From very early in life, a human being tends to do exactly what he or she pleases. Until the age of two, definitely, and in several instances more so, children tend to shape adult lives. In this complex process, the life of the infant too tends to take shape. Thought, feeling, action, attitude, belief. This will be the core of a person’s character as they grow, students of human nature have told us.

In the homes of Indian politicians, where hope is believed to rest, life can offer several advantages. A growing child in these circumstances can be part of conversation and action that can exhilarate. Indira Gandhi, for instance, pranced around Mahatma Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru, and other titans without a care. There is a photograph of Indira with Gandhi as he lay on bed. You can see just what may have coursed through their veins.

Indira, therefore, had a head start. She didn’t waste it. Up until later life, when she was consumed by the belief that she knew better, she worked on what was given to her. When life lands you in the lap of fortune, you would be expected to honour it. We wouldn’t know, for instance, where the Rahul Gandhis, Jyotiraditya Scindias, Sachin Pilots, Agatha Sangmas, or Manvendra Singhs would be if they didn’t have their fortuitous family names.

Apart from their powerful families, all these politicians in the making were born into India. A complex nation that counts its age from 1947 but lays rights to several thousands of years of civilisation. Something about India warps time. It doesn’t outrage in India when fully-grown men and women still rely on parents. It’s perfectly in sync when 43-year-old AR Rahman credits his mother in an Oscar acceptance speech, overlooking the many incredible inputs he had from several gifted people as a growing musician.

It’s just fine when LK Advani, an 81-year-old prime ministerial hopeful, speaks of how Syama Prasad Mookerjee and Pramod Mahajan died young. Mookerjee, a founder of the rightwing Jana Sangh, and Mahajan, an astute fundraiser for the Bharatiya Janata Party who developed goodwill in centrist circles as well, were 52.

So there’s something to be explored when India’s Lok Sabha, the home of Indian laws, has 135 members who are 50 or younger. India has for long had an astonishingly high percentage of young people (population below 35 years always around the 70 percent mark from 1971). Now there are an increasing number of younger politicians in the Parliament. What exactly do they do?

Two of the Lok Sabha members are 30 or below. Agatha Sangma is 28, turning on 29. She is the daughter of PA Sangma, a talented tribal politician from Meghalaya, who dashed his chances in the Congress when he quit the party in protest against Italian-born Sonia Gandhi being chosen its head. Sangma was bright, some say he still is. So what is Agatha like?

Dharmendra Yadav is 30. He is the nephew of Mulayam Singh Yadav, the powerful Uttar Pradesh politician who has traded his idealist beginnings for realpolitik. Family retainers tell us that Dharmendra is so petrified of overshadowing Mulayam Singh Yadav’s son Akhilesh Yadav, who’s also a Lok Sabha member, that he barely says or does anything. This is an age-proof fear. Dharmendra could have been 60 and still felt the same.

The most widely accepted calculation puts Jesus of Nazareth at 33 when he was crucified. Alexander of Macedonia was 32 when he died. Mozart 35, John Keats 25, Bob Marley 36, Bruce Lee 33, Rudolph Valentino 31, James Dean 24, Janis Joplin 27, Jim Morrison 27, and back home, Bhagat Singh 23, Ramanujam 32.

There’s a window open for everyone to do what you will. It’s the time when things can be taken for granted. It’s that period of life when there’s no fear of the morrow. It’s the time when hope and vigour reside in attractive bodies. It’s the time when pace is but a faithful. You can go as fast as you please. It’s the time of youth.

What then can India expect from her young MPs? They make her laws. They have the power to transform her lives. But can they see things the eye cannot? Do they have it in them? Do they have an Idea of India?

Tehelka decided to examine this, as always in its quest for the crucial. Tehelka spoke to a spectrum of young MPs at length on their Idea of India. The conversations are revealing. An article was printed in the 28 February 2009 issue called How New Are The Young? It gave a sense of what young MPs think of and want to do about India.

The detailed interviews with the young MPs are on the web. They are the agenda of the young.