the market town was open, if the market was on, whether the product they'd harvested could be sold, what price they'd fetch. They'd often send an eight year old boy all the way on this trudge to the market town to get that information and come back, then they'd load the cart. Today they're saving half a day's labor with a two minute phone call.

渔民们在出海前拿起他们的手机。当他们捕获到鱼时，他们会给所有沿岸集镇打去电话找出他们在那儿能得到最好的价格。以前的农民奔命半天为去找到哪里有集市开放，如果市场开放的话，他们还得知道是否值得出售自己的丰收物，是否能卖个好价钱。为此他们会经常派一名8岁的男孩一路跋涉到集镇获得信息然后再回来，之后他们还得装车。今时今日，过去大半天的劳动仅仅用两分钟的电话就解决了。

So this empowerment of the underclass is the real result of India being connected. And that transformation is part of where India is heading today. But, of course that's not the only thing about India that's spreading. You've got Bollywood. My attitude to Bollywood is best summarized in the tale of the two goats at a Bollywood garbage dump -- Mr. Shekhar Kapur, forgive me -- and they're chewing away on cans of celluloid discarded by a Bollywood studio. And the first goat, chewing away, says, "You know, this film is not bad." And the second goat says, "No, the book was better."

这种被赋有权力的底层阶级就是印度信息连接的真实的结果。而这种转变是印度今天发展方向的一部分。但是，当然这不是印度发展的唯一形式。你们一定听说过宝莱坞。我对宝莱坞的观点可以用两只山羊在宝莱坞垃圾场的故事概括 -- [不明确] 请原谅 -- 他们咀嚼着被一个宝莱坞工作室丢弃的一罐电影胶片。第一个山羊，咀嚼着，说：“你知道，这部电影不错（指胶片的味道）。”第二个山羊说：“不，书的味道更好些。”

I usually tend to think that the book is usually better, but, having said that, the fact is that Bollywood is now taking a certain aspect of Indian-ness and Indian culture around the globe, not just in the Indian diaspora in the U.S. and the U.K., but to the screens of Arabs and Africans, of Senegalese and Syrians. I've met a young man in New York whose illiterate mother in a village in Senegal takes a bus once a month to the capital city of Dakar, just to watch a Bollywood movie. She can't understand the dialogue. She's illiterate, so she can't read the French subtitles. But these movies are made to be understood despite such handicaps, and she has a great time in the song and the dance and the action. She goes away with stars in her eyes about India, as a result.

我通常倾向于认为，书是更好的，但是，话虽如此，事实是，宝莱坞以某一方面在世界各地传播着印度海岬和印度文化，不仅只是为了给在美国和英国生活的印度侨民，而且也搬上了从阿拉伯人到非洲人，从塞内加尔到叙利亚人的屏幕。我在纽约遇见一位年轻人，他母亲是文盲并住在塞内加尔的一个村子里，她每月都乘车去省会达喀尔，仅仅是为了观看宝莱坞电影。她无法理解对话内容。她是文盲，因此她看不懂法文字幕。但是，尽管有这些障碍，这些电影还是可以理解的，她很开心的欣赏着电影里的音乐，舞蹈和画面，结果，她从宝莱坞电影明星那里获知关于印度的印象。

And this is happening more and more. Afghanistan, we know what a serious security problem Afghanistan is for so many of us in the world. India doesn't have a military mission there. You know what was India's biggest asset in Afghanistan in the last seven years? One simple fact: you couldn't try to call an Afghan at 8:30 in the evening. Why? Because that was the moment when the Indian television soap opera, "Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi," dubbed into Dari, was telecast on Tolo T.V. And it was the most popular television show in Afghan history. Every Afghan family wanted to watch it. They had to suspend functions at 8:30. Weddings were reported to be interrupted so guests could cluster around the T.V. set, and then turn their attention back to the bride and groom. Crime went up at 8:30. I have read a Reuters dispatch -- so this is not Indian propaganda, a British news agency -- about how robbers in the town of Musarri Sharif* stripped a vehicle of its windshield wipers, its hubcaps, its sideview mirrors, any moving part they could find, at 8:30, because the watchmen were busy watching the T.V. rather than minding the store. And they scrawled on the windshield in a reference to the show's heroine, "Tulsi Zindabad": "Long live Tulsi."

