India’s emergence as a world power is something to behold. And yet, the growing pains of future superpower are still haunted by anti-Western tendencies, poverty, corruption and the caste system.
“India is a democracy; it is in our DNA. As far as the different political parties are concerned, I firmly believe that they have the maturity and wisdom to make decisions that are in the best interests of the nation.”
The double helix of democracy was present in India long ago. The notion of ‘universal suffrage’ appealed to the early founders of India’s democracy, and long before its independence in 1947, the idea was already gaining popularity. The Motilal Nehru report of 1928 drafted a constitution proposal within British India. It argued for an executive, legislative, and judiciary branch of government. Rejecting the idea of a ‘state religion’, it argued for the equal rights and universal suffrage of all men and women. Soon after, democratic ideas were beginning to grip the imagination of the Indian political class. The Karachi resolution of 1931 proposed fundamental rights to protect civil liberties. It proposed’ socio-economic rights’, protections for industrial workers, and abolished child labour. The resolution, while still made under the shadow of British rule, was a significant step forward.
India captialized on free market capitalism and democracy and the results are undeniable. Access to education and employment have given the Indian people financial security and opportunity. The adult literacy rate is currently over 80%. Poverty has steadily decreased, from 55% in 2005 to 16% in 2021.
India ranks 5th globally in GDP, and by 2030, it is predicted to become the world’s third-largest economy.
India’s current GDP stands at 3.176 trillion dollars, it’s bustling service sector accounts for half of it’s national GDP. The dreams of the late businessman appear to be on the horizon. The founder of Reliance Industries, the late Indian billionaire, once said, “I dream of India becoming a great economic superpower.” That dream has been realised through ingenuity, seized opportunity, and tenacity. Its economic success is unprecedented.
However, success in the service sector has come at the cost of the agricultural sector. Around 60% of the entire Indian population works in the agricultural industry, and there has been a 15% decline in agriculture’s contribution to the Indian GDP from 1990 to 2023. With most of the Indian population still dependent on the agricultural sector, there over 770 million Indians living in poor rural areas and the National Survey Report reported that 77% of Indian families in rural areas are dependent on agriculture for their livelihood. The decline in the agricultural sector means a rise in unemployment and poverty for millions of Indians, and if India is to continue to succeed economically, it must address this complex issue head on.
While economic success has dampened the poverty issue in India, 15% of the population still lives in poverty.
Only in a place like India can you see modernised cities and the destitute, poor, and poverty-stricken. Driving the great Indian escape from the tentacles of poverty has been its undying efforts to modernise, employ, and embrace free market capitalism, but a milieu of factors still perpetuates poverty. The lack of education, unemployment, agricultural decline, resource deprivation, illiteracy, and the caste system still present huge problems for the Indian government. More than 7,000 Indians die per day from hunger. India has come a long way, but it still has a long way to go before it needs to get its house in order before it is regarded as a true global superpower.
As Gandhi once declared, ‘There are people in the world that are so hungry that God cannot appear to them except in the form of bread’.
After drawing up India’s constitution in 1947, R.B. Ambedkar later expressed regret for drafting it, stating stating democracy should:
“bring about the welfare of the people”
Yet, treatment of the lower castes in India has remained the same since its inception as a nation state.
A revolution is needed to change erroneous assumptions about the caste system in India.
Battlelines between individualism and collectivism still play out in India. While the realities of the caste system are still present, India’s serving Prime Minister Modi that the caste of ‘poverty’ is a bigger problem:
“The biggest castles for me are the youth, the poor, farmers, and women.”
Yet crimes against the ‘untouchable caste’ are rampant, civil, policing and government institutions often support negative attitudes towards ‘Dalits’ as part of the untouchable caste.
In 2018, in Gujarat, a Dalit boy was wearing a pair of shoes apparently designated for higher castes. When he revealed he was a Dalit, a group of men proceeded to beat him up. Footage showed the men beating him with a stick while he appeared to plead with them to stop. In 2021, in Uttarakhand, a young Dalit man was beaten so badly by members of an ‘upper caste’ that he died in hospital a few days later. What did he do to deserve this? He allegedly sat on a chair reserved for higher castes.
India was rocked by the horrific story of the ‘Hathras case’ in 2020, in which a young Dalit woman was found by her mother in some fields in Uttar Pradesh. She had been the victim of gang rape by members of another caste; they had dragged her by the neck, causing a broken spine; they cut off her tongue and proceeded to rape her. When the victim appeared at the police station, the police dismissed her claims. She was then admitted to Jawaharlal Medical College, where she died of her injuries a few days later.
Uttar Pradesh had the highest number of crimes against Dalits at 49,000 cases. According to an official NCRB report, crimes against ‘undesirable castes’ rose from 2020 to 221 with 50,900 cases. Uttar Pradesh had 13,000 cases, while Rajasthan had 7,524 and Madhya Pradesh had 7,213. While India has made political, social, and legal progress in this domain, clearly a blanket of caste system thinking continues to motivate, influence, and justify the inhumane treatment of the ‘lower’ castes throughout the country.
It hasn’t been immune to the bacteria of rampant corruption.
Corruption and bribery still remain rampant across the country. In 2009, ⅕ of Indian politicians were accused of corruption. According to the global corruption index, India is rated 85/180 on the corruption scale, with 180 being the most corrupt of the nations. There is an undeniable culture of corruption in Indian society too. According to Transparency International statistics from 2020, 39% of ‘public service users’ took part in bribery within a 12-month period. Arguably, we could say that for a third-world democracy with over a billion people, this is not terrible. But India is soon set to become a global economic power, and economic progress does not mean less corruption.
Of all modernised third-world countries today, India is the most impressive and arguably the most successful. Its meteoric rise is a testament to the ingenuity and resilience of its people, but the triad of poverty, corruption, and the ever-present caste system has the power to hold India back, and equally, if India is able to free itself of these burdens, then its glory is limitless. Only time will tell.
