Transcript An Overview of Modern India (and China)

An Overview of Modern India (and
China)
Historical Background for TheWhite Tiger
India’s Geography
 Located in Southern
Asia
 Northern India defined
by the Indo-Gangetic
plain
 Southern India defined
by the Deccan Plateau
Dhanbad
India’s History
 Ancient Civilizations- developed along the Indus and Ganges
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river valleys
Empires- united from time to time under various (often foreign)
empires- Greek, Persian, Maurya, Gupta, Mughal, British
Colonial Rule- British East India Company gradually gained
control of India beginning in the 1600s, directly ruled by the
British from 1857-1947
Independence- achieved in 1947, British India partitioned into
Muslim (Pakistan) and Hindu (India) states
Continued Conflict- East Bengal (part of Pakistan) became the
independent nation of Bangladesh in 1971, Pakistan and India
still fighting over Kashmir
India’s Partition and Political Boundaries
India’s Population
 Home to 1.2 billion people
(17.5% of the world’s
population)
 2nd largest country- will
surpass China as most populous
country by 2025
 50% of population is under the
age of 25
 Great ethnic, religious,
linguistic, and economic
diversity
Language in India
 Hundreds of languages
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spoken
Hindi, Bengali, Telugu,
Marathi, Tamil, Urdu most
widely spoken
11% of Indians (125 million)
speak English, most as a
second language
Official languages- English
and Hindi, also 14 regional
official languages
Adult literacy rate- 74%
Religion in India
 Majority identify as Hindus, but a large variety of religions are
practiced
 81% Hindu
 13% Muslim
 2.3% Christian
 1.9% Sikh
 0.8% Buddhist
Hinduism
 One of the world's oldest, most complex, and largest religions
 Different versions of Hinduism, but share overarching beliefs
 Belief in Brahman- the unchanging, all-powerful spiritual force of
the universe to which everything belongs
 Belief in many gods that are manifestations
of Brahman:
 Brahma (Created of the world)
 Shiva (Destroys of the world)
 Vishnu (Preserver of the world)
Hinduism (continued)
 Goal to unites one’s individual soul (atman) with Brahman to
achieve a state of understanding and liberation from desires and
suffering (moksha)
 One’s soul is reborn many times until moksha is achieved- achieved
by following determined path (dharma) and performing good acts
and deeds (karma)
 The level of society (caste) one is born into is determined by how
well he/she followed his/her dharma and karma in the previous life
Caste and Social Class
 Social class in India is linked to a caste system that developed
over thousands of years
 Initially an indictor of one’s occupation
 Seen as a reflection of one’s previous life- based on birth
 Affects one’s job, where and how one lives, dress, who one
interacts with and marries, and social and political power, and one’s
treatment
 Technically outlawed in 1947 but still has a large influence today,
especially in more rural areas
 Intercaste relations limited
 A highly hierarchical society
 Great social interdependence
India’s Economy
 4th largest economy in the world and rapidly growing
 Major industries- telecommunications, textiles, chemicals,
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agriculture, food processing, steel, mining, petroleum,
machinery, information technology-enabled services and
pharmaceuticals.
Highly regulated by govt.
Becoming more developed (57.2% GDP services, 28.6%
industry), but over half of the population still works in
agriculture
Growing gross national income but 76.2% live on under $2/day
and 41.6% live under international poverty line of $1.25/day
Many lack access to clean water and sanitation
Indian Cities vs. Rural Area
 30% live in cities
 70% live in villages
 Over 40 cities with over a million
 Over 500,000 villages, most are
people- largest are Delhi, Mumbai,
Calcutta, Chennai, and Bangalore
 Experiencing great growth
 Home of growing middle class
 Densely populated with congestion,
noise, and great inequities
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small but dense
Complex social structure- one or
two castes control the land have
power
Most villagers work in agriculture
Interdependence of residents
Often lack improved water source
and modern sanitation
Servants in India
 Most middle class and upper class families have servants because
they can afford it and view doing work manual work as
undignified
 Servants are sually young men and women from rural areas and
of lower castes
 Always on call
 Generally paid $25-150 a month
 Often overworked, exploited, and blamed for crimes committed
nearby
 Second-class member of the family for which they work
Outsourcing to India
 Part of the larger trend of globalization with workers competing on a
flattened playing field
 The practice in which part of a multinational company’s labor (usually
manufacturing or services) is completed in an area in which costs are
cheaper
 75% of US and European multinationals outsource some of their
services
 Largest outsourcing sector in India- IT
 Workers paid 10-20% of American
salaries for a given job
India’s Government
 Established after independence in 1947
 Secular republic of 28 states and 7 territories
 Has executive, legislative, and judicial branches
 Socialist with use of government regulation and subsidies
 Problems of inefficiency and corruption
 Most spending doesn’t reach recipients
 High absence rate of govt. workers
 Corruption defines govt. actions
India and China
 The most populous countries on Earth experiencing high rates
of population and economic growth
 But have very different social, political, and economic structures
 Consider:
 China has higher rates of education and literacy, life expectancy,
vaccination rates, economic growth, higher GNP and energy
consumption, and is more politically stable
 India has greater access to free press and Internet, less reliance on
international markets, greater wealth, greater numbers of English
speakers, and is democratic
China’s Government
 The People’s Republic of China (since 1949)
 Communist- the Communist Party controls the govt. and govt.
decisions, authoritarian
 Primary organs of state power- National People’s Congress
(highest govt. body), President (head of state), and State Council
 Continued political repression and limits on personal freedom
to maintain party rule
Wen Jiabo
 Premier (head of State Council)-
leading figure behind economic
policy- since 2003
 3rd highest member of Standing
Committee (body with most
power)
 Oversaw Beijing Olympics,
repression of Tibetans,
decreased inflation, recovery
from Sichuan Earthquake, great
economic growth, and wants to
bring China onto the world
stage
 Seen as the “popular premier”
China’s Economy
 In transition toward an industrialized, market economy
 “a semi-planned economy”
 “transformation from a rural to an urban society”
 “an economy that is neither socialist nor properly capitalist, run by a
party that is neither revolutionary nor subject to the normal
constitutional checks and balances of even China’s own Confucian past,
let alone the Asian or western present.”
 Economic issues facing China:
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Growing economic freedom with limited personal and political freedom
Population growth
Aging population
Growing need for resources
Urbanization and migrant workers
Environment
Corruption
China in the Future