Why India Failed to Build Middle Class Like China
DID Press: India and China have followed strikingly different growth trajectories, Half a century after integrating into the global economy. China succeeded in lifting hundreds of millions into the middle class, while India remains mired in structural inequality and weak institutions, resulting in its declining presence on the global middle-class map.
In 1980, neither China nor India had a significant share of the world’s middle class. Today, the outcomes are starkly different: China has become a hub of manufacturing and middle-income prosperity, whereas India, constrained by structural inequality and institutional weakness, has largely been excluded from this group.
India’s economic model has focused on a small elite and a vast majority of poor citizens, leaving little room for a genuine middle class to emerge. Unlike China, which built factories, infrastructure, and institutions to raise economic standards, India has relied on slogans, subsidies, and political patronage. Consequently, a stable consumer base and broad domestic market have failed to materialize.
The roots of India’s shortcomings are not purely economic; cultural and institutional challenges persist:
- Social hierarchies and the caste system have limited meritocracy.
- Corruption has become normalized, and laws are often ignored.
- Institutions are weak, enforcement is arbitrary, and civic trust is low.
- Protectionist policies have hindered competition for both domestic producers and foreign brands.
The global consequences are clear: fragile economic growth, limited geopolitical influence, and a restricted consumer market for global investors.
India’s absence from the global middle-class map is not a temporary anomaly but a natural outcome of a society lacking merit, fairness, and accountability. Until these structural challenges are addressed, India will continue to face deep inequality and limited prosperity for the majority of its population.
International Desk — DID Press Agency