这种例子发生的越来越多。阿富汗，我们知道那里存在着什么样的严重安全问题阿富汗是我们许多在世界上的人来说，关心的焦点。印度在哪儿没有军事任务。你们知道印度过去7年在阿富汗最大的资产是什么？一个简单的事实：你不能尝试在晚上8:30给阿富汗人打电话。为什么？因为在那个时间断正在播放印度电视肥皂剧， [印地文]，配上印度手纺纱棉毯，在Todo T.V 上转播它是阿富汗史上最受欢迎的电视节目。每一个阿富汗家庭都想看。他们于8:30不得不停做其它的事情。据报告，婚礼被中断让客人可以围绕在电视机前，电视剧完后才注意力回到新郎和新娘上。我看到过路透社的新闻报道，称在8:30犯罪率上升 -- 所以，这并不是印度的宣传，而是一家英国通讯社的报道 -- 如小偷是如何在马扎里沙里夫市偷取汽车挡风玻璃雨刷，其轮毂，其侧视镜的，任何活动部件，他们都可以在8:30找到，因为警卫忙着看电视，而不是看商店。之后他们在挡风玻璃上涂写在该节目的女主角， "Tulsi Zindabad" : " Tulsi万岁."

That's soft power. And that is what India is developing through the "E" part of TED: its own entertainment industry. The same is true, of course -- we don't have time for too many more examples -- but it's true of our music, of our dance, of our art, yoga, ayurveda, even Indian cuisine. I mean, the proliferation of Indian restaurants since I first went abroad as a student, in the mid '70s, and what I see today, you can't go to a mid-size town in Europe or North America and not find an Indian restaurant. It may not be a very good one. But, today in Britain, for example, Indian restaurants in Britain employ more people than the coal mining, ship building and iron and steel industries combined. So the empire can strike back.

这就是软实力。而这正是印度正在发展中的就像通过TED 中的 "E" 字母（娱乐）: 自己的娱乐事业。同样是如此 -- 当然我们没有太多时间，举更多的例子 -- 但对于我们的舞蹈，音乐，艺术，瑜伽，印度草医学，甚至印度菜来说，这是事实。我的意思是，印度餐馆的扩散，我第一次出国留学的时候，是在七十年代中期，现时，当你在欧洲或北美的中小城市里，你不可能找不到印度餐馆。尽管可能不是很地道。但是，我们以今天的英国为例，在英国的印度餐馆雇员工人数超过了其煤炭开采，造船和钢铁工业雇用员工的总和。因此，帝国还可以反击吗。

But, with this increasing awareness of India, with yoga and ayurveda, and so on, with tales like Afghanistan, comes something vital in the information era, the sense that in today's world it's not the side of the bigger army that wins, it's the country that tells a better story that prevails. And India is, and must remain, in my view, the land of the better story. Stereotypes are changing. I mean, again, having gone to the U.S. as a student in the mid '70s, I knew what the image of India was then, if there was an image at all.

但随着对印度认识的提高通过你们和我，还有其他人，通过像阿富汗的故事，来自信息时代里的一些重要的东西，在当今世界中的一种感觉这不是拥有战无不败的强大的军队，而是一个国家能讲述可广泛流行的故事。印度是，而且应继续，在我看来，有众多故事的国家。定型观念正在发生变化。我的意思是，再次，流向了美国作为七十年代中期的学生，我知道当时印度的形象是指对印度的整体印象。

Today, people in Silicon Valley and elsewhere speak of the IITs, the Indian Institutes of Technology with the same reverence they used to accord to MIT. This can sometimes have unintended consequences. OK. I had a friend, a history major like me, who was accosted at Schiphol Airport in Amsterdam, by an anxiously perspiring European saying, "You're Indian, you're Indian! Can you help me fix my laptop?" (Laughter)

今天，人们在硅谷和其他地方谈及印度理工学院，印度技术学院时，他们都给予与麻省理工学院同样的崇敬。这有时会产生意想不到的后果。好的。我有一个朋友，主修历史和我一样，曾在阿姆斯特丹的斯希普霍尔机场，被一个很焦急的一位欧洲人问道，“你是印度人，你是印度人！你能帮我修一下我的笔记本吗？”（笑）

We've gone from the image of India as land of fakirs lying on beds of nails, and snake charmers with the Indian rope trick, to the image of India as a land of mathematical geniuses, computer wizards, software gurus. But that too is transforming the Indian story around the world. But, there is something more substantive to that. The story rests on a fundamental platform of political pluralism. It's a civilizational story to begin with. Because India has been an open society for millennia. India gave refuge to the Jews, fleeing the destruction of the first temple by the Babylonians, and said thereafter by the Romans.

