The Change in India's Social Landscape since the Fall of the Berlin Wall

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How does India relate to the fall of the Berlin Wall? And what is the effect of the fall of the Berlin Wall on India?

These are some obvious questions that might spring in the reader's mind on reading the title of this post. This post aims at not only answering these questions but also ponders on the path that this great ancient nation took after this historic event, which in many fundamental ways changed the political, economic and social landscape of the country.

The Berlin Wall, the wall which divided Berlin into two parts - East and West, was an emblem of the Cold War. The German nation was divided into a capitalist West Germany and a communist East Germany (officially the German Democratic Republic). On the west lay the capitalist western powers of Europe consisting of the NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization) and to the east laid the communist European nations and the then erstwhile USSR (popularly known as the Soviet Union).

The fall of of the Berlin Wall on 9th November 1989 heralded what is now considered the beginning of the end of communism in Europe and the end of the Cold War. Following the fall of the Berlin Wall there were major revolutions in many countries of eastern Europe that led to the fall of communism in these countries and heralded a major change in the system of government in these countries from a state controlled communist economies to a market economies. By the end of 1991 the Soviet Union disbanded. This event led to the end of the Cold War.

Interestingly, Europe was not the only part of the world that was affected by the fall of the Berlin Wall. Since the Wall fell, many other countries had started pondering on the issue of how prudent it was to have a command economy or a centrally planned economy. India featured among the list of such nations.

Since independence India had adopted an economic model what many economists like to call "Nehruvian Socialism" which meant a centrally planned economy based somewhat on Soviet models of economic planning. This model made it nearly impossible for private players to operate in the country. The government made almost every possible move to smother private enterprises by running a "License Raj" and production based on strict quotas and international trade burdened by heavy tariffs.

By 1991, it was evident that this system of socialism and centrally planned economy was a horrible failure by any standards. The country was riddled with debt, had no infrastructure to speak off and had nearly half the population living in abject poverty. Exports were reeling and imports were surging. This led to the infamous foreign exchange crisis which left India with forex reserves enough only to meet imports for a few weeks and threatened the country with defaulting on international loan payments.

All this led to some serious thinking on the part of the then P.V. Narismha Rao led government on the path that India had taken since independence with the economy. 1991 was the year that heralded in India's economic liberalization. The License Raj was abolished along with the quotas and barriers to international trade were heavily neutralized. Foreign firms were allowed to set up shop in India. The Indian government also started the process of disinvestment (privatization) of some state controlled industries.

Fast forward today to 10th November 2009. A little more than 18 years have passed since the country's economy was liberalized. India is one of the most powerful economic and military nations on Earth and a declared nuclear weapons state. Our industry is growing at a ferocious rate even as most of the developed world has sunk into "The Great Recession" and many of our companies have an envious global footing across multiple industries.

Sure, that is the change in the economic scenario. But now, lets take a look at the social scenario against the backdrop of this change which was thoroughly described above.

18 years ago we had a system of joint families even in the most elite urban centers in India. Today a joint family is considered to be "too burdensome" and nuclear families as "hip" and more associated with "independence and individualism". 18 years ago social evils and crimes like extensive alcohol consumption, prostitution, child abuse, incest and so forth were at the least "manageable". Today, these evils are endemic and are some of the biggest epidemics plaguing the moral and social fabric of the country. Although I agree that the widespread penetration of the media to large swathes of society has highlighted these problems. At the same time it can be argued that the media is one of the biggest propaganda tool for such evils. Whether the propaganda is good or bad for the society is another topic of debate.

18 years ago the number of people who suffered from stress related physiological and psychological disorders were relatively few in comparison of today's bloated number. People from all walks of life, across castes and religions and across all social classes fall prey to these diseases and disorders in large numbers today.

I can go on giving such examples for the next 20 paragraphs if I want but that is not the objective of this post.

The question is - "Why is all this happening in our country to such a large number of people in a very short time?"

The answer in my opinion is the nature of our culture.

Indian culture is on of the most "resistant" cultures in the world. Resistance here, refers to the resistance to change of any sort in the society.

This can once again be explained by the help of examples.

In the late 1970s China had started shedding its grab of Maoist communism and started gearing towards western style capitalism albeit, in a closely guarded communist environment. The success that they received as a result of this adventure is visible today. China is an economic and military superpower in a period of almost 30 years. This move of China and the resultant success of it were not invisible to India in the late 1970s or early 1980s. The leaders of India were smart enough to understand that this kind of a move was also required in India in order to spur economic growth. But the leaders also knew the attitude of the masses. The masses would not allow such a change too easily and without severe political repercussions. The revolt of the masses against their elected leaders in a democracy is also a deterrent to progressive ideologies at times as is evident here. Rajiv Gandhi initiated some changes but those changes were too little too late.

Even after liberalization our resistance has almost always shown to be a cliffhanger in positive change. Examples range from very slowly evolving social and economic policies of the central and state governments which even after liberalization held a powerful sway over such policies and were the biggest and most powerful bodies to act as change agents in a powerful way to benefit society. The Reserve Bank of India's (RBI) policies comes to mind when it comes to economic strong arming of the economy. Even today, the lending rates are one of the highest among major world economies. An example of social resistance is the abysmal way in which AIDS prevention campaigns worked in the country in the 1990s, the time at which awareness of the disease was very little and the infection rate very high.

The legalization of homosexuality is another such resistance that comes to mind. It was only recently, that a law considering homosexuals to be criminals was struck down by the Delhi High Court. The social acceptance will still take years to come. As educated people, the masses should understand that ignoring a issues such as homosexuality will not make it disappear.

The main problem lies in our fear of accepting the change as a collective. As individuals many people understand that change is a part of life and that it has to be confronted in a positive manner rather than burying one's head in the ground. But even these individuals lack the courage to come forward and help make society accept these truths. Instead, they fear (many times rightly) the ridicule that the society will subject him to if he dares to proclaim his beliefs in public. This leads them to inheriting the number of evil of our society - HYPOCRISY.

This entire cycle of hypocrisy has continued from many generations above us and is inherited by a stunningly large majority of us. This "No. 1 Evil" is the primary reason for the plagues that infest our society.

Thats my take on it. Please leave your comments (even Anonymously!!) and let me know your take on this.

Mitul Choksi

Tuesday, November 10 2009

20 Years since the Fall of the Berlin Wall :)

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