I had already made the point about the non- unitary nature of India. But, I think that it is worth stressing and reiterating. It is not called a subcontinent for nothing. With a billion people it encompasses a range of cultural, linguistic, economic, political, and social differences that are very great, at least as great as what one finds in Europe, for example, and much greater than one finds in larger China.
I agree that the reforms have triggered a tremendous increase in regional inequality, and this is the more telling story. The apparent stasis in rural inequality does indeed mask this great variability between states, with some (generally the better off ones) reducing rural poverty, while the worst off seem to be sinking down lower. In this regard, "U.P. " (Uttar Pradesh) is especially significant as it is the largesst with over 100 million people.
BTW, booming Mumbai (Bombay) in Maharashtra has recently moved into third place on the list of the world's largest metropolitan areas, ahead of New York and Sao Paulo, but still behind #1 Tokyo and #2 Mexico City. Barkley Rosser ----- Original Message ----- From: "Brad DeLong" <jbdelong at uclink.berkeley.edu> To: <lbo-talk at lists.panix.com> Sent: Thursday, August 16, 2001 1:18 PM Subject: Re: Gunter Grass on globalisation
> >John,
> > The second statement you made about
> >no trend in rural poverty in the 1990s in India
> >is what I am aware of. My data came from
> >T.N. Srinavasin. Again, his data suggests
> >declining poverty rates in urban areas, but
> >no change in rural areas. There certainly
> >are difficult problems of measurment involved
> >here.
> >Barkley Rosser
>
>
> The failure of rural poverty to show a clear decline (or, perhaps,
> any decline) in India may be due to relatively sharp changes in
> relative prices that have boosted the cost of living of the poor
> while reducing the cost of living in the rich.
>
> But perhaps the more important point is that India is *not* unitary.
> IIRC, rural poverty in some states (Gujerat, Maharashtra, Punjab) has
> shown a striking decline; while rural poverty in other states (U.P.,
> Orissa, Bengal) has shown a striking increase over the past decade.
>
> One thing that reforms have done is to let loose forces making for
> profound increases in regional as well as class-vs-class inequality.
>
>
>
> Brad DeLong
>
>