While the annual rate of growth crawled forward at 1-3 percent during the 1970s and
1980s (humorously characterized as the “Hindu rate of growth”), it is now a robust 7
percent and more. In 2018, India overtook China to become the world’s fastest-growing
economy. But that doesn’t tell us much about social progress, notes TINAZ PAVRI.
It’s been over a quarter-century since India began
liberalizing its economy. After the post-independence
adoption of the “mixed-economy” model initiated by
first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, the first steps
towards opening the economy from its quasi-socialist
past started to be taken in the early 1990s. Since that
time, India has seen rapid economic growth and an
increased volume of foreign direct investment. In the
new millennium, the fruits of decades of economic liberalization
are becoming visible as multinational companies
set up home and global brands flood the market.
The reach of global television and social media has
been explosive.
This transformation leads one to ask the question
of whether this accelerated globalization has also
challenged social values, making them conform more
towards global norms. For instance, have Indians, and
particularly young Indians, begun to embrace values
that mirror tolerant global millennial values on questions
of equality, race, women’s rights, and LGBTQ
rights? More squarely within the Indian context, have
they embraced more liberal values with regard to religion
and caste?
News in recent years coming out of India would
lead us to conclude that this has not been the case.
Although India has a proud history of tolerance, with
invaders accepted into the fabric of Indian society and
the embrace of refugees from Parsis to Tibetans within
its fold, India has also been home to ethno-religious
violence, caste discrimination, and violence against
women and LGBTQ individuals. We have all heard of
recent cases of horrific rapes that have rattled the national
conscience and made many Indians feel that
while the country may be progressing economically, it
is surely regressing socially.
I wanted to see what recent opinion surveys tell us
about what Indians believe. These surveys range from a
Deloitte (2015), Pew (2015), and Gallup (2010/11) survey
of millennials, to a much more extensive youth report
survey (2016) conducted by the highly reputed Centre
for the Study of Developing Societies (CSDS) and the
Konrad Adenauer Stiftung (KAS). What I found was that
on many issues, the attitudes reported were largely
tolerant, optimistic, and anti-discriminatory while on
others, the results were mixed. For instance, 71 percent
of respondents said that women have the same rights
as men, the second highest in the Asia-Pacific region.
76 percent of women in the workplace felt they would
be considered for top jobs. However, an almost equal
number also felt that opportunities for the sexes were
not equal. 41 percent believed that women should not
work after marriage, but 81 percent of surveyed men
believed that men should take on greater responsibility
in the home and in the raising of children. 83 percent
believed it was very important to practice religion freely,
and only 5 percent reported discrimination on the
basis of religion (but 13 percent of Muslims did). Almost
50 percent were opposed to mixed-religion marriages,
however. About half of respondents agreed with the
idea of reservation of seats in colleges and universities
for lower-caste Indians. With regard to LGBTQ rights,
the picture is much less sanguine. 61 percent of respondents
believed same-sex relationships to be wrong.
It is very possible, of course, that the relatively recent
practice of social values polling in India means
that these responses are not accurately reflecting public
opinion. It could be the case that the sample size
simply does not adequately cover India’s diverse population,
including rural Indians. It could also be that the
respondents felt pressure to respond “appropriately”
rather than truthfully. However, there is the third, more
optimistic take: that these responses do reflect Indian
values, and that Indian values are more moderate—and
indeed even more progressive—than depressing recent
events would have us believe. If this is the case, then we
would expect to see an India of the future that is not
just economically liberal but also more socially liberal.
Tinaz Pavri is Professor of Political Science and Director of the Asian Studies Program at Spelman College, Atlanta. A recipient of the Donald Wells Award from the Georgia Political Science Association, she’s the author of the memoir Bombay in the Age of Disco: City, Community, Life.