The Sustainability of India's Modernization

                Akash Kapur, an Indian born Rhodes Scholar, addresses sustainability on a national level. After living and working in New York City, he returns to India in his twenties with the hope of raising a family in the idyllic Indian countryside of his childhood.  He describes the economic and cultural changes that have taken place during the decade he was away through interviews with people of differing ages, lifestyles, and locations.  Although he acknowledges the recent economic development has brought some benefits: less caste discrimination, more non-agricultural jobs, wealth for some, and improved infrastructure, he questions the development’s sustainability.   The impacts of over population, air and water pollution, economic inequity, loss of tradition, and geographic separation of families are significant, as people rush blindly toward modernization.

The author comes to terms with how India’s development is impacting the environment and the health of the people he is studying, as well as his own young family’s.  He wonders if the growth is, “built on the backs of the poor and the ruins of the environment,” rather than, “economically inclusive and environmentally sustainable.”  He realizes that the new materialistic attitudes in India have created serious waste issues.  Product life cycles are not taken into consideration when the new found wealth encourages people to purchase more and more, adding tons of non-biodegradable garbage to overfull landfills.  He is torn between his enthusiasm and excitement over India’s short term modernization, and the concern he has for the country’s future.