Can India Grow as a World Power - Research Paper Example

What major obstacle must be overcome if India is to grow as a world power? Specifically, what must India do or continue to do before it can be seen as a sustainable democracy? In his article ‘Emerging India, Can it remain an open and tolerant society?’ David Masci 1asks whether or not India can ever take the place it feels it deserves on the world stage. India has the worlds second highest population count and is its largest democratic state. In recent years there have been huge economic reforms, as well as the development of several high-tech industries which promise a brighter future. These however exist alongside vast poverty and frequent food shortages, as well as frequent outbursts of violence between opposing sectarian groups - the Hindus and Muslims. Another problem centres on Kashmir, the province with a Muslim majority where India’s neighbour Pakistan supports a separatist movement. So media labs coexist alongside continued outbursts of sectarian violence. This said (March 2002) Shashi Thahoor, 2Indian writer and social critic, ‘is one of the ironies of Indias muddled march into the 21st century.’ Despite all the latest positive developments Thahoor sees India as still ‘shackled to the dogmas of the past.’ According to Cohen (2001, page xiv) ‘New Dehli still finds it difficult to translate economic potential into political and strategic influence.’ In fact there are so many problems that it is feared that the much vaunted Indian tradition of plural development and secular government could be at risk.. Meanwhile, India, already a nuclear power, is pressing for a permanent seat on the U.N. Security Council. At a 2002 United Nations debate on the future of the Security Council,3 A. Gopinathan Indias deputy representative to the U.N, put forward a proposal that the number of countries permanently represented be expanded. The present set up was decided before India even had self government as a country, and reflects the world of the 1940’s rather than the present day situation. It was argued that the present format is both unrepresentative and anachronistic. as quoted by the Press Trust of India in March 2002, and should be revamped to better reflect the increasing importance of India and other emerging nations. India’s sectarian problems are of course nothing new. Although there is an Hindu majority, there are also a number of other religions represented including Muslims, Christians, Jains, Buddhists and Sikhs. Onwards from the year of modern India’s birth in 1947, when more than a million people died , violence has been a common part of Indian life. In February 2002, as reported by Celia Dugger, 458 travellers, including children, were killed as they returned from pilgrimage to an Hindu holy site at Ayodhya. There are other barriers to India’s international role, not least the fact that although many speak Hindi and/or Indian English, there are is fact 32 major languages within the country, which could make communication difficult. Economically the country remains at many different stages all at the same time. There are subsistence farmers and the producer of hand crafted goods alongside electronic factories and nuclear power stations. According to figures from theeconomist.com , and quoted by Masci,5 a population of some 1.5 billion has only fewer than 30 million telephones and 4.5 million of Indians are internet users. Gandhi and Nehru were great men who set India on the path to democracy , but , according to Masci, it is their belief in socialism and the possibility of a country that could be economically self-sufficient, which , when other countries in the region were expanding their economies in the1960s and 70s, caused economic stagnation in India. Present day India remains desperately poor as compared with places such as Korea and Taiwan. Its per capita GDP is roughly one twentieth of that of Koreans, being only $500 which places it alongside some central African nations rather than as a world leader. What is needed is not more investment in get rich quick schemes, but ’Sustainable Development should be real development which not only enriches us, but also the society and environment.’ according to Rajesh Prasad Dash, as recorded on the Sustained Voices web page.6 India used to have as its ally the former Soviet Union, but now things have moved on and India is warmly supporting America in its war against the terrorist threat. Together with the present changes in the country’s economics brought about by changes in policy, the stronger ties with the west have created a spirit of optimism. There are even those, already important on the world stage, who seem to see India becoming an ever stronger economic and geopolitical power in the near future. During a recent visit to India American President Barack Obama, as reported in India Today ( 8th November 2010)7 said ‘India is not simply an emerging power, but a world power.’ He described his hope that the two countries would in future be able to others we will be able to work together internationally in order to promote peace and points out that it is no coincidence that he has spent longer there than in any other Asian country . He mentioned commercial and economic ties that could be built upon, as well as fighting terrorism together. In the past decade, India has initiated many major economic reforms including the selling off many nationally owned industries including telecom. This has in its turn allowed the private sector to expand into areas where there was previously a government monopoly, such as the nuclear industry. This of course means more employment opportunities and free enterprise. Also, as seen from the above words of President Obama, India has also strengthened her relationship with major player on the world scene, the United States of America. However India still cannot get on with its neighbours, Pakistan in particular. The fact that it cannot devise its own workable peace strategies mean that it is often classed alongside smaller squabbling nations. Cohen describes Pakistan ( 2001) as depicting India as ‘an irresponsible provocateur.’8 There is also the matter of the relationship between the various parts of society – what is referred to be Vikram as layers. 