High rises dot the horizon in Mumbai, India’s most ambitious city.
New Mumbai wealth replaces old Bombay slums.
Girls walk miles from their village to fetch water, a scarce resource, from a tank in the Thar Desert.
A girl collects trash by Kolkata’s Vidyasagar Setu, the longest cable stayed bridge in India.
The Kumbh Mela, the world’s biggest religious festival, featured its first transgender congregation in 2019.
A Hindu ascetic meditates by the Ganges River in Varanasi.
A priest doles out sage advice along the banks of the Ganges River in Varanasi.
Political graffiti in Varanasi.
A gray langur monkey claims the ruins of Bundi Fortress as his home.
INDIA ALWAYS NEVER CHANGES
Life in India is said to move like an elephant. It’s slow and stubbornly resistant to change. But when it finally steps forward, it does so with a mighty force.
I’ve seen monumental changes since my first visit in 2004: new highways, skyscrapers, subway systems, suspension bridges, rural electrification, and improved sanitation. When it comes to economic growth and development, China hogs the media spotlight. But over the last twenty years, 300 million Indians have been lifted out of poverty – one of the greatest achievements in human history.
India has a long way to go. Vast slums still blight its cities. Many villages are little changed from a century ago. Corruption at all levels of society remains a way of life.
And lately, it seems the Indian elephant has lost its way. Its challenges are similar to those facing the United States. Will India move ahead with the market reforms of its recent past? Or will it choose the inertia of nationalism and ethnic conflict?
