Why Fear Globalization?

The opponents of globalization in India make you believe that once the economy is opened up, Indians would be overrun by competition and eventually all Indians would be rendered jobless. This fear campaign plays right into the inferiority complex driven mindset of people and gives political parties one more reason to destroy public property.
These kind of arguments against globalization have few issues, the primary one being the assumption that we Indians cannot compete in a global market. The opponents of globalization assume or want to assume that Indians are incompetent, cannot compete against foreigners and need protection all the time. These opponents also do not mention the number the jobs that can get created due to investments from abroad.
Sadly such views are not answered with a historical perspective. India was a globalized country since Harappan times and there was prosperity all around and it was this prosperity that made India the target of so many invasions. There are many Indian technologies which had a global market in ancient times and one of the items we covered at The Palm Leaf, was Wootz Steel. A form of crucible steel formed by adding large quantities of carbon to Iron in South India, Wootz was famous all around the world. Another area where Indians had a monopoly was textiles and in some parts of the world Indian clothes were considered ‘sacred’ and preserved for their ceremonial, religious and magical power.

Like the gaja or elephant patola, woven using the double ikat technique with elephants and tigers signifying wealth and power. Sourced from Gujarat, the Dutch offered them to South Asian kings in exchange for trading privileges. Or, the ‘maa’ cloths sent to Indonesia for ceremonial use; radiocarbon testing dates these to the 13th century. There are also fragile hand-blocked fabrics excavated from Fustat, Egypt

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