India: Inequality and Religious Violence

The Taj Mahal and the Himalayas are just a few things that come to mind when the word ‘India’ is mentioned. Doubtlessly, these well-known sites have contributed to India’s growing tourist industry. In fact, India is the forty-first tourist destination in the world: hosting over five million international tourists each year. In 2008, India generated nearly twelve million US dollars from tourism – a large portion of its overall economic revenue (http://incredibleindia.org/Tourism_Stastics2008.pdf). In fact, India’s economy is the twelfth largest in the world and is ranked among the globe’s fastest growing economies (http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/Mr_Rupee_pulls_India_into_1_trillion_GDP_gang/articlearti/1957520.cms). All together, India’s tourist industry, agricultural sector, and industrial growth have boosted its economy onto a track to overtake the U.S.’ own economy by 2050 (http://www.usindiafriendship.net/viewpoints1/Indias_Rising_Growth_Potential.pdf).

Yet despite the country’s progress, India falls behind many of its economic competitors in areas such as poverty levels, citizen equality, literacy rates, and religious tolerance. For instance, while its overall gross domestic product has risen by an approximate seven percent each year, India is home to forty percent of the world’s poor (http://www.fastcompany.com/blog/anupam-mukerji/social-inequality-threatening-indias-economic-stability). So while it is flourishing in some key areas, the country’s progress has not produced any substantial benefits to a large portion of its citizenry.

After considering these facts, I have decided to devote my blog to exploring social issues in India: namely inequality and religious violence. I find these issues especially interesting in the nation of India because of its rapid and ongoing transformation into a world power. This blog is for a university course that centers on the topic of globalization and inequality. In many ways, India is a perfect case-study for this topic because there seems to be no positive connection between its globalizing economy and its citizens’ quality of life. In writing this blog, my hope is that I will gain a greater understanding of the disparity between India’s international success and the life of the common Indian citizen.