Special to The New York Times
August 1, 1972
New Delhi, India
India today celebrated a quarter century free from British rule. The 580 million people who inhabit this nation, more than any other besides China, have much to be proud of. The nation has achieved an unthinkable level of progress. When Chakravarti Rajagopalachari, or Rajaji for short, became prime minister in 1947, he took the reigns of a country that was mostly illiterate, where most people barely lived at subsistence level, and where disease meant a life expectancy of just 31. In the 1950s, Rajaji, who stepped down only 2 years ago for Lal Bahadur Shastri, his hand picked successor within his Congress party, ignored calls for a socialist development strategy in favor of one based on free enterprise. With limited resources and a trickle of foreign aid, focus was put on infrastructure and education.
The results have shocked even the most optimistic pundits. The country's per capita income has risen by 8% per year since 1950, going from just 5% of the US level to almost 20%, a performance comparable to South Korea or Taiwan. The country's GNP overtook the Soviet Union in 1965 and is expected to overtake the United States by 1981.
This prosperity is easy to spot. From the new high rises sprouting out of the skyline, to the streets where Tuk Tuks have been replaced by locally built Chevy Novas. New department stores keep going up to keep up with the demands of the increasingly affluent public. 50% of Indians now own a refrigerator, 30% a washer, 20% a telephone line, and 10% a television set. In this hot humid climate, air conditioners are a hot commodity. Literacy has hit 90% and virtually all children are enrolled in school. The government provides low cost healthcare to its citizens. Air India, the state owned airline, has put in an order for 3 Boeing 747s to meet the boom in tourism. The local conglomerate Tata overtook General Motors just last year to become the world's largest company by stock market capitalization. The number of students enrolled in university is projected to triple by 1980. 70% of rural villages now have access to electricity and by 1975 that should be 100%. The government has set out to develop the vast hydropower resources in the Himalayas, Arunanchal Pradesh in the Northeast is projected to have a capacity of 50 Gigawatts of electricity, enough for 50% of India's current needs.
India has also translated her rising wealth into geopolitical power. It now spends more on defense than any country besides Soviet Russia and the US. Their large army helped liberate East Pakistan in last year's war. India also forced Saigon to implement land reform as a condition for assistance in the Vietnam War, the reduction in Viet Cong recruitment helped bring that war to a prompt end.
India has also begun making waves in culture. Their film industry, known colloquially as Bollywood, is projected to bring in more revenue than Hollywood by 1981. Not all is well however. The factories that are powering the country's economy are filling the air with toxic fumes. On some days, according to government statistics, the air quality here in New Delhi is equivelant to smoking 50 cigarettes a day. The rivers are filling up with harmful industrial waste. There are signs all over the beaches telling people to be cautious about going in the water. Urban slums are growing rapidly as farmers move to the cities for better employment in the factories. Traffic is becoming a problem despite a large scale roadbuilding scheme. More fundamentally, some are wondering whether the growing consumer culture is healthy for the nation's souls.
But to most of the Indians, these problems of abundance are vastly preferable to the problems of scarcity. Most of them grew up in poverty and are staggered by the sudden onrush of affluence and feel grateful that their children will grow up in comfort that they never knew and are hopeful that their grandchildren will be richer still. They also take great pride in how much their nation has blossomed without British rule and hope that they won't be so arrogant as their country becomes a superpower in its own right. As the fireworks shoot up tonight on this independence day, they mark a country where the sky is the limit and the future seems boundless.