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Indian Apocalypse - Indian Beliefs 101: 01 India is a rising superpower

Episode 1: "Rising India. Falling Indians." (Series: 01_India_Beliefs – Deconstructing the Myth of the Superpower)

Thesis:

India’s claim to superpower status is not a projection of future strength—it is a collective delusion, a national bedtime story told by elites to distract from the fact that the country is failing its people at scale. The gap between the narrative ("India is the fastest-growing major economy") and the street (where the median income is $2,500 a year, where Bangladesh outperforms India on child nutrition, where a farmer dies by suicide every 41 minutes) is not a temporary lag. It is the defining feature of contemporary India: a society where the state has abandoned its citizens, where institutions exist to serve the powerful, and where the only thing rising is the gulf between the myth and the man on the street.

This is not a story of a nation "on the rise." It is a story of a nation hollowing itself out—where the gains of growth accrue to a sliver of the population, where the state’s primary function is not governance but spectacle, and where the majority are left to navigate a system designed to extract from them, not empower them.

The Human Specific: The Farmer Who Fed a Nation and Starved Himself

In 2021, Rameshwar Singh, a 52-year-old farmer from Uttar Pradesh’s Bundelkhand region, took his own life by drinking pesticide. His family found him in the field where he had spent 30 years growing wheat and pulses for the country. His suicide note was a single line, scrawled on a torn page from a school notebook: "I borrowed ₹2 lakh for seeds. The crop failed. The bank wants its money. I have nothing left."

Rameshwar was not an exception. He was the rule. In the decade between 2011 and 2021, over 160,000 Indian farmers died by suicide—a number that dwarfs the death toll of most wars. The state’s response? A loan waiver announced with fanfare, which reached only 12% of eligible farmers. The rest were left to the mercy of moneylenders charging 60% interest. Meanwhile, in the same year Rameshwar died, India’s agricultural exports hit a record $50 billion. The food he grew fed the nation. The system that failed him fed on his labor.

Rameshwar’s story is not about agriculture. It is about what happens when a state decides its citizens are inputs, not stakeholders. It is about a country where the GDP grows, but the people who produce its wealth are disposable.

The Chain Nobody Draws Explicitly:

  1. The Myth of the Superpower: India’s elites—political, corporate, and media—have sold the world (and themselves) on the idea of India as an emerging superpower. The narrative is seductive: a young population, a booming tech sector, a nuclear-armed military, a seat at the G20. But superpowers are not measured by GDP alone. They are measured by the well-being of their people. And by that metric, India is failing spectacularly.

  2. The Data That Doesn’t Fit the Story:

  3. Median income: $2,500/year (World Bank, 2023). For context, Bangladesh’s median income is $2,688.
  4. Child stunting: 35% of Indian children under 5 are stunted (UNICEF). In Bangladesh, it’s 28%.
  5. Life expectancy: India (69.7 years) lags behind Bangladesh (72.6 years) and even Nepal (71.3 years).
  6. Unemployment: Officially 7.8%, but real unemployment (including underemployment) is closer to 20% (CMIE).

  7. Healthcare: India spends 1.2% of GDP on healthcare (one of the lowest in the world). The result? 63 million Indians are pushed into poverty every year due to medical expenses (Lancet, 2022).

  8. The Elite Capture of the Narrative:

  9. The "rising superpower" story is not for the 99%. It is for investors, foreign policy wonks, and the urban middle class—the people who benefit from the status quo.
  10. The media amplifies this narrative because advertisers (and owners) are part of the elite. A headline about farmer suicides doesn’t sell ads for luxury cars. A headline about "India’s $5 trillion economy dream" does.

  11. The state actively suppresses data that contradicts the myth. The 2017-18 consumption survey (which showed a decline in rural spending) was withheld. The 2021-22 employment survey (which showed record unemployment) was delayed. When the truth leaks out, it is dismissed as "anti-national" or "doom-mongering."

  12. The Broken Feedback Loop:

  13. In a functioning democracy, poor outcomes would lead to accountability. In India, they lead to more spectacle.
  14. Example: When unemployment hits record highs, the government launches a "Make in India" campaign (2014) or a "Digital India" push (2020). When farmer protests erupt, the state builds a temple (2024) or announces a new highway (2023).

  15. The message is clear: The state’s job is not to solve problems. It is to distract from them.

  16. The Real Superpower: Elite Extraction:

  17. India’s growth is not trickling down. It is being siphoned up.
  18. Wealth inequality: The top 1% of Indians own 40% of the country’s wealth (Oxfam, 2023). The bottom 50% own 3%.
  19. Corporate profits: In 2023, India’s top 100 companies saw profits grow by 25%. Wages for the average worker? Grew by 3%.
  20. Taxation: India’s effective tax rate for the ultra-rich is 22%. For the middle class, it’s 30%. For the poor, it’s indirect taxes (GST, fuel taxes) that eat up 40% of their income.
  21. The result? A country where the rich get richer, the middle class gets squeezed, and the poor get nothing but slogans.

The One Thing That Would Actually Change It (And Why It Won’t Happen):

Universal basic services. Not welfare. Not subsidies. Not loan waivers. A state that guarantees healthcare, education, and a dignified life to every citizen, funded by progressive taxation on wealth and corporate profits.

Headline / Episode Title Options:

  1. "Rising India. Falling Indians." (The gap between the myth and the street.)
  2. "The Superpower That Starves Its People." (A country where GDP grows, but children don’t.)
  3. "India’s $5 Trillion Dream and the Farmer Who Died for It." (The human cost of the growth narrative.)
  4. "The Great Indian Delusion." (How a nation fooled itself into believing its own hype.)
  5. "We Are Not a Superpower. We Are a Scam." (The brutal truth about India’s "rise.")
  6. "The State That Doesn’t Care." (A system designed to fail its people.)
  7. "India’s GDP Grows. Its People Don’t." (The numbers that don’t lie.)
  8. "The Temple or the Hospital?" (What India chooses to build—and what it chooses to ignore.)

Closing Thought:

India is not a rising superpower. It is a country where the state has abdicated its responsibility to its citizens, where the elites have hijacked the narrative, and where the majority are left to fend for themselves in a system rigged against them. The damage is not sudden. It is slow, quiet, and self-inflicted. And the worst part? Most Indians don’t even realize it’s happening.

Next episode: "The Temple Cost Thousands of Crores. The Nearest Government Hospital Has No Doctors on Tuesday." (How India chooses faith over welfare—and why it’s killing its people.)