South Asia: Part Two

Agriculture

– A region of startling economic contrasts

• South Asian economic policy has traditionally done little for the rural poor

– Apart from a few export crops, most agriculture was small scale

• Did not provide enough for cities, nor to keep a surplus and pay taxes

– In 1960’s, Green Revolution

• Upped grain harvests via fertilizers, new high-yield, disease-resistant seeds, mechanization, irrigation, and pesticides.

– Pakistan became self-sufficient

– New seeds, equipment expensive; not as tasty; leads to pollution runoff

– Alternative is agroecology – efficient use of traditional resources for fertilzer, pest control

Industry

– Agriculture was neglected after independence b/c thought it could not provide enough growth

– Governments took over industries like steal, coal, transport, communications

• India looked for self-sufficiency, import substitution

– Results not overwhelming

• Growth high at first, but only employs 17% of population

• Choices about products made by bureaucrats

– Needed: cheap pots, buckets, bicycles, simple tools

– Made: Vacuums, watches, kitchen appliances

• Emphasis on hiring workers over quality

• Incredible bureaucracy made investment difficult

Economic Reform

– India undertook its own economic reform (not IMF mandated) in the 1990’s, meant to

• Privatized industry and services

– This has gone very slowly

• Remove government regulation

• Some opening to foreign goods and investment

– Foreign investment by consumer goods makers, IT companies has been most significant

• Service sector now accounts for 50% of GDP

• Southern India (Bangalore, Chennai, Hyderabad) has become the high tech hub

• Mumbai has become the financial center

• Other parts left behind, fear cultural, environmental impact of globalization

Outsourcing

– Outsourcing huge

• At first, routine jobs like call centers, bank paper work

• Now also includes skilled jobs like medical diagnosis, financial analysis, programming go there

– The workforce is well trained by India’s English-based, university system

» Now graduates can work in India, not migrate

– Though they get paid a quarter of what American workers make, b/c of low Indian costs of living, they live better than their American counterparts

Poverty Policy

– Poverty rates down from 40% to 25% in India,

• Pop. growth means number of impoverished up

– Microcredit

• One of the few true, widespread poverty policies that has worked

• Pioneered by Muhammad Yunis’s Grameen Bank

• Gives small loans (a few hundred dollars) to start small business (chicken raising, toilets)

– Avoid having to give collateral, village money lenders

• Loan recipients organized into groups who must repay the loans

– Peer pressure works, 98% of loans paid back

Political Issues

• Caste and Democracy

– Lower castes used to be mobilized by upper castes to vote for parties that did little for them

– Now lower caste specific political parties are forming

• Religious nationalist parties

– Based on the belief that a particular religion is strongly connected to a territory, even to the exclusion of other religions.

– Many frustrated with inefficiency and corruption are joining b/c they see them as purifying sources of morality.

• Also, Middle and Upper class men are upset about pro-lower caste policies

– Hindu nationalists destruction of a mosque led to 1992-1993 riots.

Political Conflicts

• Conflicts occur when a regional ethnic or religious minority resists the authority of national governments.

• Conflict in Punjab

– The Sikh community wants greater autonomy and recognition of its distinct religious and ethnic identity.

• Central government interference has been strong    

– Tensions over access to water and land and the control of religious sites.

Political Conflicts (cont)

• Conflict in Kashmir

– On eve of independence, Muslim majority population, Hindu ruler

• Ruler opted for India

• Supposed to be vote on joining India or independence, which never happened

– Like in Punjab, high levels of central government interference have strengthened independence movements

• Pakistan regular army, Pakistani supplied rebels have staged attacks

– Indian Army repraisals have been severe

– India and Pakistan are technically still waiting for a UN decision on where the final border between the two countries will be.

The Hindu-Muslim Relationship

• In general, Hindus and Muslims have co-existed

• Participate in each others festivals in villages

• In urban areas, upper classes work live together

– In urban areas, occasional communal violence has broken out between Muslims and Hindus

• Strict Hindus don’t like that Muslims work with leather, eat beef; also treat Muslims with suspicion b/c of hostility towards Pakistan

– Muslims tend to be poorer/less well connected in areas in India where they are the minority

– Sometimes whole villages of low caste Hindus convert to escape caste system

• Although a small number of Muslims in India still participate in caste system

Political Conflict

• Sri Lanka

– During colonialism, Tamil speaking, Hindu Indians brought to island as tea plantation laborers

– Majority is Singhalese speaking and Buddhists

– In 1970’s, Tamils launched a civil rights movement, became Civil War in 1980’s

• Cease fire for last few years, starting to fall apart

• Nepal

– Longtime communist insurgency (with little support in its rural base) vs. the kings supporters

Afghanistan

– In 1970’s, Reform minded urban elites (backed by Soviets) lost to rural conservative religious leaders/tribal leaders/landowners (the mujahedeen, backed by U.S., Gulf Arabs)

– The Taliban, a radical religious-political-military movement, emerged from the mujahedeen

• Enforced shari’a, and attempted to rid their society of non-Muslim influences.

