Gandhi would be ashamed and appalled:
"Divisions persist despite prosperity in India; Economic gains have not been equally shared" by Lydia Polgreen, New York Times | September 19, 2010
CHENNAI, India —The Nadars’ caste spectacular rise from despised manual laborers who made a mildly alcoholic palm wine to the leading business community of one of India’s most prosperous states offers significant clues to India’s caste conundrum and how it has impeded economic progress in many parts of the country.
Related:
"Hunger is widespread in India. It is said that at least 50 million Indians are on the brink of starvation and over 200 million Indians are underfed"
Just wanted you to see a tangible result of policy.
India is enjoying an extended economic boom, with near double-digit growth. But the benefits have not been equally shared, and southern India has rocketed far ahead of much of the rest of the country on virtually every score — people here earn more money, are better educated, live longer lives, and have fewer children.
A crucial factor is the collapse of the caste system over the last several decades, a factor that undergirds many of the other reasons that the south has prospered — more stable governments, better infrastructure, and a geographic position that gives it closer connections to the global economy.
“The breakdown of caste hierarchy has broken the traditional links between caste and profession, and released enormous entrepreneurial energies in the south,’’ said Ashutosh Varshney, a professor at Brown University who has studied the role of caste in southern India’s development.
This breakdown, he said, goes a long way to explaining “why the south has taken such a lead over the north in the last three decades.’’ India’s Constitution abolished caste, the social hierarchy that has ordered Indian life for millenniums, and instituted a system of quotas to help those at the bottom rise up.
But no full belly?
But caste divisions persist nonetheless, with upper castes dominating many spheres of life despite their relatively small numbers....
Actually THAT PHENOMENA is present in EVERY SOCIETY and NATION!
And am I EVER TIRED of the DECEPTIONS and DISTORTIONS in the AGENDA-PUSHING PROPAGANDA PRESS!
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