Kaospilotpatrik’s Weblog

How are Indias people handling the countrys transition into a growing world economic power?

This is a funny question Al. First you would have to define the “Indian people” better to get an answer that you want. I will just say that the Indian people is the most specific thing that you could pinpoint to be the reason for their success and how they handle it slow. The Indian people is a very very diverse people, of religion, income, language and education wise. Different people are handling the transition in a way that generally makes the people in coping with each other and with other nationalities.

From the 1950s to the early 1990s India was in some kind of “anti” British rule. They didn’t want to interfere in a market that was touched by the British. This is changed today after one of the worst handling of poverty in human history. Today, there is none or very little problem with people starving. Even though the income for 33 percent or 400 million is less than one dollar a day and for 400 people is less than two dollars a day.
So the poverty during the second part of the 20th century has formed a big will long away from the Nehru socialistic (almost communistic) way of living to being part of the globe as one of the major players of the global market.
The people you meet on the streets as a tourist or student in Mumbai is very much interested in you because of that you’re a westerner. They seem to truly believe that having a big faith and a system of religious believes doesn’t help them enough in this life. Bollywood is a perfect example of this when agents try to find loads of westerners in the streets of the tourist area of Colaba, Mumbai everyday. It’s the feeling of anticipation that you could smell from the melting pot of the city and all people of India wants to be a part of this new India. Today 8 million or so lives in the slums of Mumbai of a total of 17 million. More people are doing so everyday and the reason for doing that is because a house in the slum provides a much better income than that of the rural areas of India. A lot of people comes from the areas of Tamil Nadu wich is really the longest distance you can move from within India, this is also where the Tsunami strike the most.
The Indian people as I See it is a very proud and happy people. They also have a high morale of working. As I mentioned the slums in Mumbai, one of this parts is cold Daravi. In this area of what looks from the outside to be just people living in misery really is an industry of clothes produces for big shops as Wall Mart and the like, bakeries, pot making industries and recycling of plastic. What this area is lacking thou as in the former mentioned area of Tamil Nadu is rights for the workers. They have no unit to go to neither do they have any right. People try to work their way up and some people do. Others that hurt themselves in this industries have not much to do in this dog eat dog mentality than to rely on other people or start beging for money. There is suppose to be a free healthcare plan for every citizen of India but that is not the actual case.
Talking about beggars there is a lot of them. Especially in the tourist areas. They make quit a good living even though there is to many different types of beggars to define here. This is something that I believe will fade away us the handicapped and mentally ill and the literacy rate continues to increase. There is also a need for this specific people to be helped by targeting them and locating the source of the reason for them living on the street.
I have very little more knowledge of the rural area of India. How they are coping I mostly base on assumptions. One is that the control they have over the monsoon is worse than ever as global warming is a big problem in India when little knowledge of modern farming, and communication between different states and people is difficult because of language and the lack of technique. Mobile phones is good to mention here as they are one of many important sources of why I believe the India is growing so fast know. They internet is still about to boom as most people still can’t find a computer at home.
There is two other really important reasons for India’s success right now. The first is that more and more people knows the English language, making trades possible in to a much larger extent than fore many other countries. The other is the big amount of good educated people. If you want to outsource something to India it is not like in China that you just tell the Chinese company to do as they are told, no you can get the entire design made for the new Levis or Diesel made in the country.

Do they feel any change in their status in the world?
They do feel the change and they are very much a part of it. It is extraordinary thinking how big step up the ladder a college degree could provide you if you compare it to living within the caste system that for so long time has been the case for most Indians. It not only gives the middle class a change of their lives but it also will develop the higher castes who soon enough just cant have their name as something to rely on. I tell you this because I think as long as improvement doesn’t give you anything back to yourself in return, the working morale will be very low. No that India is slowly becoming more of a democracy in reality and not only on paper, people wants to be a part of that.
A lot of the highly educated people travels and studies abroad. The US is the contry that they very much compare themselves with. Economic is very important for the Indian people and is as I hear in people today close to what I would compare it most have been in Europe during the revolutionary times in france late 18th century. The church (caste system) is no longer strong enough to cover the needs of an individual thinking person with opportunities to communicate with the whole world.
A good story of this is also from the slums we visited. We where asked if we wanted to visit one of the homes as a tour guides family stayed in the area. As we agreed we entered a small and narrow room where we found to sisters sleeping on the floor and one young man studying at the end of that very same room, as what seemed to be the kitchen. Mum and dad also came in and it was really nice and really crowded. What would you think whas the discussion in this slum home of this family, take a second gueass, the stockmarket. India whas at this time really loosing (as where the US) ground, diving at the lowest it been for a very long time.

Is there more economic equity among the people as Indian economic performance grows?
Yes, and No.
This is a hot question. This is because the Indian person doesn’t seem to know the answer themselves. I asked the pro vice chancellor of Mumbai University if the tax system is providing the opportunity for a society that will be an equally rights society if the money is well spent for the people?
He answered with a complaint first of all of high corruption ( which a believe slowly will diminish as people get more educated and rich by their own) but also that it wont. The system will not provide this security for its people. This is very sad and also what I believe to be India’s greatest challenge to overcome.
So I guess I would answer you that no the equity will not be much improved but the people will be much richer compared to the standards today. When more money comes in to one system more of that system will manifest itself.
India therefore needs to sit down and look at the system and make it multiply to see if that is the way it wants to get formed. Probably the sitting parties today who already is enjoying this system there working in will not change anything. What is therefore needed is that new people or parties identify this problem of not having a and different vision of the future.