Big Country Dreams: The Deep Dynamic Of Economic Reform And Growth In India

This paper argues that India's power aspiration serves as the profound and sustained drive for its economic growth. The essence of India's power aspiration is to raise its international status by seeking power in the international system. After the end of the Cold War, military capability's role in judging whether a state is power has declined. Economic strength and economic ties play a more and more important role in judging international status. The leading elites of India realized this change and adopted a new pattern for seeking the power status, which drove and will continue to drive India's economic growth.The Introduction presents an analysis of causes for India's economic reform and growth in existing studies. On this basis, this part builds the analytical frame of this paper and points out the purposes and significance of this study.Chapter 1 describes the historic changes taken place in India since 1990s from 3 aspects, i.e. India's economic reform in 1990s, its economic growth and rise of its international status. The Lao administration launched the economic reform with the direction of liberalization, pravatisation, marketization and globalization. This reform and the following related policies not only helped India out of the foreign exchange crisis, but also drove India's rapid economic growth. India's excellent economic performance attracts world's attention and brings the rise of India's international status.Chapter 2 discusses cultural background, psychological basis and political representation of India's power aspiration. India's caste system and social custom, in which pursues for heavy and complicated etiquette and for symbolic meanings are valued, contributed as cultural background of India's power aspiration. India's favorable self image serves as psychological basis of its power aspiration, while the huge gap between its self image and evaluation from other countries forms great pressure for India to realize its power aspiration. In order to win the power status, India seeks support from powers while in the mean time tries to regulate small states according to its own political will.Chapter 3 analyzes the role of government in India's economic development driven by its power aspiration. According to existing studies on Modernization, the government plays a leading and dominant role in modernization process of developing countries. The characters of India's political system and practice make important understanding of power aspiration and economic growth of the Indian Prime Ministers, esp. those from the Congress Party and Nehru family. During the Cold War, the Indian leaders adopted the Soviet model for both its economic development and power aspiration. With the end of the Cold War, the Indian leaders realized changes in standards for power acknowledgement and find a new way for India.Chapter 4 deals with China's role in India's power aspiration. Indian strategists hold different opinions for China and have different understandings of the power aspiration. This leads to the complicated and multi-faceted role of China in India's power aspiration and economic development. The hawks contend that China is the destroyer of India's power aspiration. In their opinion security is the footstone of India's power aspiration, and China threats India's national security. The pragmatists regard China as the torchbearer, interaction provider and stimulator in India's economic growth driven by its power aspiration. According to their opinion, India's power aspiration should be based on economic strength and extensive economic ties with other countries. China's economic diplomacy is enlightening for India. Both the hawks and the pragmatists believe that India has to quicken its steps to keep up with China.Chapter 5 constructs 3 possible patterns in China-India relation based on the judgment that strength contrast determines the trend of China-India relation. If China is stronger, China-India relation will develop well. If it's a tie, there will be more conflicts in China-India relation. If India is stronger, it will lose the imperative to cooperate with China and China's interest will possibly be hurt. India's economic growth is sustainable since it's driven by power aspiration. In the foreseeable future, India's international status will continue to rise and it will play a greater role in international affairs. However, the strength contrast between China and India will be favorable for China. China-India relation will develop on the track of normal state relations, though there could be some minor conflicts.The Conclusion summarizes the whole paper and points out possible related studies in the future.