Globalisations curse? The rich get richer and the poor get poorer?
CHAMARGANJ - India’s governing coalition is banking on strong economic growth fueled by bumper crops and a rising middle-class to retain power in elections expected to be called soon.
Ahead of the early polls, the Hindu nationalist-led government has launched an advertising blitz – “India shining” – to sell the good news across the world’s largest democracy and encourage Indians to spend even more.
But there is little of that euphoria in the giant heartland state of Uttar Pradesh, home to 166 million people deeply divided by caste, religion and economic disparity.
“India is shining for about three million Indians, and yes there is a little light for the 200 million-strong middle class,” said Mani Shankar Aiyer, a diplomat turned lawmaker for the main opposition Congress party. “But for 800 million of the poor and near-poor, it is alas India Dimming.”
The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has launched an election campaign built around a resurgent economy with growth expected to top eight percent, record foreign exchange reserves and a consumer spending spree on interest rates at 30-year lows.
But for the Dalits, those at the bottom of the Hindu caste system in this tiny village of crumbling mud houses just off a state highway, casteism and abject poverty remain the reality.
Boom does not mean work
Sukhmi Lal, 36, has watched his hands waste away from leprosy over eight long years. But he can’t afford a doctor or medicines.
All he can do is put some turmeric on when he can’t bear the pain.
Even worse, he says, is that he cannot work.
“I am useless without my hands,” says Lal who now depends on his wife, a farm labourer. Two old women, shivering in torn blankets provided by the local administration against the harsh winter that has killed hundreds across the state, say they were promised pensions last winter.
“As long as there are upper caste governments, nothing will change for us,” says one, Ram Kali.
Dalits, the so-called untouchables in the 2,500 year-old caste system based solely on birth, make up 20 percent of the people of Uttar Pradesh, the state that traditionally holds the key to power in Delhi.
The Dalits are expected to stand solidly behind the Bahujan Samaj Party, a low caste group led by the mercurial Mayawati who was the state’s chief minister until her alliance with the BJP collapsed last year.
Both the BJP and its main rival, the Congress, are trying to win Mayawati’s support for the elections, but she has not yet revealed her plans.
“She is our pillar. Eighty percent of this village will do whatever she tells us to in the election,” says Ram Sajivan, a village official. ”The vote is our only weapon.”
Sajivan says the Dalits of the village remain at the mercy of the upper caste Brahmins and Thakurs – the warrior class – who live on the other side of the highway.
The Dalits are often ordered to leave their own fields untended to work on the farms of the upper caste men without any pay, he says.
“They will break your hands and legs if you refuse.”
In villages across India, Dalits cannot live among, pray in the same temple as or even drink the same water as high caste Hindus. Marrying outside their community can even mean death at the hands of the upper castes.
This month, a group of Dalits was prevented from entering a temple in the western state of Rajasthan, prompting many to question the government’s claims of transforming the country and bringing a “shining” life to all.
“This doesn’t speak of a society moving towards modernisation, equality or progress,” wrote political commentator Praful Bidwai in the Hindustan Times.
“It speaks of social sickness.”
