South Asia: India, Giant of the Subcontinent - Dragons and Tigers: A Geography of South, East and Southeast Asia - page 245

Having the Bomb Pradox: Reality Belies India's

“Developed Nation”Image

Gandhi called the atomic bomb the “most diabolical use
of science” ever. Prime Minister Nehru proposed a
“standstill agreement” on the nuclear arms race in 1954.
These Indian ideas were essentially ignored by the world.
Geopolitical considerations are crucial to under-
standing why India “needs” military nuclear capability .
In 1962, China invaded the disputed territory east of
Kashmir. T Two years later, China conducted its first
nuclear test. India-Pakistan wars ensued from?1965 to
1971. China provided assistance to Pakistan. By 1974,
India had exploded its first “peaceful” nuclear device.
By 1988 it had tested a missile capable of delivering a
nuclear warhead into Pakistan. In 1996 both countries
refused to sign the International T Test Ban T Treaty. . T Two
years later in 1998, Pakistan tested its first nuclear
missile. India responded by conducting five underground
tests.
Pakistan' is missile is named the Ghauri after an
Afghan, Muslim king who defeated a twelfth-century
Hindu ruler named Prithviraj Chauhari. India' is missile is
called the Prithvi.
Kashmir has been a flashpoint in stimulating the
nuclear competition between India and Pakistan. The
Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has long advocated a
more militant India and is committed to making the
nation a nuclear power. Pakistan is just as committed to
proving its nuclear strength.
Military expenditures on the part of both nations are
exorbitant in light of their socioeconomic needs. The
Indian government spends 3 percent of its GDP on
defense—the same as that spent on education and twice
that spent on health. In Pakistan, defense spending gob-
bles up almost 30 percent of the national budget, far
more than is spent on education, health, and other social
programs. Clearly , military costs are devastating to social
and economic needs.
China' is role is pivotal in this ongoing arms race.
Not only has China supported Pakistan in its anti-India
hostilities, but also it has sent it missiles capable of
carrying nuclear warheads. Moreover, it has stepped up
its military assistance to Myanmar (Burma). China is
displeased that New Delhi views Tibet as an
“autonomous” region within China. T To make things
worse, Tibet' s Dalai Lama and his anti-communist,
expatriate followers are headquartered in India at
Dharamsala. Y ou can read more about the “Tibet ques-
tion” in Chapter 11.

India, with its nuclear capability and its average annual
economic growth rate of 6 to 7.5 percent, is the leading
economic power of South Asia. Scores of millions com-
prise a dynamic middle class, and urban India, by itself,
could be counted as the world' s third largest country .
Thirty million households are already in the market for
various durable consumer products, and millions more
are climbing into or aspiring to this category of economic
behavior. Fired by the engine of its burgeoning middle
class, India is on the move toward becoming a “developed”
nation. This is the message delivered by an array of
Indian government studies and politicos since the 1990s.
These perspectives are at once correct and misleading.
The truth is a paradox.
That the middle class exists is undeniable, but it is the
middle class of an overall poor country . Only one in five
Indians owns a wristwatch; only 48 percent of households
own a bicycle; less than 4 percent of households have a
telephone. In this country of over a billion, only 1.4 million
are regarded as rich. The middle class is, in effect, a poor
one unable to generate the kind of demand that can
sustain rapid growth, even in elite consumption sectors.
Economic liberalization policies of the 1990s have
granted the middle class a role it cannot assume. The
credit card industry has mushroomed. Consumer giants
such as Hindustan Lever are spending millions on adver-
tisingin the consumer sector. But as advertising expen-
ditures have grown 70 percent, sales have risen only
30 percent.Much of the so-called middle class is not able
or willing to march to the drum of consumerism.
Satellite TV has exploded, offering multiple
channels, foreign programming, and images of a well-off,
cosmopolitan, and urban-centric upper-middle class. This
has reinforced the notion that a consumption-driven
middle class will lead the masses down the road of
development, progress, and prosperity . But those in the
middle class watch television and confirm their lifestyles
and ambitions. This does little for the masses. With
respect to TV sets, India only has 76 sets per 1,000 people.
Malaysia has 167. For those convinced that India is on
the move, the fact that the country has the largest number
of illiterates in the world is glossed over. Glitzy commercials
mask harsh realities of urban slums, poor villages, and
wasted countrysides.
Deprivation is sanitized by statistics and TV -screen
“realities.” Even the Indian government admits that