The Problems of Modern India

Modern India's basic problem is economic. A rapidly increasing population and a food supply dependent upon the uncertainties of the annual monsoon have made it necessary to obtain foreign aid for importing grain, for breeding hardier strains of cereals, for developing industry, and for curbing population growth. 

Pressing political problems result from regional enmities caused by language differences and by religious differences, which produce conflict between orthodox Hinduism and Islam. There are also perennial international disputes between India and Pakistan over Cashmere and between India and China over border areas in the Himalaya.

Many millions of Indians still live at the lowest level of subsistence, constantly threatened by crop failure and food shortage, even famine. The farmland in many areas receives inadequate fertilization, and the people's diet is low in proteins. Certain features of the caste system limit social mobility for many people, and the efforts of the government have not yet relieved the conditions of the depressed portion of the population.

Several of India's state governments have proved so unstable that the central government has had to rule some states directly for a time. The dominance of the Indian National Congress party, under whose leadership India advanced to independence, was diminished but not broken before 1977. Meanwhile, new parties representing a great range of viewpoints had arisen.

To meet its problems, India has pursued planned economic development, increased its educational facilities, adopted programs of village improvement, and done much else to meet the country's needs. To accomplish all this, it has relied heavily on outside aid and will continue to do so for some time to come. A future of prosperity in a world where peace prevails was the ideal of Mahatma Gained, India's greatest leader in modern times, and it remains the Indian ideal today, though one difficult to realize.