The annual number of India's hidden, avoidable deaths dwarfs the annual loss of human life resulting from all natural disasters globally, estimated at about 300,000.
The reason why the preventable deaths of these many millions year after year is not 'considered exceptional, a tragedy and a disgrace', according to Gupta, is the normalization of poverty.
Indeed, for most people in India, just as there are hills, valleys, deserts, rivers and forests in this teeming, ancient country, there is also poverty. There has been poverty in the past, it exists in the present, and it will endure long into the foreseeable future. The social acceptability of letting people stay poor, therefore, is not considered problematic. Not providing food, clothing, shelter and healthcare to people in dire need is not seen as killing them. This social violence is rendered invisible so that poverty does not constitute a scandal, and the preventable deaths of masses of the poor do not provoke soul-searching or public outrage.
The challenges of inequality in India are compounded by the powerful revival of the politics of difference, a new conservatism, and the evidence of active social and state hostility towards minority groups and communities, reflected in grossly under-provisioned Muslim ghettoes, religious profiling in both terror-related and other crimes, and the extra-judicial killings of tribals, Muslims and Dalits. There is a growing appeal among the middle classes of right-wing politics that often combines market fundamentalism with hostility towards minorities and India's neighbours. In the general elections of 2014, this mood was best represented by Narendra Modi, who fought a blistering electoral battle deploying 'shock and awe' tactics against his adversaries-including liberals, socialists, 'secularists' and minorities - whom he felled decisively to become India's sixteenth prime minister.
.......... Modi offered a combination of three fundamentalisms. First, a market orthodoxy, which guarantees unprecedented levels of subsidies to big business in the form of long tax holidays, soft loans, cheap land and electricity, at the expense of public expenditure on education, health, social protection and public infrastructure. Next was communal fundamentalism, constituting barely -disguised hostility towards religious minorities, especially Muslims, which was the main rallying agenda on the ground in electorally-crucial states like Uttar Pradesh and Bihar. And the third was a militarist fundamentalism, envisioning an aggressive foreign policy, including war with Pakistan.
The reason why the preventable deaths of these many millions year after year is not 'considered exceptional, a tragedy and a disgrace', according to Gupta, is the normalization of poverty.
Indeed, for most people in India, just as there are hills, valleys, deserts, rivers and forests in this teeming, ancient country, there is also poverty. There has been poverty in the past, it exists in the present, and it will endure long into the foreseeable future. The social acceptability of letting people stay poor, therefore, is not considered problematic. Not providing food, clothing, shelter and healthcare to people in dire need is not seen as killing them. This social violence is rendered invisible so that poverty does not constitute a scandal, and the preventable deaths of masses of the poor do not provoke soul-searching or public outrage.
The challenges of inequality in India are compounded by the powerful revival of the politics of difference, a new conservatism, and the evidence of active social and state hostility towards minority groups and communities, reflected in grossly under-provisioned Muslim ghettoes, religious profiling in both terror-related and other crimes, and the extra-judicial killings of tribals, Muslims and Dalits. There is a growing appeal among the middle classes of right-wing politics that often combines market fundamentalism with hostility towards minorities and India's neighbours. In the general elections of 2014, this mood was best represented by Narendra Modi, who fought a blistering electoral battle deploying 'shock and awe' tactics against his adversaries-including liberals, socialists, 'secularists' and minorities - whom he felled decisively to become India's sixteenth prime minister.
.......... Modi offered a combination of three fundamentalisms. First, a market orthodoxy, which guarantees unprecedented levels of subsidies to big business in the form of long tax holidays, soft loans, cheap land and electricity, at the expense of public expenditure on education, health, social protection and public infrastructure. Next was communal fundamentalism, constituting barely -disguised hostility towards religious minorities, especially Muslims, which was the main rallying agenda on the ground in electorally-crucial states like Uttar Pradesh and Bihar. And the third was a militarist fundamentalism, envisioning an aggressive foreign policy, including war with Pakistan.
No comments:
Post a Comment