When I was last in Mumbai it was Bombay, and there were a lot of beggars on the streets. Not only did they flock around Westerners and the rich when they walked in the streets it was noticeable how they haunted the traffic lights and swarmed out when they were red and the cars stopped, tapping on windows and standing looking in with their hands out.
So when I saw hardly one beggar on the streets this year I thought that this must be the economic miracle that was India and the beggars’ children and grandchildren must have been employed with the new wave of jobs in the country and fewer people were as poor as they had been thirty odd years ago. That is of course, my optimism that human beings might have grown up in the intervening years which is a facile hope.
The beggars were rounded up some time ago and taken against their will to places outside of Mumbai, places from which they tried to escape and little wonder because I can hardly imagine they were either salubrious or well equipped. It is depressing how easily leaders default to the tyrannical position even in the world’s most populous democracy.
Maybe they think India is too populous for democracy?