An e-rickshaw near the entry gate of Shri Ram Janmabhoomi temple during a cold and foggy winter morning, in Ayodhya, Friday, Dec. 29, 2023. (PTI Photo/Manvender Vashist Lav)

The New Year ahead for all of us in India is not too hard to crystal gaze — it will be defined by the quest and fulfillment of the nation and its people for three major needs — Lord Rama, peace and jobs. In a way, it is the fusion of the three dimensions of life — spiritual and civilisational, political and social, and individual and economics —  a tradition fusion, or yoga, of the ethereal and ephemeral — that will play out as the big theme of the year in front of us.

The inauguration of a temple at Ayodhya for Lord Rama, at his very birthplace, the holy plot where a temple had existed for centuries till it fell to the physical strength and fury of an intolerant invader, and took a long time for the Hindu faith to recover — socially, politically, legally — will bring to end one of the most vexatious and contentious issue of Independent India. It will be the fulfillment of the aspirations of the majority of the country not by brute force or legislative might but through a process of jurisprudence and long legal contestations, when finally the right won.

India will look forward to January 22, 2024, with perhaps the same zeal, same optimism and a sense of history as August 15, 1947. The year, at one level, will unimpeachably be the year of Rama.

However, the saffron bliss of spirituality is not complete without the country quenching another thirst — a historic one too — of peace between communities and societies. The world is split and in strife — there are wars going on between Russia and Ukraine, between Israel and Hamas in Gaza — and a score of other sore spots, where political volcanoes are dormant but simmering, awaiting one trigger before an outburst.

India must ensure peace for itself, its people, and perhaps, as an example, as a message, with a healing touch, spread the message beyond borders, across the seas. India has seen enough of the differences becoming steep enough for unacceptable social tensions and violence between communities divided by religion, by caste, by language, and other social differences during the last 75 years since Independence.

This can and must be the year when we eradicate such battlegrounds and heal all social wounds, ensuring the year of Rama is not just physical but with a larger, deeper significance — when peace and brotherhood can spread and reign.

But circa 2024 will also be the year when the world’s most populated country, and also one of its youngest countries, will look up to the growth of its economy towards the $5 trillion size, and more; but a large number of youth will seek jobs with greater impatience. Neither an enlightened soul nor a contented heart is possible to a hungry stomach. We will have to grow and grow, creating more jobs than ever — and in the era of Artificial Intelligence, robotic and automated manufacturing, and big data, it won’t be easy.

Find use for the brains and hands, fill the hearts with love, and let the spirit fly in the quest for infinity and beyond, and if this we as a country can do for one billion and four hundred million and more Indians, it will truly be the year of India.