by Muhammad Ahmad Khan 29 March 2023
The state is not like a mother. Governments promote that states do care for its citizens like a mother. It looks after their welfare, their and rights, ensures equality among them, and provides them with every opportunity to seek a good and prosperous life. But is it so? Have states proven to behave like a mother? Different theoretical, systemic, or domestic have proven that states are not like mothers but monsters who only look after their interests and of some social classes at large. People have to look after themselves and hold this monster accountable for what it does so it can provide them with basic rights and a good life. Robinson in “The Narrow Corridor” also highlights that the government and society walk in a narrow corridor. No one must cross each other. Society cannot survive if the government crosses its limits. However, indulging in social debates is not the focus of this article. But for that, it must not be ignored that people of a state look towards the government for a good life. According to Marxism, the state consists ultimately of armed bodies of men, and it is an instrument of the ruling class for the oppression of other classes.
South Asia is one of the most important regions in the world. Economically, geo-politically, and geo-strategically, it is important for the world. Among South Asian states, the most groomed and developed country is India. At one time in the recent past, it competed with the UK in becoming the fifth-largest economy in the world. Internationally, India is praised for its rapid economic growth and the role it is playing in international politics. But how is India developing inside, is a matter of utmost concern for the international community. Let’s have a look into what the global indexes say about India. On Global Inequality Index India ranks 123 out of 161 countries, in Global Hunger Index India ranks at 107 among 121 countries, poverty in India if measured as $2 per day, reaches around 80%, and on Human Development Index India is ranked at 132 out of 191 countries. It must be looked at that a world economy that competes for the fifth position has poverty rate so high. It only elucidates that in India, a particular social class is seeking benefit from the whole economic development, while the poor stay poor. This means only the elite has been benefiting from the state machinery and the state acting as a tool to oppress others on the behalf of these elites. In India whole wealth has been confined to a tiny group of elites including Gautam Adani India’s richest person and closest ally to the Indian ruling party BJP rest are Tata and Ambani’s these families are holding most of India’s wealth.
According to a recent Oxfam India report titled “Survival of the Richest: The India Narrative,” only 5% of Indians own more than 60% of the country’s wealth, while the bottom 50% have only 3%.In 2022, the richest man in India saw a 46% gain in wealth. The combined net worth of India’s top 10 richest individuals is now $335.7 billion, up 32.8% from 2021. 166 billionaires live in India today, compared to 102 in 2020. Meanwhile, India is facing many challenges, including hunger, growing suicide, unemployment, inflation, worsening law & order, and health crises. There were 350 million hungry Indians by 2022, up from 190 million in 2018, & this led to 65% of all deaths among children under the age of 5, which is far higher than the rest of the world. The wealth of billionaires is increasing by $2.7 billion per day even as inflation surpasses the wages of 1.7 billion workers.
Only riches can survive in India. Poor are bound to perish. As the narrative goes on states are not like mothers, and so is India. But one basic responsibility that lies on the government is to at least provide equal opportunity to every citizen. But in India, it is not happening still Dalits which are over 200 million living in India are considered outcastes and are not provided equal job opportunities. India has been facing Maoist-Naxalite insurgency in the southern part which is becoming India’s new red corridor. The Maoists denounce globalization as a war on the people by market fundamentalists and the caste system as a form of social oppression. So India is neglecting and oppressing its poor class which makes the most of the Indian population while facilitating the elite which is only 5% to 7% of the whole of India.