Posted on 01/25/2004 3:23:52 PM PST by VinayFromBangalore
NEW DELHI - The advertisements are everywhere, on television, in newspapers and in magazines. "India Shining," the slogan proclaims, over pictures of happy-faced people talking on their cell phones, going shopping and reading newspapers trumpeting the latest good news about the booming economy.
"India is awakening to a new dawn," croons the voice on the TV ads. "Our dreams were small, but now anything is possible. Across India, you can feel a new radiance."
The advertisements don't mention the hundreds of millions of Indians who can't read newspapers, let alone afford a television set, and the campaign has drawn criticism from social activists for overlooking the country's chronic poverty.
But the ads, soon to be broadcast globally, nonetheless capture the spirit of a rapidly changing India that is starting to redefine its image, to itself and to the world.
India asserts aspirations
Buoyed by a surging economy, an expanding network of international relationships and the prospect of peace with Pakistan, a newly confident India is asserting its aspirations to become a global power, as a nuclear-armed nation and as a potential market of 1 billion people.
"If the 20th century belonged to the West, the 21st century will belong to India," the deputy prime minister, Lal Krishna Advani, told an audience recently to loud applause.
"Our short-term objective is to become a developed nation, like Singapore or Taiwan," he added. "Our long-term goal is to be on a par with America."
For a country in which per capita income averages less than 2 percent of America's, that is a bold objective. India has declared itself on the threshold of greatness on several previous occasions, only to see its hopes dashed on the realities of the country's choking bureaucracy, its crumbling infrastructure and its vast legion of about 300 million impoverished people.
Yet the fact that some Indians are daring to dream of superpowerdom is an indicator of the country's new mood, said C. Raja Mohan, professor of South Asian studies at New Delhi's Jawaharlal Nehru University.
"For the first time in 45 years we've gone from saying, 'We're a Third World developing country,' to saying, 'We're going to be a developed nation and a great power,' " Mohan said. "It's a fundamental shift in terms of perceiving who we are and what we can do."
Economy fuels confidence
Much of the confidence stems from a flurry of good news on the economy. Foreign-exchange reserves passed the $100 billion mark in December; the stock market has soared more than 70 percent in the past year; and growth reached a sizzling 8.4 percent in the third quarter of 2003, making India one of the world's fastest-growing economies.
The growth can be attributed partly to one of the most favorable monsoon seasons in years, giving a boost to the farmers who still account for 70 percent of the labor force.
But as U.S. and European companies continue to shift jobs to India by the thousands, India's expanding middle class also is lifting growth by splurging on cars, apartments, appliances, clothes and vacations.
Indian companies, until recently dismissed as inefficient losers, are emerging as world leaders in such fields as information technology and pharmaceuticals. Over the past year they have moved aggressively into the global market for the first time, acquiring more than 40 foreign companies in the United States, Europe and Asia.
The new confidence also is finding expression in India's relationships with the wider world. Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee has pushed to mend fences with rival China, initiating talks to end a 40-year cold war along the two nations' disputed Himalayan border since their 1962 war.
Most significantly, after leading India to the brink of war with Pakistan in 2002, Vajpayee now has extended a "hand of friendship" that is expected to lead to peace talks next month.
"There was this dawning realization by the Indians that they couldn't accomplish their global ambitions unless they first made peace with Pakistan," said Shireen Mazari, director of the Institute of Strategic Studies based in Islamabad, Pakistan.
The global recognition that India craves is starting to come. The United States, Iran, Israel and Russia are among the many nations upgrading their relationships with India. President Bush promised earlier this week to open cooperation with India in space, nuclear and high technology, fields that are crucial to India's ambitions to become a technology powerhouse.
Once regarded as worryingly close to the Soviet Union and suspiciously socialist in its policies, India now is being hailed by Washington as a "strategic partner" that could one day provide a useful counterweight to the emerging might of China.
"There is an assessment that Indian power over many fronts is growing steadily and that other countries must develop a working relationship with it," said Stephen Cohen of the Brookings Institution, who predicted the rise of India in a 2001 book.
India is a wonder of beauty, a nation of hideous, cruel poverty; a country of 21st century high tech genius living side by side with the medieval.
Words cannot decribe India - they have to be seen, smelled and experienced.
While I appreciate your concern, don't you think that's a rather broad statement that is based on a stereotype? I know a couple Indians who are not theives - even if they are biased towards their native Indian food when we decide where to go out for lunch. I like variety. They like Indian food, all day, every day.
One glaring omission from the reports of India's promising future are their plans to build a modern free society, complete with human rights, indoor plumbing, and a thriving internal capitalist market economy available to all its citizens.
Perhaps that is because their bureacracy has no such plans. The money raped from the American economy will most likely be concentrated in the hands of the lucky few, while their masses will continue to live in mud huts with dirt streets.
I think I'll take a pass on smelling India and just go put some curry powder and cumin on my chicken breasts....
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