Indians in a Globalizing World

Ever since the dramatic airlifting of all 67 tonnes of India’s gold from the Reserve Bank of India to the vaults of British and Swiss banks in May 1991 as collateral for a $2.2 billion emergency loan, India has never been the same. The New Economic Policy (NEP), which followed two months later and has been pursued with varying degrees of commitment by later governments, heralded a new chapter in India’s history. In Indians in a Globalizing World, acclaimed journalist and historian Dilip Hiro shows that the redistribution of the extra wealth created by the spurt in growth caused by economic liberalization has been skewed, grossly favouring those who are already well off. The author of Inside India Today – a modern classic described as ‘the best book on India’ by the Guardian – Hiro seamlessly combines research with grassroots reporting. In his riveting narrative, he moves from glitzy office tower blocks and prohibitively expensive apartments in the gated enclaves of Gurgaon – the Poster City of New India – to the embattled Maoist stronghold of Dantewada in Chhattisgarh. He is as much at ease narrating the tales of the great and good in California’s Silicon Valley as he is in outlining the lifestyle of the residents of Delhi’s New Seelampur or Dehradun’s Bindal River slum. Above all, he shows how life in rural India, home to seven out of ten Indians, has been affected by globalization. Only a tiny minority of villages near urban centres have prospered because of rapid urbanization while the vast majority have stagnated or fallen behind. Finally, Indians in a Globalizing World explains how accelerated urbanization and financial globalization have led to an explosive growth in corruption which emerged as the primary concern of voters in the 2014 general election.