The surest indicator of a great nation is not the achievements of its rulers, artists, or scientists, but the general welfare of all its people

Quite often we hear of countries going to town bragging about the achievements of their scientists , artists , sportsmen etc . Politicians are quick to term their nations as great if a scientist from that country receives a noble prize or their football team wins the world cup . But can a nation be termed great just because it has produced a great scientist or a great artist . We try to analyse the nuances of this argument in the following passages   

A nation is made up by its people. Not by the politicians , not by the ruling elite class , not by a select group of high achivers in artistic or scientific fields but by the common men and women who dwell in the average household and make up the bulk of any nation’s population.They are bound by a common boundary , cultural beliefs and language though not necessarily by the latter two as in case of India and some other democracies which play host to a large no. of people from different cultural backgrounds. Nevertheless its these common people that are the best indicators of a nation’s well being. Are they able to afford proper food? Are they able to afford basic neccesities like a roof over their heads , clothes etc ? Are they able to enjoy moderate forms of entertainment like television ,cinema etc ? If the answers to all these questions is a resounding yes then that nation is doing very well for itself indeed . It might not produce great sportsmen or famous literary personalities or for that matter nobel laureates in science but it effectively performs the chief and the most important task of a nation i.e. to provide basic necessities to all its people at reasonable rates .

Now consider the opposite scenario , a nation which has produced many great scientists and is home to some of the worlds most brilliant artists reels under the pressure of trying to bring majority of its population over the poverty line . No matter how many Nobel laureates a country produces unless the good work done by them transcends to the poorest of the poor people in that country , a nation cannot achieve excellence and cannot be termed great .   The goods delivered by the smart scientists and the high achieving artists and politicians of that country should be properly utilised for the greater good of the population as a whole .

Taking the examples of  developing countries like China and India , we can very well illustrate these points. Both the south east asian countries have shown remarkable growth over the last 3 decades . Economy has been consolidated , world class education infrastructure has been put in place and scientists from both the countries have been doing cutting edge research all over the world. In addition to that , popular artists from both the countries have earned accolades and fame widely. But significant  population in both the countries is below poverty line . People away from large industrial hububs and large cities are still yet to feel the benefits of the robust economic growth in both nations . 

So its quite evident from the examples that the well being of the total population as whole is an important feature while considering the greatness of a nation. A nation cannot live of the glory of a few brilliant scientists and artists and neglect the masses .