An Overview of India's Sociological and Economic Growth in the last Twenty Five Years

Introduction India has been a country with great pride and honor from the commencement of the heroic independence that it gained. Less known are the facts of reality and the trouble that everyone has been through in those days. The depictions of pain, separation during the partition are just an insight into the horrendous massacre that happened. However, the development that India has shown since Independence is skeptical in many ways no matter how heroic and brave it has been portrayed in the eyes of the International world order. This article criticizes the growth India has been following giving a reality check into what it actually is rather than giving facts that are already known. The economic growth of India begun many years ago when most of us were not even born and therefore it has stages of development where different political entities focus on different methods of economic goals. Today India is the third largest economy in the world as per the studies till 2016 are concerned however the reality is somewhat different which we will discuss this at the end of this article. Apart from this India was also nominated to the Permanent Security Council Member by the United States of America but owing to its relationship with the neighboring states, it could not have further proceeded. The Economic growth of the country led the US to nominate India to the UNSC but this led to many aggravated tensions between India, Pakistan, and China which led them envying each other more for the hunger of power and seat. This is how it works If you have economic power and the capital the world starts envying you because you begin to gain power or are nominated for the same as in the case of India. This has all been so fairytale kind of a story till now that India has the third largest economy but the methods it has adopted for the economic development has led to the sociological life been destructed to the level of becoming slaves. Through the entire journey of Indian Economic growth, it has tried to liberalize and mindlessly liberalize the economy. Free trade practices of the World Trade Organization and the Indian consent to the same, led to many foreigners coming to the country setting up their offices, here in our own land and making us crave for them. Multinational Companies are big-time examples of this kind of growth. Nowadays in India, we do not find the self-sufficient brands which are trustworthy and reliable rather we go for branded outlets and showrooms which according to our fascinated perceptions have greater quality than what our own countrymen could provide. Liberalization, Globalization, and Privatization have led to economic disparities, political interference and the quality of the work they provide have become way too substandard for the economy to grow. India has shown a rise in its economy when the country was known as the Beggars of the World to the third largest economy of the world, which is commendable and applaudable, however, deserves to be criticized on the methods of such growth. Historical Context (Before 1990) India was known as the “Beggars of the World” when it gained independence from the colonial rulers. The first three decades of the Indian Independence i.e. from 1947 to 1977 the average growth of the country has been really slow i.e. just 3.5% per annum which was at that time also known as the “Hindu Rate of Growth”. The reason why it was called the Hindu rate of growth was that our country was considered to be a nation of Hindus which meant that the recognition of the country was not that of a secular nation but that of the Hindu nation which is why the phrase developed. Then the era of socialism entered into the economy, which now focussed more on the societal aspects such as the welfare of the people by providing them the health care and the functionaries essential for the welfare of the people. Several slogans such as the “Garibi Hatao” were also raised and worked upon but eventually it did not work out and the decline of the poverty levels rarely found a place in the record .Till the period of 1983 the poverty rates doubled proving the world true to the statement of Beggars of the World, however hope was never lost and then the population of the country doubled while not proving it to be a bad sign, the GDP rose to 5.5%. While the GDP rose due to the population rise other sociological factors such as the maintenance of the population was not considered at all and as a result of which the spending spree was unsustainable and India emptied its foreign exchange reserves by 1991. Therefore, the conclusion of the period before 1990 is that we grew but we fell more hastily. 1991 Onwards The growth of India post-1991 will also be viewed critically giving an insight into how it really was. The countrymen had suffered a lot along with the pockets of the politicians and therefore, it was time for something new to be introduced in the Indian economy. Economic Liberalization was chosen by the then representative as the economic growth model. They did not want complete socialistic patterns while now they decided to shift their economy to that of adopting the middle path. Following this, for few days the GDP grew to the rate of 7.7% per annum which was huge but the sociological aspects were still not taken into consideration given the fact that the calamities hit the country with the droughts in 2002. Before that, the Asian financial crisis had hit hard the Indian economy in the 1997-1999 time span. Series of events such as the Oil Crises and the Invasion of Iraq in 2003 was a point of turn for the Indian economy. It was theoretically, the last impasse that India was facing but not the GDP went down to 5.7% per annum in 2003. Therefore, low economic growth and no idea of what is happening sociologically. The sex rate in the country is devastated, girl child being killed in the womb itself, as they had the technology to pre-determine the sex of the child but no implementation of the laws that could stop that. Education rate was below even the nominal expectations and India was developing through its GDP. Post-2003 till present The period of 2003-2008 was known as the period of economic boom as it was spearheaded by the Chinese who later on realized that they were funding their competitor. India’s GDP in this time frame went to the rate of 9% per annum which was fair enough to portray India to be heroic enough. Considering the sociological point of view, there were problems which we were working upon or had commenced working upon such as the Polio vaccinations etc. which were though helpful but were not widespread. Post the period of 2010 and 2011, was the time when India forgot to maintain its position and GDP for the long run. The internal systems of the country became more corrupt, the Indian banks were going into huge losses and there were more scams than ever and the politics had taken a toll over the human life in India owing it greatly to the media and the interference of the Politicians in the normal human lives. The countrymen had lost trust in the long-trusted Congress and then entered the current Prime Minister Modi with his oratory skills. Post the election of Narendra Modi as the Prime Minister the GDP of the country has been 7.5% which has been lowered and slowed down than ever. His visits to other countries are international news but the aimless liberalization and globalization are ruining the sociological parameters of the country. The most evident example in the society is the building up of malls and dams and displacement of so many people from their homes and livelihoods. Such globalization and liberalization are only making us slaves into the hands of private investors while we are forced to give up on our brains leaving them uselessly tired.