Is Income inequality in India really worse than during British rule?
This week I bring you take down of this claim made by Time magazine by Rakesh Krishnan Simha.
Note:
This article summarises X-posts (tweets) by a globally cited defence analyst, Rakesh Krishnan Simha, whom I follow on X/Twitter. I wanted to share this because, first, the narrative war being waged against India needs to be countered, and second, this series of tweets by Rakesh is probably the best way to counter it. Hope you enjoy it - RD.
By Rakesh Krishnan Simha.
Income inequality in India worse than British rule, says TIME
“The Billionaire Raj headed by India’s modern bourgeoisie is now more unequal than the British Raj headed by the colonialist forces,” the authors write.
First up, anything that comes out of the Western media needs to be taken with a fistful of salt. If the Western media says 50 Russians killed, divide by 10, and you will get the correct answer. If the Western media says 5 million Americans are hungry, multiply that by 10 to get the correct answer. (Actually, the figure of 48 million hungry Americans is uncannily true as per the Hungry America website. - see note) I used to say this to my editors in Russia, and they loved it. It's a dramatic statement but true.
The Western liberal media is driven by agenda journalism. They lie through their teeth. And when it comes to countries like India and Russia, even their right-wing media outlets like Fox News lie. Because, as the H1B controversy has shown, they despise Indians.
A New Zealand journalist named Michael Field wrote on Facebook in 2011 that the senior editors at his company supported stereotyping. Those who oppose it are sidelined. That's the reason why the likes of the Washington Post, NYT, DW, BBC, Le Monde and Reuters are only interested in fake negative news and poverty porn.
Income and Living standards: Colonial period v now.
There can be no comparison to how the poor of India live today compared with their living standards under British rule.
When India became free in 1947, the life expectancy of an Indian was 32 - the same as a caveman in the Stone Age. Today, it's 71. That alone should tell you that life under British rule was a death sentence.
There were 32 famines during the 200 years of British rule; in the previous 2,000 years, India had 17 famines. The British killed 100 million to 165 million Indians in deliberately engineered famines that were intended to do to Indians what the British did to the Aborigines in Australia - complete and utter genocide.
Income disparity is happening in all countries - most starkly in Britain and the USA. Britain is, in fact, the world's most unequal country, with zero upward mobility for the lower classes. In America, there is now a de facto caste system in place. More on that another day.
While in the West, the poor are becoming poorer, that is not the case in India; in India, the poor are becoming less poor each year. India may not have the social welfare system of the West, but it has numerous schemes such as free housing, free cereals, free healthcare and free health insurance for everyone over 70. So, the poor in India are definitely not as protected as those in, say, Denmark, but they are definitely better off than under British rule.
And yes, like in every country, the rich in India are becoming richer. But unlike in the West, where corporations send manufacturing jobs to China and keep their profits in the Bahamas or Macao, Indian billionaires actually lift tens of millions of Indians into the middle class. They are also making Indians rich - once upon a time, Reliance Industries shareholders meetings used to be held in sports stadiums. And each of those 40,000 attendees was a millionaire.
So, these reports of income inequality that appear annually are meaningless.
The Times agenda
Okay, now let's swing back to TIME's agenda. Astha Rajvanshi writes, "The rise in inequality had been particularly pronounced since the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party first came to power in 2014." Do you see what she did here? It's what the Western media excels in - stereotyping and preparing the ground for regime change. They want the BJP out of power at any cost.
TIME adds: "Over the last decade, major political and economic reforms have led to an authoritarian government with centralization of decision-making power, coupled with a growing nexus between big business and government." So Modi is a dictator, and the BJP is fascist. Clowns and opportunists like Rajvanshi have been saying this since 2014. They get paid to say this.
The reporter’s personal agenda
Check Rajvanshi's bylines. She is a repeat offender. This brown sepoy loves to prostrate before her white masters for some scraps from their table. See the screenshots. Iyervval has shown how she has violated Indian law and could be arrested upon arrival in India.
Rajvanshi also glorifies terrorists and is a habitual liar. See her lies exposed by subhsays and sapientVirgo.
In Sum
As Rakesh elaborately showed, the article is not about actual income inequality. Rather, it is a poor hit job intended to whitewash colonial rule (a new trend emerging in social discourse) and to continue to promote the narrative against the present Indian government led by the BJP.
Notes:
Sources about Hunger Stats in America
Follow Rakesh Krishnan Simha
Click this to go to the X-post thread on which this article is based.