India’s economy has changed but social conditions are ripe for resurgence of destructive tendencies
Business News India : The demolition of Babri Masjid and the deadly riots that followed remain a grim reminder in India’s history of volatile politics and the sway it has over the minds of people who are bent on the path of destruction in the name of religious resurrection.
A lot of water has flowed under the bridge since December 6, 1992, when scores of Hindutva foot soldiers, purportedly egged on by some who would later be the tallest Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders, went on the rampage to demolish a medieval mosque built by India’s first Mughal emperor, allegedly after dismembering an ancient Hindu temple built in the name of Ram.
In many ways, India was at an economic cross-roads. The per-capita income of Indians was barely ~16,000 (or $245 at current exchange rates) in 1990. When the Babri mosque was pulled down, it fell even further. Added to this abysmal per-capita income was the high inflation rate. In the year the Babri mosque was demolished, the consumer inflation in India touched 14 per cent — a record high in many years.
A year before the demolition, inflation was still at a debilitating 9 per cent. Unemployment levels (data for which in India are highly dubious) stood at 4 per cent. For many Indians, who were just about making ~1,300 (or $20) a month on an average, the economy wasn’t something they could look up to for redemption.
By 1991, 18-year-olds were staring at a future where their incomes and standard of life would be no better than their parents. In 1973, when these young people were born, the per-capita income in India was around ~11,000 ($169 at current rates). From the time they were born to the time they became major, the average earning prospects of Indians rose by a pittance.
At the rates of inflation prevailing in the run-up to the Babri mosque demolition, this unimpressive rise in income would have been negated in just about three years. In effect, a vast majority of India’s population would have been at the same income levels of their parents, maybe even worse.
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