Time for India to Help Itself

“This shirt? Oh, it was only 500 bucks!”

The smile on my cousin’s face confused me at first. 500 bucks? That’s a lot of money! But though my cousin had assumed my lingo, he wasn’t referring to American dollars. His pride made much more sense when I did the conversion – at 62 rupees a dollar, his brand-name shirt put him back a mere 8 dollars.

I often find myself shocked, delighted, and slightly guilty when I hear the exponentially cheaper prices of almost anything in India. Usually, clothing and tailoring services top the list, but it’s not uncommon to see food, electronics, and other souvenirs marked down tremendously. And this is before the haggling begins.

Not everything in India is getting cheaper, however. Cities across India are experiencing rapid growth, with massive malls boasting international brands and roads filling with luxury cars. These international retailers cater to the Indian elite, a faction that has been growing due to India’s rapid economic growth. On top of this, the car dealers raise their prices because of India’s extremely high taxes (up to 110 percent!) on imported luxury cars. It goes without saying—if you want a BMW in India, you have to be willing to shell out a lot of money.

And a lot of people have been buying BMWs.

Don’t get me wrong—there’s nothing wrong with spending your hard-earned money on luxury goods if you can afford it. It may even be healthy for India; frequent purchases of expensive goods are indicative of India’s continuing growth, encouraging trade and increasing competition despite the government’s efforts to curtail international access. But I find it hard to rationalize the scene of a Mercedes racing past an auto rickshaw on the streets of Mumbai.

India’s decrepit infrastructure, malnutrition, and poverty desperately need some attention. Is it really necessary to spend so much money on fast cars?

The Indian education system only serves to reinforce this attitude towards money. With a majority of schools focusing on business, science, and math, everyone knows about the stereotypical Indian education track. But this stereotype is self-reinforcing, too. Not everyone who studies medicine, engineering, or business is going to be successful, but the “successful” people—meaning most people consider them successful—are typically doctors, engineers, and managers.

Those successful people then buy the flashy cars and display their success, encouraging others to follow in their footsteps. Thus, the road to success, a crucial social factor in a developing country like India, has become almost codified. Yet, few resources exist to break people out of the cycle of poverty. In the last two decades, India has become more unequal, with the top 10 percent of wage earners now making more than 12 times the amount of the bottom 10 percent.

There’s an attitude change that needs to take place. Reducing income disparity is not just good for those at the lower end of the earning spectrum—it’s good for everyone. The current disparities in socioeconomic status that are so openly displayed is especially concerning. The wealthy are becoming an ultra-conspicuous, ultra-exclusive group that has the potential to help solve many of India’s issues, but hasn’t. By buying expensive goods and then throwing these items in other people’s faces, the wealthy are dissociating themselves from their fellow countrymen, whom they should absolutely support or at least provide guidance to.

Making the difference in socioeconomic statuses more explicit also serves to justify the behavior of the wealthy—in order to become a part of that group, you have to drive the expensive cars really fast around the city or else you won’t be recognized. It’s a problem inherent to how the system is perceived.

I’m not saying that no one should buy BMWs until the day that poverty is eradicated. But there should be more opportunity available for social mobility at the very least.

Throwing money at these problems will have a limited impact, and working through the government is probably counterproductive given its record of corruption. Instead, the wealthy should empower different groups, and especially the youth, to realize their potential by establishing training programs, camps, scholarships, and opportunities for people to be exposed to the growth of India. Though these activities may already be taking place in India, they should be expanded greatly as to increase their reach and impact. India’s growth should not be limited to a privileged few—by helping others reap the benefits of economic growth (even if it has slowed), the wealthy are realizing their own potential as leaders of a new, exciting India. But as leaders, they must act responsibly and with care.

When in India, I had a conversation with a well-off businessman who told me he was going to hire a guy to shine his shoes as a way of helping him make more money. I want to make this clear: getting people to shine your shoes is not helping them. Teaching them, guiding them to opportunity, and finding ways to have them realize their potential is helping them. The wealthy are in a position to do this. The first step requires an attitude change, and I can only hope that will happen soon.

Avinash Saraf ’17 is a Crimson editorial writer in Wigglesworth Hall.