‘Numbers don’t lie,’ but certainly deceive in India. Behind every celebration of prosperity is a harsher reality of exclusion, injustice, and hunger. This isn’t simply economic inequality; it’s a catastrophe masquerading as progress. India’s economic narrative, which is frequently portrayed as one of “unstoppable growth” and technological dominance, begins to crack under scrutiny. Official numbers put India’s per capita income at roughly $2,800. But this figure, like the country’s projected image of a growing power, is misleading. When billionaires like Mukesh Ambani and Gautam Adani are excluded from the equation, the income level scarcely changes. However, excluding the top 1% and top 5% from the formula reduces the value to $1,730 and $1,130, respectively, which is lower than in some sub-Saharan African nations. What seems to be a statistical recalibration uncovers a more terrible truth: India’s progress is not merely unequal but fundamentally discriminatory.
This distortion is not an accounting oddity. It is an outcome of an economic approach that prioritizes accumulation over distribution. The sparkling pictures of India’s space missions, unicorn business enterprises, and diplomatic gatherings mask a harsher ground reality in which over 800 million Indians rely on free food rations for their survival. This is not a minor statistic; it is the distinguishing characteristic of India’s development trajectory.
The Illusion of Aggregate Growth
The illusion of aggregate growth has persisted in part because it serves a political function. Modern economic theory cautions against using averages in isolation. As Amartya Sen, a notable Indian economist, correctly cautioned, “Averages are often misleading when inequality is rampant.” This warning has been ignored in India’s policy settings, where GDP development has been used as a symbol of national pride, covering the erosion of basic human rights. This conflict between growing GDP and rising hunger demonstrates the decoupling of national wealth from human well-being, which John Rawls’ theory of justice as fairness would characterize as a failure of social institutions. Growth cannot be considered just if it fails to improve the lives of the poor citizens. In India, the increase is clearly benefiting the elites; the top 1% currently owns more than 40% of the country’s wealth. In any just society, such a concentration of resources would raise alarms. In India, it is hailed as a symbol of national achievement.
India’s K-Shaped Recovery and the “Trickle-Down” Myth
The COVID-19 epidemic indicated this structural disparity further, resulting in what economists refer to as a “K-shaped recovery.” The rich elite saw their fortunes increase dramatically, while low-income workers, daily wage laborers, and rural people saw widespread unemployment and pay collapse. With over 90% of India’s workers laboring in the informal sector, this was far from a small crisis; it was economic collapse camouflaged as resilience. Nonetheless, officials adhered to the flawed concept of trickle-down economics, providing corporate bailouts and tax breaks while ignoring health, education, and rural livelihoods. The Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz has frequently warned that “trickle-down economics is a myth.” Inequality does not accelerate growth; rather, it slows it down. However, India continues to promote the wealthy through tax breaks, corporate bailouts, and lax laws, while insufficiently funding public health and education.
The Global Image vs. Domestic Realities
This internal difference is in sharp contrast to India’s self-proclaimed global reputation. In diplomatic circles, India is portrayed as a counterbalance to China, a technology powerhouse, and a rising climate leader. However, this is only a façade. Behind the glamour of moon landings and semiconductor ambitions is a country that houses about 33% of the world’s hungry children, according to UNICEF. These are not the features of a rising power. They are signs of a troubled society, not because of its objectives, but because of how it pursues them.
The gap between perception and reality is not novel. Partha Chatterjee, a political theorist, notably articulated the “politics of the governed,” in which the impoverished are regulated by governmental paternalism rather than empowered through structural transformation. The Indian state continues to create a narrative of modernity and strength for external consumption while depending on ration cards and token welfare measures to keep the populace calm. The elite are exalted, while the others are just administered.
A Colonial Continuity of Economic Extraction
India’s wealth inequality at present follows colonial extractive patterns. Dadabhai Naoroji’s “Drain Theory,” which stated that British colonization took India’s wealth without proper reinvestment, has eerie parallels in the present. Now, the corporate-financial elite, centered in metropolitan hubs such as Mumbai, Bangalore, and Delhi, act as internal colonists, enriching themselves while abusing workers and ignoring fundamental public services. India’s federal economic model exacerbates this split, as income remains concentrated in a few affluent states while significant portions of the country — from Bihar to Jharkhand — suffer from poverty, resulting in widespread internal migration and deepening social fragmentation.
Food Insecurity as a Political Choice
Food insecurity is at the root of this catastrophe, caused by policy failure rather than scarcity. India is a major producer of rice, wheat, and pulses internationally. Nonetheless, hunger endures on a massive scale. The Public Distribution System (PDS), while seemingly extensive on paper, is rife with corruption, exclusion mistakes, and inefficiencies. Access to food is still determined by social class, gender, and land ownership. In this perspective, hunger is not a natural calamity but a political decision. It is the unavoidable result of a system that refuses to transfer resources, defend the disadvantaged, or abolish entrenched privilege.
India’s fixation with GDP growth has evolved into an instrument of denial, a statistical mask worn by an elite class unable to confront the hardship that most Indians face on a daily basis. The World Bank may record billions of dollars in economic activity, but it does not include the girl child in rural Rajasthan who drops out of school owing to starvation or the farmer in Vidarbha who is driven to suicide by debt. India’s economic miracle, as frequently represented in Western media and diplomatic circles, is based on the purposeful marginalization of these people. Instead of correcting the failing paradigm, the Indian state has militarized it. Growth numbers are displayed at global conferences, while dissident voices—academics, journalists, and civil society—are repressed or labeled as “anti-national.” Instead of fixing the system, the state is cleaning up the truth. This is not development. This is deceit.
Conclusion
India’s economic model, lauded by its political elites and promoted to the world as the triumphant tale of the Global South, is in desperate need of scrutiny. India’s global image as a growing power is based on ethically and economically unsound assumptions. The sparkle of global conferences and billionaire meetings obscures a sobering reality: a country where the prosperity of a few masks the suffering of many. Real power comes from justice, equality, and dignity, not GDP stats or orbiting satellites. And unless India decides to raise its poor rather than just projecting its affluent, the mirage of prosperity will remain just that: a delusion.