INDIA GETS BY.

• Author: SINGH, VIR

With ingenuity and blind faith, citizens of the world's largest democracy navigate a sea of contradictions, conflict, and corruption

FOCUS: The World's Largest Democracy Is a Land of Contradictions

TEACHING OBJECTIVES

To help students understand the extremes of life in India, where democracy thrives amid a caste system, where software companies boom despite widespread illiteracy, and where nuclear weapons are developed in the homeland of cradle protest.

Discussion Questions:

* Suppose an Indian student tells you: "Yes, we have problems, but there is also poverty, corruption, and racial discrimination in the U.S., the world's richest country." How do you respond?

* What do you think is the root cause of corruption in India?

* Why do you think the caste system is more prevalent in India's rural areas?

CLASSROOM STRATEGIES

Critical Thinking: Note that India has 15 official languages; only 30 percent of the people speak Hindi, the national language, How does this foster disharmony? Suppose the U.S. had 15 official languages and only 30 percent of Americans spoke English. How would that affect education, business, sports, and entertainment?

Next, discuss four key issues.

Caste: Why, if discrimination was outlawed in 1950, does it remain widespread? Tell students that caste is rooted in ancient Hindu tradition. Does that fact help explain why people in lower castes do not rebel?

Poverty: Compare economic disparity in India and the U.S. While the per capita gross domestic product of the U.S. is $31,500, India's is $1,720. Yet 32 million Americans, 12 percent of the population, live in poverty. In Varun's neighborhood, fences separate the poor from the wealthy. How does this segregation compare with the different ways rich and poor live in the U.S.? Do the forces of religion and tradition make it more difficult for poor Indians to escape poverty than for poor Americans?

Religious Conflict: Tell students that Islam arrived with Arab and Turkish invaders in the 8th and 12th centuries. Did the method by which Islam was introduced to India build historic barriers between people?

Corruption: Vir Singh says that anything in short supply creates an opportunity for corruption. Do low wages (a short supply of money) produce corruption? (In March, military and government officials were filmed taking bribes from an arms supplier. Does this incident contradict the argument that poverty alone produces corruption?)

Varun Bhandari's bedroom window overlooks a well-landscaped park, fitted with a gushing mountain stream and toylike foot bridges, in an affluent neighborhood in the Indian capital of Delhi. Kids growing up here dream of becoming doctors, lawyers, executives, and other professionals.

The surrounding homes boast at least two cars in each driveway; big-screen TVs, stereos, and expensive crystal in the living rooms. In the evenings, the park comes alive, with children playing badminton on floodlit courts, as their...