India : Modernity Vs Tradition

India : Modernity Vs. Traditions

If India has been a poor country for a long time , it is now part of the BRICS countries, which means that India is on its way to become a developped country, thanks to, among other things, its growing high tech companies.

Documents used :

- http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/05/weekinreview/05giridharadas.html

- http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/asia-jan-june09-india_04-08/

- http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/this_world/7039681.stm

- Good Karma Hospital - S01E01.

The question I want to ask is this one : Is today's India a modern country?

Firstly, I'll talk about the economic, social and cultural changes in India.

Secondly, we'll see who makes most of these modern changes.

So, first, the changes in India.

I read, in class, an extract from Armand Giridharadas's book, "Farewell to an India I hardly knew". The author, who is a journalist of the New York Times of Indian origin, writes about the changes in India : From ààà;"z"w(farms giving way to factories, ultra-cheap cars being built...) (l.15) to social changes (children of lower cast are hoisting themselves up to a diploma, women were becoming breadwinners..) (l.30)

We studied a video in class, called "The changing face of India", which stresses out how technologically advanced India is. Its "Infosys campus" in Bengalore includes a map room in which computer scientists work 24/7 to make sure the computer systems around the world keep working.

Another video taught us that companies like Quislex, a legal company run by a woman (Sirisha Gumaregula) in Cyderabad, south India, does all the grunt work that American legal firms don't want to do because it wouldn't be cost effective. So they outsource some of their work to Indian legal firm which are far less expensive but very efficient.

These 3 documents undeniably prove that India is a country on the march because its economy keeps transforming thanks to the rapid development of the hight-tech sector. India's GDP has been increasing at an annual rate of 8% for several years. Yet, the country remains rural, illiterate and more prone to cling to traditions.

This leads us to the second part, who makes most of these changes.

We watched a video called "modern India", showing that "underneath this glittering modern superpower lie some painful realities" (l.4). A young woman said that "India is moving for the rich, not for the poor" (l.7). The document says that "thousands of farmers commit suicide every year" (l.8). Added to that, althought Independent India's Constitution banned discrimination on the basis of caste in 1950, we saw in this document that Indians at the bottom of the caste system are still needed to clean the dirtiest places.

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