Effects of Globalization on India
This is an excerpt from the paper...
The concept of globalization has transcended debate and become something of a stark fact. Today, it is more often the implications of globalization that are debated, not the subject of globalization itself. The forces at play in the modern worldùmass communications (including the Internet), free trade, and the rise of transnational corporations, popular culture, and democratizationùhave combined to create a global reality that is becoming increasingly pervasive. For nations such as India, the effects of globalization are not yet wholly understood. Struggling to define themselves within the new global configuration, the poorer, hungrier nations of Asia and Africa must contend with the ill-effects of a globalized agriculture scheme, which can potentially leave the poorest worse off than ever before (Vidal). The debate over the implications of globalization for India is therefore rife with conflicting opinions. At issue, ultimately, are the people that live there. Will globalization render these citizens better or worse off than they have been in the past? As Barbara A. Weightman writes in Dragons and Tigers, the "essence of globalization" lies somewhere amidst the legacy of the Cold War; since the fall of the Soviet Union, capitalism has been allowed to dominate, leading formerly communist nations to experiment with "privatization of ownership and entrepreneurial profit making" (19). Weightman warns that "as these countries become increasingly linked with global, cap
. . .
ct that the country has the highest number of illiterates in the world is glossed over (193)." The masses in India remain destitute and uneducated. Is globalization to blame?
Thomas R. DeGregori, in a series of volumes dedicated to the relationship between modern technology and the natural world, tackles this issue by asking the "question that dare not be answered": "If modern science and technology are killing us, why are we so healthy and living so long? (xvii-xviii). By "we", DeGregori is referring to the planet at large, including those residing in nations such as India. As for the implications of globalization, DeGregori reminds the reader that "Globalization has been the mechanism by which the increasing global food production provides greater diversity of available foodstuffs and therefore greater choiceà (168)." In this, the opponents of globalization are the opponents of modernity, the "food snobs" that advance an "antitrade", "antitechnology" agenda in order to preserve their own elitist sensibilities (DeGregori 168-9). On this view, it is a reluctance to surrender the "sense of exclusivity for the items which they consume" (DeGregori 168) that drives the anti-globalization protestor to criticize free trade and
. . .
Some common words found in the essay are:
Ansley Coale, Soviet Union, Vidal Urban, Regarding India, Thomas DeGregori, Vidal DeGrigori's, Pavan Varma, , Vidal India, World Plenty, economic liberalization, green revolution, modern technology, implications globalization, degregori thomas, nations india, modern technology ames, healthy living, poor hungry, ansley coale, retrieved april 22, april 22, april 22 2004, technology ames iowa, poorest worse vidal,
Approximate Word count = 1915
Approximate Pages = 8 (250 words per page)
More Essays on Effects of Globalization on India
|