Just before the 18th Lok Sabha elections, several reports authored by international agencies appeared, running down the country on various parameters. Without a doubt, most of them are agenda-driven, reeking of neo-colonialism. Sadly, such reports are used by politicians, quoted by commentators, and circulated by the media without checking their veracity and the credibility of the organisations proffering them. In most cases, the methodology is opaque and rarely scrutinised.
The latest such report doing the rounds is sired by the World Inequality Lab, which claims that the present-day “golden era of Indian billionaires has produced soaring income inequality in India — now among the highest in the world”. Prior to this report, there were several others whose findings, on the very face, were ludicrous, to say the least.
According to the World Happiness Report 2024, India is currently positioned at 126 among 143 countries, trailing behind nations such as Libya (66), Iraq (92), Palestine (103), Ukraine (105), Pakistan (108) and Niger (109).
In the Global Hunger Index 2023 rankings, India was placed at 111 among 125 countries. The index placed Pakistan at 102, Bangladesh at 81, Nepal at 69, and Sri Lanka at 60, far ahead of India. Yet another one by the Thomson Reuters Foundation (2018) declared India as “the world’s most dangerous country for women”. This survey was based on feedback from just 550 respondents.
These absurd findings aren’t a result of some innocent miscalculations from the scholars undertaking such studies. There is a method to this madness. Obviously, statistics, data and facts are suitably tailored to support predetermined conclusions to further set agendas.
The World Inequality Report’s political bias became apparent when it said that inequality has been particularly pronounced since the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) first came to power in 2014. Over the last decade, major political and economic reforms have led to “an authoritarian government with centralisation of decision-making power, coupled with a growing nexus between big business and government”.
Contrary to what the report would have us believe, poverty in India is declining — a fact repeatedly recognised by the World Bank and International Monetary Fund. According to informed studies, abject poverty has declined sharply from 29.17% in 2013-14 to 11.28% in 2022-23, resulting in 24.82 crore individuals escaping destitution during the nine-year period. It translates into 2.75 crore people escaping multidimensional poverty every year.
Colonies may be passé. Soldiers are now seldom used by powerful nations to meet their predatory objectives. The new instruments to further imperial interests include the use of manufactured narratives on cultural, ethnical, social, religious and economic issues, along with market influences, to control and subjugate the target nations.
Colonialism has shapeshifted into a new avatar — neo-colonialism. Various European countries and the United States continue to harbour hegemonic ambitions. China is a new emerging colonial power. Its tentacles are spread all over the globe — from India’s immediate neighbours such as Pakistan, Nepal, and Sri Lanka, to a host of African nations. It has used its financial muscle and shyster deals to ensnare smaller nations into debt traps and suck them bone dry. The country doesn’t hesitate to use its army to browbeat its neighbours.
According to a recent report, South Korea and the United States (US) tech giant Microsoft have warned that China was likely to deploy Artificial Intelligence-generated content via social media to sway public opinion to boost its geopolitical interests during elections in India.
The US and its western allies continue with their nuanced efforts to dominate the rest of the world. Left to themselves, the Americans would like to micromanage the rest of the world to suit their strategic, ideological and commercial interests. The US and Germany’s remarks over Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal’s arrest is an extension of a neo-colonial mindset. But then, we have Indians, who suffer from a colonised psyche, seeking Uncle Sam’s intervention and expecting him to take sides in what is essentially India’s domestic problems.
The neo-colonialists — whether the US or China — succeed in achieving their imperialistic objectives to the extent the citizens of the target country fall for their manufactured narratives and start working for them, knowingly or innocently. At the Bandung Conference of non-aligned States in April 1955, the then Indonesian president, Ahmed Sukarno, said that colonialism “has also its modern dress, in the form of economic control, intellectual control…by a small but alien community within a nation”. Sukarno’s words are relevant even today, in the Indian context.
Balbir Punj is the author of Tryst with Ayodhya: Decolonisation of India. The views expressed are personal
The neo-colonialism of global reports, rankings
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23.04.2024
Just before the 18th Lok Sabha elections, several reports authored by international agencies appeared, running down the country on various parameters. Without a doubt, most of them are agenda-driven, reeking of neo-colonialism. Sadly, such reports are used by politicians, quoted by commentators, and circulated by the media without checking their veracity and the credibility of the organisations proffering them. In most cases, the methodology is opaque and rarely scrutinised.
The latest such report doing the rounds is sired by the World Inequality Lab, which claims that the present-day “golden era of Indian billionaires has produced soaring income inequality in India — now among the highest in the world”. Prior to this report, there were several others whose findings, on the very face, were ludicrous, to say the least.
According to the World Happiness Report 2024, India is currently positioned at 126 among 143 countries, trailing behind nations such as Libya (66), Iraq (92), Palestine (103), Ukraine (105), Pakistan (108) and Niger (109).
In the Global Hunger Index 2023 rankings, India was placed at 111 among 125 countries. The index placed Pakistan at 102, Bangladesh at 81, Nepal at 69, and Sri Lanka at 60, far ahead of........
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