9Each of these is made up of those who are aware of others in their layer and feel that they are among equals, but at the same time are quite distinct from those in other ‘layers’. He describes three layers - globalized and metropolitan India, made up of those who speak a form of English and who have connections with the world wide disporia. Vikram claims that it could be argued that this group take the west as their inspiration and the focus of their aspirations. The second layer is the almost industrialized, by which he means most state capitals and other larger cities with populations of higher than 1 million. This he labels as ‘televisioned’. Finally there is the ‘Bharat.’ – the bulk of the land by area – the rural countryside and its inhabitants. This group takes as their inspiration metropolitan India, and are often more concerned with regional affairs than national ones and is important politically. Vikram states that there are a complex series of links, but also disconnections between these layers. In another article, dated 20th October 2009 10 Vikram considers the media and points out that statistics reveal that many read their news in English, this number being only slightly less than those who do so in Hindi. This must have its westernizing influence on the readers and makes them ever more removed from Indian village life. Indians must learn to discriminate between what is good about the west and what does not fit into a truly Indian perspective, as well as ensuring that they make the best of the good things that are Indian, including the best qualities of all its people , as varied as these are. India must seek to overcome the discrepancies with regard to opportunities within its society. There will always be those in any society who are richer than others, better educated, perhaps healthier and apparently more successful, but the gap between rich and very poor in India is wider than in many other societies around the world. Also the country is at present, and has been for some considerable time past, wasting huge amounts of its resources on ‘the Kashmir problem.’ If this matter really cannot be resolved as the New Dehli government wants, perhaps it is time to really consider what the people of Kashmir want, even if this means ceding territory. In 2006 Professor Jagananth Mohnaty wrote about ‘Education and Success in Democracy of India.’11 He explains how India should take credit as the world’s largest ever democracy, but:- unless the people are vigilant, conscious of their rights and responsibilities, democracy has no meaning and no liberty can be safe-guarded with the result that individual freedom and dignity would be endangered and corruption, oppression and authoritarianism would be rampant in the country. Conclusion Despite all problems, national and international, there is optimism. “India will soon be a great power, and if the economy really picks up, it could be a superpower at some point as well,” according to Ashutosh Varshney,12 political science professor at the University of Michigan, as quoted by Masci. In ‘ India: Emerging Power” Stephen Cohen,13 after intense research, has come to the conclusion that in seeking to overcome its many difficulties in a positive way the country has discovered new strengths. Kalam and Rajan (1998) held views which are described by Cohen14 as ‘extraordinarily optimistic and ambitious’. Time will tell whether their predictions and judgments are correct. Works Cited Cohen, Stephen, India: Emerging Power, Washington D.C., The Washings Institute,. 2001 Dash, Rajesh, Sustaining Voices, 22nd November 2010 http://www.gdrc.org/sustdev/voices.html Dugger, Celia, ““Fire Started on Train Carrying Hindu Activists Kills 58”, The New York Times 28th February 2002 English, John et al, The Indian Economy at a Glance, 3rd April 2008, 22november 2010 http://www-personal.umich.edu/~kathrynd/PP542_India_W08.pdf Kalam ,A. and Rajan, Y.S., India 2020: A Vision for the New Millennium, New Dehli, Viking, 1998. India Calls for U.N. Security Council Expansion,” Press Trust of India, March 12, 2002, quoted by Masci. Masci, David, Emerging India, Can it remain an open and tolerant society? 21st CQ Researcher Volume 12, Issue 15, April 19, 2002, 21st November 2010 http://library.cqpress.com.ezproxy.indstate.edu:2048/cqresearcher/document.php?id=cqresrre2002041900&type=hitlist&num=0 Mohanty, Jaganath, Education and Success in Democracy of India, Orissa Review January 2006, 22nd November 2010 http://www.orissa.gov.in/e-magazine/Orissareview/jan2006/engpdf/Education_Success.pdf Obama, Barack, quoted by ITGD Bureau, India is a world power: Obama, India Today, 8th November 2010, 22nd November 2010 http://indiatoday.intoday.in/site/Story/119225/World/india-is-a-world-power-obama.html Thahoor,Shashi, “India’s Past Becomes a Weapon”, The New York Times, March 6th 2002, 21st November 2010 http://www.nytimes.com/2002/03/06/opinion/india-s-past-becomes-a-weapon.html Vikram, An Academic View of India , 5th January 2010, 22nd November 2010 http://vikramvgarg.wordpress.com/2010/01/05/the-three-layers-of-emerging-india/ Vikram, The Trouble with Reading India in English, 20th October 2010 , 22nd November 2010, http://vikramvgarg.wordpress.com/2009/10/20/the-trouble-with-reading-india-in-english/ Read More