Almost a quarter of a century ago, I wrote my first New Internationalist piece, ‘Where has all the conscience gone?’ – a bit of a rant about how the development sector had lost its values. The 40th anniversary is a good opportunity to look at what has happened since.
India has changed incredibly in the last 25 years. Every major city has unrecognizable new areas. Dubai-like malls and characterless glass-and-concrete buildings rise from the debris of ravaged neighbourhoods, where once there were tree-lined avenues, gardens and graceful old buildings, where children played as grandparents looked on fondly. I have seen farmers with tears rolling down their weatherbeaten cheeks as they watched their unharvested crops brutally bulldozed to make way for technology hubs. Economists call it growth.
