On the road to Liberty

My article titled India Goes Backward on Caste was published in The Wall Street Journal on May 19th, 2010. In this article, I point out that economic growth and urbanization has made caste distinctions irrelevant. In cities, people no longer bother to find out the caste identities of others. Caste has cast its shadow once again over Indian politics. Over the past few weeks, parliament has witnessed uproarious scenes on whether to include caste in the once-a-decade census that has just gotten underway. Opinion is split among political leaders, social activists and the public. But far from being ultimately divisive, this debate is a perfect demonstration of how India's vibrant democracy and growing economy is making caste less and less important. For a start, counting castes is increasingly a practical absurdity. When the British tried it as part of the first census in 1881, they identified fewer than 2,000 subcastes, and found that 58% of these groups had a population of less than...

Last week, the 16th summit meeting of the eight countries of South Asia was held in Thimpu, the capital of Bhutan. While there was a lot of talk about further talks in the future, there was also a recognition that the region has performed far below its potential. In this article, " An economic spark for SAARC " , published in the Wall Street Journal Asia, on 5 May 2010, I suggest that we in India need to go beyond talking, and lead the way by unilaterally opening our economy to free flow of goods and people, and contribute towards a more prosperous and peaceful South Asia. The biggest news out of the recent gathering of South Asian leaders in Bhutan was that the prime ministers of two of the largest countries in the region, India and Pakistan, took a stroll together. The eight-member regional grouping, which has always been under the shadow of the India-Pakistan relations, pledged to have more meetings in the future, and the big two reiterated once again to re...