"Be the change you want to see in the world"
source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/oct/02/gandhi-sale-montblanc-pens-india
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- Incredulous
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Gandhi's India, or at least his influence on economics, has all but disappeared in the past decade. Until the country opened up to the world in the 90s, its leaders backed Gandhi-ite ideas and championed equality and social stability over wealth creation. After 1991, that all changed.
Notions of speed and efficiency were stamped on to a civilisation that traditionally took a slower, more relaxed view of life. The message was similar to that of China during the 90s, in the phrase attributed to Deng Xiaoping: "To get rich is glorious."
This sentiment appears dwarfed by India's teeming millions of poor people. The awful reality is despite India's rise, the rate of malnutrition in children under five is a shamefully high 45%. The talk of making poverty history sounds hollow in India, a land that is home to a third of the world's poor and where some 300 million people live on less than $1 a day.
Yet another world is growing up, fueled by the immense wealth that is being amassed by India's new monied classes. Their appetite for goods has seen a new money culture – how to make it and how to spend it. India's masses were, under the more equal state-run economy, denied shopping choices. The country is today undergoing a consumer boom. For some, this is proof enough that, in opening up, India has gained from globalisation – allowing Dior, Bulgari, Rolls-Royce and Montblanc into the country. Consumption in this India is nothing if not conspicuous.
Notions of speed and efficiency were stamped on to a civilisation that traditionally took a slower, more relaxed view of life. The message was similar to that of China during the 90s, in the phrase attributed to Deng Xiaoping: "To get rich is glorious."
This sentiment appears dwarfed by India's teeming millions of poor people. The awful reality is despite India's rise, the rate of malnutrition in children under five is a shamefully high 45%. The talk of making poverty history sounds hollow in India, a land that is home to a third of the world's poor and where some 300 million people live on less than $1 a day.
Yet another world is growing up, fueled by the immense wealth that is being amassed by India's new monied classes. Their appetite for goods has seen a new money culture – how to make it and how to spend it. India's masses were, under the more equal state-run economy, denied shopping choices. The country is today undergoing a consumer boom. For some, this is proof enough that, in opening up, India has gained from globalisation – allowing Dior, Bulgari, Rolls-Royce and Montblanc into the country. Consumption in this India is nothing if not conspicuous.
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- groups:
- Community
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- tags:
- Change, Consumerism, Wealth
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jubal
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Thought precedes action and manifestation. We must believe something is possible before it can become real and tangible to us.
- 2 years ago
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jubal
