Ramsay-Burrough 1
India from the Backseat of the Rolls A new class of extremely rich is emerging in India an d floating to the top echelon of luxury on the back of an economy that grew 5% in 2012 (according to India’s statistics department).i As this new class enjoys their Bugatti’s and Gucci clothes, much of the rest of India is suffering crushing poverty in a country that contained 1/3 of the world’s poor in 2006.ii These two India’s are not just split by their incomes, but also their ideology and, importantly, their treatment of women. In the poverty-stricken, particularly, rural regions of India, women are treated poorly and their participation in the workforce is declining; the number of women in the workforce fell by 21 million from 2004 to 2010 (according to The 2012 National Sample Survey report).iii However, in the small class of wealthy Indians, women are treated more equally; they are schooled with their brothers and marry of their own will because a dowry is unimportant. Also, many take the opportunity for schooling in American or British universities that their wealth gives them the ability to attend, and they go on to have successful careers in business and hold positions of power. However, because they live in a separate India, many do not know of the plight of rural women in their country and do not use their schooling and power for the improvement of the country for the rest of their gender. This new class of Indian is living by Deng Xiaoping’s mantra: “To get rich is glorious,” but they have no desire to share that glory, and so, in a testament to the power of wealth, 11,000 acres are being cleared to build a city of dreams for India’s rich.iv The 1.5 billion pound project that is called Aamby Valley will feature a 1,500 bed hospital, a western style boarding school, and enough shopping and infrastructure (includes a private airport) to guarantee that none of the residents have to venture outside of the city, while 8 foot walls and armed guards ensure that none but India’s rich will venture inside to gape.v vi
I asked dad yesterday if he would take me to see India because Rahul Sengupta’s dad took him and Rahul told everyone at school the next day it was, like, “totally sweet”. My dad was all like “Why would you go out there. Don’t you appreciate what we gave you,” the usual B.S. And then he told me all about how Aamby Valley was built just so we didn’t have to see India and how scared a girl like me would be out there. Like, really? I told him, “It’s not like I’m going to get raped in broad daylight.” He said “fine”, but that we were going to have to take the Rolls Royce because it has bullet proof windows. At this point I’m considering just calling off the whole thing because our Rolls is a 2012 model … that’s like five years old. If anyone from school sees me in that I’m done. But I persevered and dad sent me with Arnold, our bodyguard, in the lame old Rolls. When we got to the gates we had to wait for like 5 minutes for some guard to open the gate. When we finally drove out there was nothing around us. We drove for almost 20 minutes until I saw some drab looking buildings in the distance. I asked Arnold, who grew up outside the walls, if those were the public bathrooms or something, but he said, “No, they are where the rich people in this town work.” By this time I was beginning to notice a
Ramsay-Burrough 2
pungent smell. Like a really pungent smell. It smelled like the pig farm that we went to on a field trip once if all the pigs had, like, died and been lying there for a couple weeks. Then I saw the weirdest women in a field, I think she was wearing homespun. Had she like not read a Vogue since Gandhi died? And weirder still she seemed to be picking crops. I know people in India are supposed to be poor and all and have to grow crops and stuff, but why was the woman doing that kind of work? I asked Arnold and he said that women in India have to work to support their families. “Then why doesn’t she buy some real clothes if she has money from working,” I asked. Arnold gave me this weird look and then said that he doubted that the woman ever saw any of the money she worked for because it went straight to her husband. He kept talking, but by this time I was feeling pretty nauseous from the smell and I had just seen these weird metal shacks that I thought were for animals until I saw some people come out of them. I was horrified. I told Arnold to turn around right away, but while he was telling me that I had barely seen any of India, I saw something that scared me even more. A shirtless man was urinating into some kind of ditch right by the road. Needless to say I fainted, and I couldn’t remember anything after that until we got back to the gate. They made me get out and checked whether my clothes were Gucci before letting us back in. By that time I had decided there was never a reason to leave Aamby Valley again.
i
"Govt Pegs India's GDP Growth Rate for 2012-13 at 5%," Mint, Feb 07, 2013, accessed May 24, 2013, http://search.proquest.com/docview/1284721618?accountid=12012. ii Randeep Ramesh, "G2: A Tale of Two Indias: A Gated Development for the Subcontinent's Super-Rich . . . and a Funeral for a Cotton Farmer, Forced into Suicide because of Spiralling Poverty. India's Economic Growth is Dazzling but, in the New, Globalised Era, its Inequalities are Becoming Even More Polarised, Discovers Randeep Ramesh," The Guardian, April 05, 2006, accessed May 24, 2013, http://search.proquest.com/docview/246422439? accountid=12012. iii
Kumari, Reena and Aviral Pandey. "Women's Work Participation in Labour Market in Contemporary India." Journal of Community Positive Practices 12, no. 1 (2012): 18-35. http://search.proquest.com/docview/1081326128?accountid=12012. iv Ramesh, The Guardian. v Ibid. vi Peter Foster, "Valley of Dreams for India's New Super-Rich Billionaire Builds Gleaming Resort Where Wealthy can Forget the Slums," The Daily Telegraph, Mar 31, 2006, accessed May 24, 2013, http://search.proquest.com/docview/321328410?accountid=12012.