India – Economic Development, History and International Relations
India and the Indian civilization have played an important role in human development, world history and international relations. With approximately 1.2 billion people, India is the world’s largest democracy and the second largest country by population. In recent decades, rapid economic growth and globalization have led to higher living standards and greater integration with the world economy. From 1980 to 2010, India’s Human Development Index (HDI) increased by 62 percent, and life expectancy at birth in India increased from 42.4 to 63.7 years from 1960 to 2008.
Economic growth, development and megacities
India’s rapid economic growth and development is accompanied by the dramatic rise and growth of the so-called megacities. People from India and other developing countries flock to cities and urban areas in search of greater opportunities and higher standards of living. The fruits of their labor and the economic advantages of the cities’ financial, human and social capital help drive development and urbanization in India.
India will have more than 68 cities with populations of more than one million people by 2030, and more than 40 percent of Indians will live in cities of more than one million people by 2025 according to the McKinsey Global Institute.
Indian society, culture and language
Indian society is organized by a hierarchical caste system of four levels: priests (Brahmins), warriors (kshatriyas), wealth creators (vaishyas), and workers and peasants (shudras). A fifth group have long been excluded from the formal caste system for doing dirty jobs that previously labeled them “untouchable.” Mahatma Mohandas Gandhi was a leading defender of the poor and untouchables, whom he renamed harijan (“children of god”) and also under the term dalits (“the oppressed”). Economic development has gradually undermined some of the rigidities of India’s class structure.
India is an ethnically and linguistically diverse country. As of 2001, more than a million people in India spoke 29 languages, and at least 10,000 people spoke more than 122 languages. The primary and secondary official languages of India are Hindi and English, respectively.
History – Colonization, Independence and Partition
India’s business opportunities attracted companies from Portugal, the Netherlands, England, France and Denmark. The most famous of these sets, the British East India Company, was chartered by Queen Elizabeth on December 31, 1600. In 1668, the British East India Company had leased the Bombay enclave. The East India Company’s settlement at Fort William eventually became Calcutta (present-day Kolkata).
British forces managed to put down the so-called Indian mutiny or First War of Independence, which started with their own Indian soldiers rebelling against the cow and pork fat used in new rifle cartridges. India officially became a British colony in 1858 when the British army put down the rebellion and the British crown took over the administration of India.
The resistance of Mahatma Mohandas Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru of the Indian National Congress to British rule eventually led to the Government of India Act of 1935. India finally achieved full independence when the Indian subcontinent was officially divided into the separate nation states of India and Pakistan on August 15, 1947.
Politics and democracy in India
India became the world’s largest democracy when it adopted universal suffrage (the right to vote) for all adults in 1951 following the promulgation of the Constitution of the “Sovereign Democratic Republic and Union of States” of India on January 26 1950’s
International Relations and Foreign Policy
India’s relationship with Pakistan plays a key role in India’s role in international politics and security. The uneasy relationship between India and Pakistan dates back to the post-World War II partition of the Indian subcontinent, ongoing territorial disputes, particularly over Kashmir, and divided cultural loyalties between Hinduism and Islam. The objectives of maintaining peace and stability and preventing any escalation of nuclear weapons guide the foreign policies of many countries in the region, particularly those of the United States and other highly developed Western nations.
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