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Globalising India

Unformatted Document Text:  Oriental diversion     2      Abstract  In this essay, I discuss the “glory” of globalization that is embracing India by putting it in the  context of caste, class, and gender and its effect on working women. India, today, is a key player  in the global economy but severe economic and social disparities continue to plague its  population. I introduce unfamiliar readers to the constructs of caste and class and discuss  women’s work within this framework showing how globalization has opened the doors to new  occupations while shutting the doors on others. The purpose of this essay is to articulate a  preliminary feminist agenda based on the lived experiences of Indian women and their unique  social, economic, and political locations.

Unformatted Document Text:  Oriental diversion     3    Not Just an Oriental Diversion: Globalizing India and the Politics of Caste, Class, and Gender in  Women’s work   At the dawn of the 21 st  century, as the rest of world celebrated the millennium amidst  fears of the Y2K bug, India was slowly but surely making its presence felt and its voice heard. In  subsequent years, people in most of the developed and industrialized world would be forced to  reckon with the growing technologically advanced back offices emerging out of India, whether  they liked it or not. Scholars acknowledged the fact that at the turn of the century, with the  exponential information and communication growth, the Indian elephant had awakened from its  slumber (see Kakar & Kakar, 2007) contributing in its wake to the flattening of the world  (Friedman, 2005). Das (2006) observes that even though the world had only recently discovered  India’s economic success, the country’s economy had in fact grown at the rate of six percent per  year from 1980 to 2002, just three decades post-independence. Between 2002 and 2006, the  economy had grown 7.5 percent, making it the world’s best-performing economies for a quarter  century. The Indian...