For Richer or Poorer

This is quite extraordinary. Here is a photo essay called For Richer or Poorer which appeared in TIMEasia way back in February. The photo essay is very telling and the accompanying article is very poignant too. Most pictures are from areas around Delhi, Hyderabad, and places in Assam, but they could have come from my July trip to Bombay and Bangalore. The essay captures many of the points I made in a post summarizing this years general elections in India.

Comments

[Mukund]

I do appreciate the relatively balanced nature of the TIME's article. But since it is the negative images that tend to stay with us longer than the positive ones, I would like to make 2 points.
1. Most of this contradiction/divide always existed in India. Pre-1991 the divide was between the so-called "elite, well connected" citizens who could import and enjoy (is that the right word??) most of the stuff now avbl in malls and the rest-of-India. This can be called the autocratic divide. Now the divide is between the so-called "urban middle class" and the rest of India. Can we call this the "democratisation of the divide"?
2. The categorisation of the poor north and the rich south is factually incorrect. It wd be more accurate to depict the difference as one between the East & North East and the rest of India. And yes it is a cause for concern and a fertile bed to incite any anti-Indian activity.
Thanks for reading.