我们的形象已经从印度作为躺在钉床上的苦行僧，用印度绳耍蛇的把戏的国家到一个拥有充满数学天才，电脑奇才，软件大师的土地。但是那也改变了印度在世界各地的故事。但是，还有更实质性的东西。随后的故事取决于政治多元化的基本平台这是一个文明的故事开始。几千年来印度已经成为一个开放的社会。印度给予被巴比伦人入侵的犹太人庇护，又据说，是从古罗马人那里获得庇荫。

In fact, legend has is that when Doubting Thomas, the Apostle, Saint Thomas, landed on the shores of Kerala, my home state, somewhere around 52 A.D., he was welcomed on shore by a flute-playing Jewish girl. And to this day remains the only Jewish diaspora in the history of the Jewish people, which has never encountered a single incident of anti-semitism. (Applause) That's the Indian story. Islam came peacefully to the south, slightly more differently complicated history in the north. But all of these religions have found a place and a welcome home in India.

事实上，传说中，当传教士，圣托马斯时于我的家乡喀拉拉邦海岸登陆，大概在公元52年，他在岸上受到由长笛演奏的犹太女孩的欢迎。而直到今时今日他们仍然唯一一群没受到种族歧视的犹太侨民。（鼓掌）这是印度的故事。伊斯兰教和平地来到南方，稍微复杂的是北部的历史。但是，这些宗教都在印度找到了安家的地方。

You know, we just celebrated, this year, our general elections, the biggest exercise in democratic franchise in human history. And the next one will be even bigger, because our voting population keeps growing by 20 million a year. But, the fact is that the last elections, five years ago, gave the world extraordinary phenomenon of an election being won by a woman political leader of Italian origin and Roman Catholic faith, Sonia Gandhi, who then made way for a Sikh, Mohan Singh, to be sworn in as Prime Minister by a Muslim, President Abdul Kalam, in a country 81 percent Hindu.

正如你们所知，我们刚刚庆祝完，我国今年的大选，这是人类历史上民主人口最多的国家。而下一届的选举将会更大，因为我们的投票人口保持每年2000万人的增长速度。但是，事实是五年前的选举，给予世界一震惊的景象，选举获胜人是女性政治领袖意大利裔和天主教信仰者，索尼娅甘地，国会议员莫汉·辛格则用锡克教徒的方式来宣誓就任总理，在印度总统卡拉姆则是一位穆斯林, 而印度教则统治着百分之八十一的国民。

This is India, and of course it's all the more striking because it was four years later that we all applauded the U.S., the oldest democracy in the modern world, more than 220 years of free and fair elections, which took till last year to elect a president or a vice president who wasn't white, male or Christian. So, maybe -- oh sorry, he is Christian, I beg your pardon -- and he is male, but he isn't white. All the others have been all those three. All his predecessors have been all those three, and that's the point I was trying to make.

这就是印度，当然它更引人注目因为这是4年之后，我们都为他鼓掌美国，在现代世界最古老的民主国家， 220多年的自由和公正的选举去年选出的总统和副总统，既不是白人也不是基督教徒也许， - 哦，对不起，他是基督徒，请原谅 -- 他是一位男性，但不是一名白人。他们这些人都包含那三点。他所有的前任都包含那三点，这就是我想试图解释的核心问题。

But, the issue is that when I talked about that example, it's not just about talking about India, it's not propaganda. Because ultimately, that electoral outcome had nothing to do with the rest of the world. It was essentially India being itself. And ultimately, it seems to me, that always works better than propaganda. Governments aren't very good at telling stories. But people see a society for what it is, and that, it seems to me, is what ultimately will make a difference in today's information era, in today's TED age.

但是，问题是当我谈到这个例子时，它不只是在说印度，这不是一个宣传。因为最终，该选举结果与世界其他地区无关。这实质上是关于印度的自身。并最终，在我看来，比宣传要更有效。各国政府并不擅长讲故事。但是，选民看到的是社会的真实情况，而且，在我看来，正是他们最终将决定当今的信息时代的差异，今时的TED时代。

So India now is no longer the nationalism of ethnicity or language or religion, because we have every ethnicity known to mankind, practically, we've every religion know to mankind, with the possible exception of Shintoism, though that has some Hindu elements somewhere. We have 23 official languages that are recognized in our Constitution. And those of you who cashed your money here might be surprised to see how many scripts there are on the rupee note, spelling out the denominations. We've got all of that. We don't even have geography uniting us, because the natural geography of the subcontinent framed by the mountains and the sea was hacked by the partition with Pakistan in 1947. In fact, you can't even take the name of the country for granted, because the name "India" comes from the river Indus, which flows in Pakistan.