• By 2001, they controlled 95 percent of the country

– Post 9/11, U.S. helps Northern Alliance, pushes Taliban to hills

• Now elections, but little rural development, opium has returned

• Foreign fighters, some Taliban into Tribal Eastern Pakistan

Population Patterns

• South Asia is densely populated and still growing, though (except Afghanistan) not as quickly as in the past.

– India will pass China as largest country

• Has a middle class of 50 million; will keep growing to around 380 million

– Has cut deep poverty from 93% of population to 51% (though that is still high)

• Needs to build rapidly just to keep up

– Bangladesh is one of densest countries on earth, due to constant water supply

– Sri Lanka, Indian state of Kerala with populations that have stabilized due to health care, women’s education

• Women’s literacy rates > 90%, much higher than rest of region

Population (cont.)

• In the north of region, Indo-European Languages; Dravidian languages in the South; plus Tibetan and Austronesian pockets.

• Though 70% rural, India has 4 cities over 10 million

– Cities are growing rapidly; Mumbai is the commercial capital; its largest slum, Dharavi, has 1 million people in 1 square mile and 15,000 one-room factories

• Strong preference in many areas for boy children, even among some of middle class, has led to missing female problem

– Clinics used to identify, abort female fetuses; now illegal

South Asian Diaspora

• All areas of South Asia send people out to…

• Bali has old, pre-colonial India population

• Under the British

– Plantations in Guyana/Trinidad, Malaysia, Fiji

– Railroads, Army, Merchants in South, East Africa

• After independence to UK, Canada, US, Australia, Persian Gulf

– South Asians now U.S.’s wealthiest ethnic group, b/c most recent immigrants are highly educated

– Led to Brain Drain, where most educated go abroad; now it is less likely to be the case as more opportunities at home (at least in India)

Geographic Patterns in Status of Women

– Gender equality indexes for South Asia are low, but improving in most areas

• Worst in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Northern India

• Better in South, East, Central India, Sri Lanka

• Relative well-being varies across region, caste, religion, class, and age

– Now that women are taking more public roles, harassment and outright attacks by men have increased.

– Women in marriages sometimes become labor in Mother-in-laws household; though becoming less common

– Purdah is the practice of concealing women from non-family men.

• More common in rural areas where Islam is practiced, mostly among the wealthier/middle class of rural areas.  Poor cannot afford it.

• High upper class in cities ignore practice; social climbing households more likely to do it to show “wealth”

Gender Issues (cont.)

– Traditionally in region, poorer families were paid a “bride price” for the loss of the woman’s labor

– As lower classes became wealthier and opted for purdah, switched to dowry, money paid in compensation for “housing” the woman

• It is illegal, though widely practiced in marriage race

– Marriage is still arranged, partially used as social networking opportunity for family

– Unmarried women still considered ununusual

• Becoming crippling for poor families as rising incomes have raised dowries overall

– Cause of female infanticide, more than one daughter can cripple a family

– Saw rise in (still infrequent) dowry killing and extortion

Gender Issues (cont.)

• Education and the Status of Women

– Even basic reading and math education for women lowers fertility, helps improve the lives of their children

• Many NGO’s work on these issues

– In the 1980s, panchayati raj (village government) was introduced to encourage gender equality in village life

• 30% of all seats for women

– In Indian cities, the number of professional women is growing.

• India, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, and Pakistan have all had female heads of state.

LGBTQ Issues

• Nepal is the leader in the region in terms of offering legal protection for sexuality (although there is much discrimination in the reason)

– However, India has long recognized the existence of a third gender – hijra, which is a trans female identity common in northern parts of the region

• In India, same sex relationships are technically illegal, although Mumbai has a LGBTQ newspaper and film festival.

– Media there hasn’t gotten beyond having gay characters only there for comedy.

Religion

• Hinduism

– Is incredibly complex, looks very different depending on location, caste

• There is the Great Tradition and the Little Tradition

– GT is centered around Brahma/Shiva/Vishnu and their various manifestations of the divine

– L.T. has hundreds of Gods, some only belonging to a single village

» These are remnants of old religions, shows Hinduisms flexibility

– Some Hindus forgo gods, attempt to connect to formless ultimate divinity through yoga, meditation

• Most Hindus believe in reincarnation

Measures of Human Well-Being

• GDP is very low, but rising (especially in India)

– However, many practice frugality and resourcefulness in order to survive

• This gives a higher standard of living than GDP indicates

• HDI rankings have advanced to the lowest ranks in the medium range

– Hard to do b/c large population

– Gap between rich and many poor grows