因此，印度现在已不再有种族、语言或信仰民族主义，因为我们知道每一个种族都是人类大家庭的一员，实际上，我们都知道人类的各种宗教，日本神道教可能例外。虽然这部分有一些印度教的地方。我们宪法承认23种官方语言。你们在这里兑换现钱时，可能会惊奇地发现卢比上有那么多关于面额的脚本说明。我们已经有了这一切。我们甚至没有完整的地理版图。因为我们属于地理学中的次大陆由山和海组成的框架被巴基斯坦在1947年分裂。事实上，你甚至不能理所当然的采用国名。因为“印度”这个名称，是来自印度河，此河在巴基斯坦的流动。

But, the whole point is that India is the nationalism of an idea. It's the idea of an ever-ever-land, emerging from an ancient civilization, united by a shared history, but sustained, above all, by pluralist democracy. That is a 21st-century story as well as an ancient one. And it's the nationalism of an idea that essentially says you can endure differences of caste, creed, color, culture, cuisine, custom and costume, consonant, for that matter, and still rally around a consensus. And the consensus is of a very simple principle, that in a diverse plural democracy like India you don't really have to agree on everything all the time, so long as you agree on the ground rules of how you will disagree. The great success story of India, a country that so many learned scholars and journalists assumed would disintegrate, in the '50s and '60s, is that it managed to maintain consensus on how to survive without consensus.

但是，整个问题是，印度是一个民族主义的观念。这个观念就是无限的土地，源于一种古老的文明，分享着共同的历史，但是长期来看，最重要的是，通过多元化民主。这是21世纪的故事，也是一个古老的一个。并且它是一个观念的民族主义，本质上说，你可以忍受种姓差异，信仰，肤色，文化，饮食，风俗和服装，辅音的差别，就此而言，仍然有和睦团结的共识。而共识是一个非常简单的原则，在一个多元化的民主国家就像印度你真的不必在所有的时间同意每件事，只要你对你将如何表达不同意见的规则达成一致。印度伟大的成功故事，一个国家，有这么多经验的学者和新闻工作者假设即将瓦解，在五十年代，六十年代，只要能够维持生存是没有共识的共识。

Now, that is the India that is emerging into the 21st century. And I do want to make the point that if there is anything worth celebrating about India, it isn't military muscle, economic power. All of that is necessary, but we still have huge amounts of problems to overcome. Somebody said we are super poor, and we are also super power. We can't really be both of those. We have to overcome our poverty. We have to deal with the hardware of development, the ports, the roads, the airports, all the infrastructural things we need to do, and the software of development, the human capital, the need for the ordinary person in India to be able to have a couple of square meals a day, to be able to send his or her children to a decent school, and to aspire to work a job that will give them opportunities in their lives that can transform themselves.

今天，印度是以迈进21世纪。我想要强调的是如果有什么可以使印度值得庆祝的事的话，它不是军事实力，经济实力。所有这一切是必要的，但我们仍然有大量的问题需要克服。有人说我们即是超级穷国，也是超级强国。我们不可能两者兼是。我们必须克服我们的贫穷。我们必须处理硬件的发展，港口，道路，机场，我们需要做所有基础设施的事情，和软件开发，人力资本，用于在印度普通人的需要就是每一日三顿饭能吃得很丰盛，能够送他或她的孩子去一个体面的学校，并有志投身工作这可以帮助他们给育它们生活的机会并且可以改变自己。

But, it's all taking place, this great adventure of conquering those challenges, those real challenges which none of us can pretend don't exist. But, it's all taking place in an open society, in a rich and diverse and plural civilization, in one that is determined to liberate and fulfill the creative energies of its people. That's why India belongs at TED, and that's why TED belongs in India. Thank you very much.

但是，这一切的发生，这种伟大的冒险征服需要一种挑战，这种挑战是不容我们可以假装不存在。并且，这一切都发生在一个开放的社会里，在一个丰富多样和多元文化当中，是一个是要解放和实现人民的创造力社会中。这就是为什么印度所属于TED, 这就是为什么TED所属于印度, 非常感谢。

376篇双语阅读美文整理（含音频），学英语的好资料！

203个英文视频合集：明星专访，名人演讲，励志视频……